Product Research Tips to Open the eCommerce Opportunities!

Product Research Tips to Uncover the Ultimate eCommerce Opportunities!

The mega opportunistic eCommerce industry is quite attractive for millions of sellers. But the biggest challenge is deciding what to sell to make the most of this alluring business. One excellent product idea can make you the king of this online business. However, the manifestation of that one product idea doesn’t come to your mind quickly, and you can not wait to let it strike your mind. You have to make it happen before establishing yourself as an eCommerce seller.

Once you decide that you are going to enter this industry, you need to analyze the whole market, and one thing that matters the most is product research. However, today you can sell anything on online marketplaces. But the fact is that during the initial period of your business, you need to offer something beneficial and authentic to your potential customers.

Always remember that you are not the only one in this realm; so many other sellers are already selling the same product that you may plan to sell. This is when you require to go through robust product research. Here in this blog, we will uncover some of the terrific product research tips you can use to sell the most demanding products on eCommerce platforms.

What is Product Research?

Before knowing the tips of product research, it is essential to know what actually product research is. Well, it is a practice by which you can discover a new product idea that can prove valuable for your eCommerce business. This method can help identify your product idea that meets the market demands and customers’ requirements.

Implementing product research can provide better results on ROI(return on investment) on your product. Product research involves gathering all the essential information about your targeted customers’ buying habits, requirements, demands, and what they like to shop more. Respectively, the product research method can help you to analyze the product concepts, competitors, and pricing.

Incredible Tips for eCommerce Product Research

Analyze In-Demand Products

In the starting phase of your online business, if you do not yet have any product idea in your mind, you can get inspiration from current in-demand products that fall into the bestseller category on prominent marketplaces such as Amazon and Flipkart. You can visit some of the famous social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest to check out their trending hashtags, and you might get enormous product ideas from there.

You can visit some brick-and-mortar stores to analyze customers’ most demanding products. Open your mind and analyze wisely which products are currently popular among the customers. Try not to convince yourself that your product idea is better than others. Do not underestimate the ongoing trends and demands, or you may put yourself at a loss. Once you get a product idea, you may require inventory management software to adjust your inventories on multiple eCommerce platforms automatically. In this regard, you can subscribe to eVanik OWS.

Read Out the Feedback and Reviews

While researching your products, you must read customers’ reviews and feedback on any prominent eCommerce platforms. Reviews can become the best way to evaluate the requirements and tastes of customers. You may develop a better understanding of what your customers like and what they do not like while shopping from an eCommerce platform.

You can visit Amazon, one of the giant eCommerce marketplace, and read out the feedback and reviews on their best-selling products. Customers often use this section to explain what they like and dislike about a specific product and what they recommend to make changes to buy that product again in the future. This practice can give you a broad idea of how customers think throughout their buying process. There are possibilities that you may land on an excellent product idea while analyzing feedback and reviews of customers. It can even provide you with an idea of what problems customers are facing, and you can take advantage of it by resolving them for your potential customers.

Check-Out B2B Marketplaces

Believe it or not, B2B marketplaces are a bonanza for attaining a new product idea for your eCommerce business. Various B2B marketplaces can expose an enormous number of product ideas that you can apply to your online business. Moreover, B2B marketplaces allow you to add any product to their cart, and you can source your supply directly from the eCommerce marketplaces if you like any specific product to sell.

Indiamart, Udaan, and Trade India are some of the few B2B marketplaces that can directly connect you with manufacturers, suppliers, and wholesalers from all over the country. These platforms have thousands of products you can explore and select to start your eCommerce journey. Exploring B2B marketplaces can be an excellent way to know what B2C platforms are selling. It is because most sellers only source their products from a B2B platform. Hence It can be one of the best tips for product research.

Become a Watchdog of Your Competitors

To make your eCommerce business successful and choose a niche product to sell, it is best to watch out for your competitors or other sellers to know what they are selling and what strategies they are applying to their business. But the fact is you can not analyze the journey of any typical sellers who are just doing good. You may require to go out of your way and find out the most prominent sellers or brands, for that matter, who have already come a long way and have a reputation in the market.

Take the help of google and other search engines of eCommerce platforms to analyze the top trending products and their sellers. Get inspiration from them but try to make a robust product plan that can help you in beating them and attract more customers. Also, it is not necessary that what works for them will work for you; if they are selling a most demanding product, you must try to sell such products that may have more potential to fulfill customers’ current requirements.

eCommerce Product-Based Criteria to Watchout Before Start Selling

  • Must analyze the product size and weight before selecting a product to sell on various marketplaces.
  • Check out the durability of your product.
  • See whether your product is seasonal or you can sell it throughout the year.
  • Check whether your product is helpful for the customers in terms of resolving any specific problem.
  • Must get assurance from the marketplaces if there are any restrictions on selling a selected product.

    These are a few product-based criteria that you must follow before selecting a product to sell on eCommerce marketplaces. You need to understand the fact that even an excellent product idea is worthless if there is no demand for that in the market. Obviously, you do not want to spend your money on products that don’t have the potential to attract customers and make your business valuable.

Conclusion

Thus, product research provides you with the immense opportunity to identify an appropriate product to sell and avoid making expensive mistakes. This technique can ensure that whatever product you select has a demand in the market and customers are looking forward to buying them. Once you get done with your product research, you need to fulfill the demands of your customers in a much more effective and quick manner. In this regard, you may require to get along with an order management software for eCommerce that can automate your backend operations such as payments, accounts, inventories, shipping, and returns. eVanik OWS can help with it most effectively.

Sellers Must Know About These Various Types of Inventories!

Sellers Must Know About These Various Types of Inventories!

In the glorifying eCommerce industry, there are various factors that a seller must take into consideration. Inventory is one of the crucial factors of this evolving industry. If you want to make your business successful, you must know the importance of inventory in the eCommerce business. You need to understand the fact that without knowing about this crucial aspect of online business, you can not serve your customers well.

Apart from managing your inventories accurately, you must also know about the various types of inventories. There are so many diversified types of inventories that you may come across as an eCommerce seller while controlling or handling your business. All these are essential to understand in terms of implementing an effective and efficient inventory management system.

Restricting the overstock and down stock, reconciling the inventory-related issues, and managing it on multiple channels are various terms that you need to take care of. However, it is not an easy task, and you can do it without automation. An inventory management software like eVanik OWS can help you with it in an effective manner. In this blog, we are going to mention some of the various types of inventories that you must know.

Five Essential Types of Inventories in eCommerce Business

Raw Materials Inventory

Raw materials that you may soon turn into your inventories are considered a type of inventory in the eCommerce industry. Such inventories are basically small pieces, parts, and trash of products that are currently in your stock and soon may get converted into a product and become part of your inventory. You must know that there are two specific types of raw materials: direct and indirect.

Direct materials are used in finished goods; this type of inventory is usually present in a seller’s or manufacturer’s stock and available for the customers to purchase. Direct materials can be leather that can be used to make wallets, belts, shoes, etc. Indirect raw materials might be batteries, lightbulbs, etc. Indirect raw material inventories refer to all those items that have been used during the production process of any specific product category.

WIP (Work-in-Progress) Inventory

WIP inventory refers to materials that an eCommerce business needs to mobilize first and then assemble those products to get sold on various eCommerce platforms. This type of inventory also includes the price of raw materials and labor costs if required. For a better understanding, we can say that WIP inventories include such products that are unfinished and still require to go through the final finishing process. It refers to the various number of unfinished items that are currently available in your stock. The best example of WIP inventory is selling coffee online; it includes refining the coffee beans, putting them into jars, and then shipping them to valuable customers.

A wedding dress can also be an example of work-in-progress inventory as eCommerce retailers need to give them a final touch before delivering it to their customers. However, too much WIP inventory can put you in a situation where you must wait a bit longer to initiate a sale and generate revenue. On the other hand, this type of inventory also increases the risk of materials being misplaced, lost, damaged, or expired before getting assembled. However, you can get rid of these challenges by implementing the inventory reconciliation process with the help of automated software.

Finished Goods Inventory

Finished goods inventory is the essential type of inventory that you have listed on various eCommerce platforms to sell your products efficiently. The name defines it well, finished goods inventory is considered as the total number of products available in your stock to fulfill the demand of your customers. Let’s make it simple; any product ready to be sold on multiple platforms falls under this type of inventory. Finished goods are various products that have been manufactured by a seller or purchased by them from a third-party supplier or manufacturer.

However, handling the finished goods can be challenging, especially when you are a multi-channel seller. However, inventory management software such as eVanik OWS can help you manage the inventory on multiple eCommerce platforms by automatically adjusting them. Such software also provides you with an accurate inventory report as well.

MRO Goods Inventory

MRO refers to maintenance, repair, and operating supplies; it includes items that may be useful in a production process but are not integrated into the finished products, unlike raw materials inventories. These types of inventories have been used in assembling a product but have not been used to create a product. For example, maintenance and repair supplies such as light bulbs, motors, gears, and fluids are considered MRO goods inventory.

Apart from that, safety equipment such as respirators, face shields, masks, and office supplies products such as furniture, paper, and pens fall under the category of MRO goods inventory. MRO inventories are not for the customers but for the sellers or eCommerce businesses that they actually use to produce genuine products and later sell them on various online marketplaces.

Packaging Material Inventories

This type of inventory can be anything that eCommerce sellers and businesses use for packaging a product to keep them safe in storage and while in transit. Packaging material inventory is essential for online sellers if they handle the packaging and shipping part. Several products, such as packaging boxes, bubble wrap, tapes, and padding, are known as packaging material inventories.

However, eCommerce sellers don’t understand the importance of packaging material inventories and may not feel it necessary to store them. You must maintain such items on a regular basis because you may need them every time while packaging a product. Thus, it is also necessary to keep them in stock because good packaging impacts customers. Believe it or not but good packaging is also an essential part of the eCommerce business, and one must take care of it.

Conclusion

Thus, now you must have developed an idea about the various types of inventories involved with your eCommerce business. Along with the management of listed inventories, you should also consider the other types of inventories. If you miss out on others, you might miss out on managing the listed inventories at various eCommerce platforms as well. Poor inventory management can lead you to make your customer unhappy, and it may diminish your credibility in the market as well.

However, you can take help from inventory management software to manage it well. It can automatically adjust the inventories on multiple eCommerce platforms and send you an accurate report to escape the situation of overstocking and outages. In this way, you can keep an eye on all your inventories that are ready to sell and that you require stock for the production part.

Always remember that organizing inventories on spreadsheets is not going to help you in this digital era. That is why an automated and centralized inventory management system is the need of the hour, and you must attain one.

What is Profit Margin & Its Importance For Online Business!

A Complete Guide to Profit Margin & Its Importance For Online Business!

Running an eCommerce business is challenging because of the immense competition in this field. It is hard to survive if you are not following the guidelines and are unaware of this business’s various dimensions. The latest research suggests that only 25% of eCommerce businesses survive, so managing every aspect of online business is crucial. To know the growth graph of your online business, it is essential to calculate your profit margin ratio.

To know the actual position of your business, it is imperative to know how much profit you are making from it. Running a business blindly can become the most prominent reason for business failure.

If you are new to this eCommerce business, you may find it much more challenging to manage your finances and calculate your profit margin. However, accounting software for eCommerce can help you manage your accounts efficiently, and once you can manage your finances properly, it will become much easier for you to know your profit margin. In this blog, we will mention what profit margin is and why it is vital for your eCommerce business.

What is Profit Margin?

A profit margin is a figure that is retained after deducting various expenses. In simple terms, we can say that, after selling your products successfully, what revenue you generate by selling one individual product category is known as the profit margin. A higher profit margin ratio indicates your eCommerce business’s good financial health. There are three significant types of profit margins that we are going to mention in the following points.

Gross Profit Margin

Gross profit margin usually refers to profit on a specific product or service rather than the entire online business. Analyzing the gross profit margin can help you determine the pricing strategy because a low gross profit margin means you need to bring changes to a specific product to make it worthwhile.

To calculate your gross margin profit, you need to subtract the price of products sold from net sales, divide the outcome figure by the net sales and get the ratio; you will get the gross margin profit in the form of a percentage. The formula is; [Total revenue-COGS]/Total revenue(x100). It can help you to bring changes in the pricing of your products.

Operating Profit Margin

The operating profit margin indicates how much the profit ratio you attain after spending money on some of the indirect expenses to run your business. It is generally calculated by dividing the operating profit by the total amount of revenue. Comparing the operating profit margin with the gross profit margin considers a range of other operating expenses such as warehouse rent, shipping charges, eCommerce platform fees, etc.

Most sellers don’t calculate the operating profit margin with the other expenses. Still, the collective calculation of such expenses can provide you with a clear insight into your business’s profit, and you might get to know how these expenses affect the profit of your online business.

Net Profit Margin

Net profit margin basically showcases the exact profit of the business after subtracting all the other expenses, including the cost of products sold, operating costs, and other expenses and taxes. Net profit margin gives you an idea about the overall success of your eCommerce business. If you acquire a higher margin rate, it indicates that your business is doing well.

If it’s not, it can be a matter of concern for you, and you must work on it religiously. On the other hand, you can also use the net profit margin to compare your business performance with your competitors as well. The net profit margin is the exact revenue of your business, and you must have clarity on it. In calculating your net profit margin, it is essential to manage your finances first; for that, you can use accounting software for eCommerce.

How to Increase Your Profit Margin?

Cut Down Your Operating Expenses

To increase your profit margin, it is best to minimize the costs of your operational expenses. However, knowing what you need to cut down on your operating expenses is quite challenging. It can be tricky because there are various essential expenses you can not reduce, such as several fees, charges, and taxes.

To successfully reduce operating expenses, you need to analyze your business operating expenses closely; only then can you decide what you can cut down and what not. Instead of taking first-hand services, you can optimize and outsource them successfully.

Hike up Your Product Price

Generally, eCommerce sellers have this fear that if they raise their product prices, they might lose their essential customers, or their customers may abandon them. However, if you provide a pleasant shopping experience to your customers and they are already happy with your product, you can increase your product prices.

We are not saying that it will be easy for you; you need to use some psychological marketing tactics. For example, if you are selling a single product for Rs.150, it will be great to sell a combo product at Rs. 200. It can be a great idea to increase your product by selling one item at an average price and one at an increment price. Such a tactic can help you attract more customers as they might think they are getting a good deal. This practice can help in increasing your profit margin immensely.

Increase The Customers’ Trust

Whether you believe it or not, you need to understand the fact that the trust of the customer is everything you require to run your eCommerce business and increase your profit margin rate.

As an eCommerce seller, gaining the customer’s trust is essential. Now the question is, how will you do that? Well, in this regard, an enormous number of reviews on your product page can help you with it. Positive feedback or reviews have the impeccable power that develops trust in your potential customers and makes them invest in your products.

Increase Your Average Order Value

It is vital to increase your profit margin to increase your average order value(AOV). If you are unaware of the average order value, you need to know that AOV is the average amount a customer contributes per transaction in your online store. To calculate your average order value, you need to use a simple formula; Divide the total revenue by a total number of orders, and the outcome you will get is your average order value.

As an online seller, you can receive higher profit margins by increasing your AOV, and to increase your AOV, and you may require forcing your customers to spend less money. You can offer them free shipping on any exact order amount. You can implement upsell and cross-sale and offer them a complementary product along with any specific product they want to buy.

Conclusion

Hence, these are some of the ideal ways that help you to increase your profit margin. In the points mentioned above, you might have understood why it is essential to know about the ratio of your profit margin graph. Now, undoubtedly, we can say that enhancing profit margins is a profitable strategy for your eCommerce business.

A higher profit margin can make your business stand out from the competition and make it sustainable for longer. It doesn’t matter how new or old your eCommerce business is, you must know about your profit margin and manage your finances accurately. In this regard, you can use eVanik OWS’s help for compelling management of your accounts. 

 

Last Mile Delivery & Its Importance For eCommerce Business!

Last Mile Delivery & Its Importance For eCommerce Business!

In this fast-paced digital world, everyone wants to get their work done in a speedy manner. The emergence of the eCommerce industry has increased the expectation of fast order delivery to customers. Today they can think about same-day delivery if they want to get any product on an urgent basis or want to gift any specific item to their loved ones. Some prominent eCommerce channels, such as Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, etc., offer their customers same-day delivery services.

A decade ago, consumers didn’t have this liberty, but today due to the paradigm shift in the eCommerce industry, customers can expect their order at their doorstep right after a few hours of order placement. Because of the speedy shipping and last-mile delivery feature, the customer experience has become far better than ever before. It would be best if you also took advantage of this quintessential feature as an eCommerce seller.

Last mile delivery is specifically designed to deal with the hurdles of the last delivery phase when a product reaches the customers’ doorstep from the warehouses. This approach has pushed eCommerce sellers to cope with changing customer demand for speedy delivery. This blog will teach you about the aspects of last-mile delivery and why you need to implement it in your business.

What is Last Mile Delivery?

Whenever a customer places an order via any eCommerce marketplace, the product reaches their doorstep from the manufacturers in three different phases of delivery.

  • First Mile Delivery: First-mile delivery is about receiving a product from a manufacturer through a courier partner and storing it in a warehouse or at any distribution center.

  • Second Mile Delivery: Second-mile delivery is also known as the middle mile delivery of products from a distribution center or a warehouse to the fulfillment center where customers can get their products delivered.

  • Last Mile Delivery: The last mile delivery refers to getting the products from the final destination from a courier partner, which can be the sellers’ home, fulfillment center, or any nearest center, and then delivering them to the customers’ doorstep. The last mile delivery system assures the product reaches the customers’ place within the promised time.

    Now, if you are still wondering why last mile delivery is so essential for your eCommerce business, here we mention numerous points that can help you understand it better.

Requirement for Last-Mile Delivery For eCommerce Business

Fulfilling the Urgent Requirement of Customers

In the fiercely competitive world of eCommerce, speed is a significant concern today. Customers want their products delivered within a few hours of order placement. To fulfill the customers’ urgent requirements, as an online seller, you need to speed up the delivery part. We can say that delivery speed is a huge concern for online sellers. According to a survey, more than 42% of consumers are willing to pay extra money for same-day delivery. Last-mile delivery can help you attain an intensified delivery speed.

However, getting along with a reliable logistic service provider will be best to implement a last-mile delivery factor. Before that, you may require an online order management software that can automate the backend operations and thus enforce speedy delivery. In this regard, you can get along with eVanik OWS; it can handle all your backend operations such as payment, inventory, shipping, and returns.

Building a Loyal Customer Base

The enormous success of your online business depends on how many loyal customers you have and whether you can fulfill their demands on time or not. However, building a robust and loyal customer base in the eCommerce industry is complex. For this, you need to understand the requirement and shopping behavior of your customers. The requirements and demands may vary from customer to customer, but one thing can be constant: on-time delivery.

If you cannot deliver their order on promised time, you may quickly lose them. If you want to win the hearts of your customers, you may have to implement last mile delivery solution for your online business. If you can fulfill their demands on time, they may also repurchase a product from you in the future and can become your loyal customer too.

Customers Prefer to Track Orders

Unlike a physical store, customers can not simply visit your store and buy products; they need to place orders and make payments without analyzing them. So what they expect is at least having a track of their orders. Order tracking relaxes them and assures them that their order is on the way and will be delivered to them promptly.

Providing tracking features to your customers can also help increase your revenue because they get back to you repeatedly. Based on research, more than 80% of customers prefer to shop from those who provide them with a last-mile delivery tracking feature. So you need to indulge with a courier or logistic partner that can provide your customers with a last-mile delivery tracking solution.

Challenges of Last-Mile Delivery

Provide Faster Delivery

For faster and more efficient delivery, the last-mile delivery solution requires an intelligent strategy to follow. As a seller, you must have wondered if the order may get delayed for any specific reason. Well, your question is correct, it can happen, but the best you can do is to attain a fulfillment center near your targeted customer locations.

For instance, if your targeted customers reside in Delhi, you should store your products in any fulfillment center in the city. It can help you with the fastest last-mile delivery option. Apart from that, you can even distribute the orders into small individual deliveries.

Visibility can Become an Issue

As an eCommerce seller, you might feel that providing complete visibility throughout the delivery process can become problematic. However, some prominent eCommerce platforms can help you with this as they provide last-mile delivery tracking features to their customers. But the problem is customers want to track the entire delivery process, and it can not be done without the help of enormous tracking software.

Several software solutions available in the market provide comprehensive tracking solutions to your customers. It can provide them with the estimated time and location of their order. Several food apps such as Zomato and Swiggy are using this tracking solution.

Cost Management can Become a Major Concern

If you plan to divide the orders into small and individual parts, it can become quite costly for you as you will require delivery partners for each order. On the other hand, same-day delivery or order delivery within one or two hours of order placement can also put you in a stressful situation and may affect your budget also.

However, suppose you are an Amazon seller. In that case, you should take advantage of Amazon’s FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) service. They can handle the entire shipment and delivery for you and provide speedy last-mile delivery to your customers. However, you need to pay a small FBA charge to them, but it can be cost-effective for you.

So this is all about the last-mile delivery; it is not rocket science; it is simply a delivery process that can effectively help you deliver the orders quickly to your customers. Various other aspects, such as robust inventory management software, can help speed up this process. Such software can clarify every available or unavailable product in your stock and save you from overstocking products. Hence if you have clarity over inventories, you can effectively speed up the order fulfillment process and implement a last-mile delivery service.

Conclusion

You must understand that a last-mile delivery service requires advanced and automated software to execute the process accurately and efficiently. However, this innovation comes with the cost of integration. Various software, whether an order management system, inventory management software or even a las-mile delivery software, can speed up the last-mile delivery process and deliver the product to the customers on a promised delivery date or time. For backend operations automation, you can subscribe to the eVanik OWS. Automating the various eCommerce aspects can eventually intensify the order fulfillment process.

Considerable eCommerce Metrics Sellers Need to Track This Year!

Considerable eCommerce Metrics Sellers Need to Track This Year!

There is a vast difference between running an eCommerce business and running a successful one. Today millions of sellers are selling their products on eCommerce marketplaces. But not all of them are acquiring success; the reason is that some are not analyzing their business’s overall performance or may not follow the latest metrics of the eCommerce industry.

Believe it or not but for the tremendous success of your online business, you must follow all the latest metrics of this industry. The eCommerce metrics may change from time to time per the market trend and customer demand. The metrics mentioned in this blog are essential in terms of serving your customers dynamically. If you are unaware of these, this blog is just for you. Here in this particular blog, we are going to mention some of the vital eCommerce metrics that can help you to know whether you need to implement them in your online business or not. The following metrics will help you understand how well your business performs. So what are we waiting for? Let’s get down and find out these considerable metrics of eCommerce.

Five Elementary eCommerce Metrics That You Need to Follow

eCommerce Transaction Rate

How many transactions have been done from your seller page can not precisely tell how well your business is doing. However, over time, it does demonstrate how popular your product is on various eCommerce platforms. That is why it is necessary to track every online business transaction. Now the real challenge is it is impossible to track every transaction manually, so what is the solution? Well, you need not worry about it because there is various accounting software of eCommerce available that can help you to tackle this problem tremendously. Some software, such as eVanik OWS, has the efficient feature of managing all your transactions by integrating with your accounting software such as Tally, Zoho books, Quick books, etc.

With the help of such software it can become easier for you to track each transaction and know what is actually happening with your business. This is one of the most considerable metrics of this industry that you must follow if you want to up-scale or grow your business.

Calculate Your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)

The cost of goods sold is basically associated with your sales. The enormous eCommerce industry incorporates various factors such as the price you paid to the manufacturer or supplier for your products or the price related to formulating your products yourself. Accurately calculating the cost of goods sold (COGS) can be challenging for any eCommerce seller. These eCommerce metrics can also help analyze the inventory turnover margins and ratios as well. To calculate the COGS, you can start with the basic level, and the formula is; Initial inventory+Total acquisition-closure inventory.

To acquire the accurate cost of goods sold value, you need to keep track of your inventory or manage your inventory perfectly. Lack of inventory management can make you lose the chance to get along with this eCommerce metric. To manage your inventory, you can acquire inventory management software. Such software can automatically provide you with all the inventory reports on a real-time basis. Thus it can help in calculating the COGS.

Recognize Your Return Rate

Returns are a significant pain for any eCommerce seller; you must have experienced this issue maybe on a daily basis or occasionally. It can be more or less, but it is present there. The eCommerce industry has accepted that they have to live with this issue, but they can try their best to reduce the return rate. According to the research of the National retail federation and apprises retail, it has been found that returns have increased from 10.5% to 16.8% this year.

These statistics are a matter of concern. Handling the courier and customer return can be a clumsy task to perform, but with the help of return reconciliation software, it can be done perfectly and precisely. Such software can help you enormously in terms of managing your returns and ultimately increase your profitability. If you are not focusing on your return rates, you may not only lose your money but can also diminish your market image. Along with evaluating your return rate, you must focus on minimizing it by understanding the customers’ concerns regarding your product.

Measure Your Customer Retention Rate

In the eCommerce world, it can be easy to attract new customers because there are so many effective ways that you can execute to make them buy your product at once. But it is way too difficult to retain a current customer because they already know you, and if your product is not as per their requirement or if they have some other issue, they might never return to you. However, measuring the customer retention rate is imperative to know how well you can hold your existing customers.

To calculate your CRR (Customer retention rate), you can divide the total number of return customers by the total number of existing customers and multiply that by a hundred. If your CRR value is below 30%, it means you need to work on increasing it by improving your product quality, delivery time, price, etc. To increase the CRR rate, you can offer attractive discounts and offers to your customers.

Calculate Your Net Profit Margin

You must agree that you are not in the eCommerce business to sell your products but also to generate enormous revenue. You need to calculate your net profit margin if your business is doing as per your expectations. This measure can give you an overall idea of what you need to add or minimize to increase your profit margin. Calculating your net profit margin is a comparatively simple task to perform.

It will help if you use a calculator and manually minus the cost of goods sold from the gross revenue and then divide the figure by the actual sales. The formula for executing this process is; net profit margin= [(Gross revenue- COGS-other expenses and taxes) / net sales]. In such a way, you can know your net profit margin and run your business accordingly.

Conclusion

Thus, several eCommerce metrics can empower online sellers to analyze and measure the overall performance of their online business and let them make essential decisions. As an eCommerce seller, you can use such metrics to obtain a much more reasonable and precise way to evaluate the performance of each product you are selling on diverse eCommerce marketplaces. To attain your business goals efficiently, you must follow these eCommerce metrics.

Suppose you find that your business is not performing well on such metrics. In that case, you may require to subscribe to some robust software such as eVanik OWS to improve the parameter of several metrics such as COGS, return rate, transaction rate, etc. It can effectively minimize the issue related to inventory management, return reconciliation, accounting, shipping, and payment also. This centralized software can easily integrate your ERP system and manage your multi-channel business performance in a single dashboard.

Effective Ways to Ensure Success of Your Online Business!

Ensure the Success of Your Online Business In These Effective Ways!

The eCommerce Industry has been snowballing ever since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world. A maximum number of customers prefer to shop online, and numerous brick-and-mortar stores are shifting their business to online marketplaces. Such an approach provides them with an immense opportunity to connect with an enormous number of customers. However, it is more critical for you as a seller to ensure the path of your success by implementing every aspect of the eCommerce business successfully and getting ahead of your competitors.

Due to the effectiveness of the eCommerce market, physical stores are losing their presence slowly. But in acquiring a solid market presence, you need to implement effective strategies to help your business flourish on multiple eCommerce platforms. Nowadays, customers are demanding, and this industry is fiercely competitive, so it’s imperative to follow some rules that can save your online business from falling apart. In this blog, we have mentioned some practical ways to help your business grow and attain success in many ways. Let’s dig in and find out how to help you attain your business goals successfully.

Make Your Business Successful by These Effective Ways

Provide an Excellent Shopping Experience

As an eCommerce seller, you should know that customers are the king, so you must provide them with a great shopping experience before anything else. These days customers have various choices, which is the primary reason that has skyrocketed their expectations. That is why you need to enhance their shopping experience if you want to ensure the success of your eCommerce business. Accelerating the speed of order fulfillment, payment, shipping, and return reconciliation can help you immensely. To execute these steps successfully, you can subscribe to several powerful eCommerce management software such as eVanik OWS.

Such software can automate these processes and eliminate hurdles, and make it a smooth and efficient process for your customers. Additionally, providing a customized buying experience can become a game changer for you. To enhance the entire shopping experience, you need to ensure that you provide a unique and compelling shopping experience to your valuable customers.

Select a Right Platform

To ensure your eCommerce business’s success, you need to select a better and more profound eCommerce platform to sell your products on. However, there are a massive number of small and big platforms available. Still, not all of them need to have equal potential to upscale the success of your business. However, choosing a popular eCommerce platform such as Amazon, Flipkart, and Myntra is always the safest option to get along with.

As an online seller, you can select any of these channels per your product’s nature and start selling them after registration. In selecting the right eCommerce platform, you need to make sure that it has an enormous customer base and effective services that can help you provide excellent services to your customers.

Invest a bit in Social Media Marketing

You can not deny that this is the era of social media, and people from every age and group are on such platforms. Eventually, it has become an excellent source for every small and big business to promote their services or products on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and other social media platforms. To introduce your product to a broader range of customers, you can take the help of Facebook and Instagram ads.

Investing a minimum amount of money in such marketing strategies can increase your product’s awareness among many potential customers. Social media marketing can effectively help you in generating leads and ultimately increase your sales and let you attain maximum revenue. It is a great way to attain maximum traffic to your product page.

Leverage an Inventory Management Software

Inventories are an essential aspect of an eCommerce business. To ensure the success of your online business, always keep an eye on your inventory. An accurate idea about your inventory is crucial in fulfilling your customers’ demands. Suppose you have listed a specific product on various marketplaces, but it is not there in your stock. How will you fulfill the order? Well, such a situation can minimize your customers’ trust, and there are huge chances that they may easily switch to your competitors.

To avoid such scenarios, you need to take the help of any robust inventory management software available in the market. Such software has the potential to manage your inventories in an adequate manner. It can also provide you with real-time inventory reports and integrate with multiple eCommerce platforms. Because of this remarkable feature, it can let you view all your inventory in a single dashboard and adjust them accordingly.

Emphasize Customers’ Feedback & Reviews

As we have mentioned, customers are the king, and you cannot make them feel avoided. If you cannot provide vital importance to them, they may not be able to continue buying your products in the future. That is why it is essential to prioritize each and every feedback or review of your customers. This practice can let you fulfill your customers’ requirements and enhance the quality of your product according to their suggestions and feedback.

As a seller, you must consider every positive and negative feedback of your customers and must reply to their comments. It can become beneficial for you in both ways; first, you will be able to communicate with your customers, and second, it can be a great way to upgrade the quality of your products if there is any issue or customers have complaints regarding the product.

Get to Know Your Competitors

If you want to ensure your online business’s success, you may need to know your competitors. You must analyze every move of your competitors to intensify your success. Without knowing their next move, you may not be able to fulfill the demands of your customers. In simple terms, we can say that knowing your competitors means knowing your customers, especially if you are new to this eCommerce business. This practice can help you to know your customer’s requirements in a specific way.

You need to closely analyze where your customers are lacking and what next you can do with your product to stay ahead of the competition. It can also help you avoid such mistakes that your customers are making and face various consequences. This way, you can learn from their mistakes and rectify them as soon as possible.

Conclusion

Thus, these are some effective ways to ensure the success of your online business. After implementing these strategies, you can expect massive success in your eCommerce business. Effectively serving your customers can add more value to it. Everyone wants their order delivered as quickly as possible in this fast-paced world. So to meet the customers’ expectations and acquire success in your business, you need to make sure that every step you take should work in favor of your business.

It is essential to get along with these several ways to establish a successful online business. In this regard, you will require automation in various aspects such as inventory, shipping, payment, return, etc. To provide automation, you can take advantage of any eCommerce order management system. Hence, in this way, you can ensure the success of your online business.

Avoid These Seven eCommerce Mistakes & Let Your Business Thrive!

Avoid These Seven eCommerce Mistakes & Let Your Business Thrive!

We all are human, and humans tend to make mistakes. But when you are planning to get aboard in the eCommerce industry, you can’t afford to make continuous mistakes. A study says that approximately 75% of new online businesses fail because they fail to avoid these mistakes. Since the eCommerce industry is a cost-effective business, you may underestimate the risks and mistakes in the beginning. However, starting an eCommerce business, you have to focus more on survival than on the other aspects of this business.

Some of you may make mistakes unknowingly in the initial stage of your business, and it can affect the growth of your online business later. As a seller, you have to make sure that you are capable of providing top-notch services to your customers. Customers have thousands of options available, and somehow, if you miss a chance to fulfill their orders efficiently, they may simply switch to your competitors. To tackle this situation soundly, you must know the eCommerce mistakes that you need to avoid in terms of managing your business effectively and efficiently. In this blog, we have mentioned seven eCommerce mistakes you must avoid.

Seven eCommerce Mistakes That You Must Avoid

No Market Research Before Starting

If you are about to start any business, it is essential to do some research before your start. Specifically, it is necessary to research the latest market trends in the eCommerce industry. It is one of the sellers’ most common mistakes before starting their eCommerce business. Suppose customers are more likely to buy products from the latest trends and you’re launching a new but outdated product on marketplaces; who will buy them? Undoubtedly, no one, and if some may, but then also it can’t provide you the expected ROI. Market research does not only refer to research only about the latest trends, but you also need to rotate your eyes on the other aspects as well, such as what your competitors are selling and what customers prefer more to buy from an eCommerce platform.

Selecting a Wrong eCommerce Platform

You must choose the right platform to start your online business as an eCommerce seller. It is essential because it is the base of the eCommerce business. Suppose you fail to choose the right platform. In that case, you may lose the heavy opportunity to make your business successful in generating revenue and making an enormous customer base. As a startup, you must choose platforms with a solid customer base and credibility in the market, such as Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, etc.

These prominent platforms have the potential to accelerate the growth of your online business and make it stand out from the competition. As a new seller, you must know the nature of whichever platform you choose to sell your products. Look closely at what categories they are offering and what charges they will deduct from your every order.

No or Less Promotion of Product

If you are new to the marketplaces and customers are not aware of your products, then it is crucial to run promotions related to your products. It is evident if customers won’t get to know about your product, how they will buy it. So in this scenario, you need to make several promotional strategies to make your customers aware of your product. It can be one of the sellers’ huge mistakes in not promoting their products at all. In lack of promotional activities, your business may fail, and you won’t be able to re-establish your online presence.

Why take such a risk when you still have the chance to make it a successful affair for you. Several platforms offer promotional features to their sellers, and you just need to invest a little amount and go with the flow. Promotions can effectively attract customers and let it survive at multiple eCommerce sites. Believe it or not but promotions are the crucial step in establishing an online business or launching a new product.

Lack of Inventory Management

As an eCommerce, you may start selling a small number of products, but as soon as your business starts expanding, you have to manage your inventories first. Inventory management is imperative for any eCommerce business, especially if you want to become a multichannel seller and sell your products on various platforms. Due to the poor inventory management, you can not only miss out on a solid customer base but may also lose on a heavy revenue generation factor.

So it is better to get along with any powerful inventory management software such as eVanik. Such software can provide you with real-time inventory reports. Getting along with software can also save you from overstocking. Apart from that, it effectively helps with reconciling the other inventory-related issues.

Complicated Checkout Process

In the eCommerce world, acquiring the buy box section is essential. To reach this section, you need to ensure that your customers can quickly checkout and buy your products. If the checkout process is complicated and not preferable for the customers, they might not buy your products or simply abandon the cart. To escape this situation, you need to check if the eCommerce platform is offering prominent payment modes or not. There should be the option of credit, debit, Upi, and cash on delivery feature on the platform. Apart from that, if there is any buy now pay later option, you must acquire that also because it can attract customers and make them buy your product even if they don’t need it.

Ignoring Customers’ Feedback

Various sellers on major eCommerce platforms don’t know the necessity of replying to customer feedback or making product changes according to customers’ preferences. This is the reason why they aren’t able to make enough sales. Thus it is one of the biggest eCommerce mistakes that most sellers make today. If you are in the process of selling your products on multichannel or have already started your journey, you should give importance to the feedback of customers.

Understand that you are in this business for customers, and your business may survive because of the customers. So there is no denying the fact that you must focus on what your customers are saying. Must reply to their reviews, in this way you make them feel special and they may become your loyal customers.

Clumsy Product Listing Quality

Apart from all other mistakes of the eCommerce business, meager product listing quality is the specific one, and it can ruin your entire hard work if not done correctly. Most sellers do not focus much while listing their products on any eCommerce channel. They don’t see whether the description is suitable, the title is accurate, and whether the product quality is good or not.

Be aware if you are also doing the same because it can negatively affect your entire business. Think from a customer perspective, will you buy such products that have a poor appearance? It might not make sure that you are adding good quality images, embellished descriptions, and attractive product titles along with the relevant title.

Conclusion

Making eCommerce mistakes is inescapable, and you may struggle to get back on track and make your robust online presence as a prominent seller. However, if you are in the learning process, you must consider the above points and try to resolve them as soon as possible. You can not afford to indulge in such mistakes if you envision expanding your online business and making it successful at any cost.

While associating with the eCommerce business, you need to put your customers first and provide them with a pleasant buying experience. Try to know the customer’s shopping behavior and fix all the hurdles coming in the way of order fulfillment. In this regard, you can subscribe to any automatic order management software such as eVanik OWS to eliminate several issues and speed up this process.

Tremendous Ways to Offer Discounts Without Affecting Your Pocket!

Tremendous Ways to Offer Discounts Without Affecting Your Pocket!

In the eCommerce industry, there is no doubt that discounts and offers always attract customers to visit online marketplaces and make their purchases. For sellers, it is always a great idea to offer attractive discounts on their products to generate maximum sales. Discounting has mostly been used as a tested weapon to encourage customers to break a deal. It’s not new but an effective strategy. But the problem is sometimes, these discounts and offers drastically affect the seller’s pockets.

The ultimate solution to this problem is to maintain a balance between offering discounts while saving your money. Frequent offers and discounts contain the risk of losing money. So it is essential to get along with such tactics that can not only help you attract more customers but also not affect your pocket. This blog is about resolving the dilemma behind eCommerce discount strategies. Most eCommerce sellers offer discounts to boost their sales without knowing that it is affecting their pockets, and they must look into this matter. However, if you also want to know how to offer customers discounts without losing money effectively, this is a must-read blog.


Five Effective Ways to Offer Discount Without Affecting Your Pocket

Before going any further, let’s quickly know why you should offer discounts to your customers. Well, most customers implement this tactic to generate more sales and acquire a solid customer base. Discounts attract their attention and encourage new customers to know more about you and your products. It can help you in attaining your first purchase as well. Discounts can also let your online business survive in this fiercely competitive industry.

Offer Discounts on BOGO Products

To save money and escape the risk of failure, you should offer discounts on combo products. You must have seen that most eCommerce sellers offer discounts on buy 1 get 1 product. This tactic can help your products to entice more customers and scale up your overall business as well. You can even offer special discounts on bulk purchasing as well. The goal should be to motivate your customers to come online and buy your products in the first place. This effective discounts strategy can help your products to sell in an effective way without affecting your budget. You can offer one high price item with one low-price item to attract more potential customers. However, before offering such discounts on several products, you need to double-check whether all the products are available or not. Here you may require inventory management software such as eVanik OWS to manage your inventory automatically.

Apply Bundle Pricing Strategies

Bundle pricing is also one of the remarkable ways to offer discounts without hurting your pocket. It is a strategy by which you can offer various specific products in one bundle and sell them at a specific price instead of implementing individual discounts on each item. Offering discounts on bundle products can also help increase your AOV (Average Order Value) by minimizing the per-unit price of one or more products within the bundle. As you know, the festive season is on the way, and marketplaces are already running various sales to attract customers. In this scenario, it can be an excellent way to implement bundle pricing strategies significantly during the festive season. For instance, if you are selling online beauty products, you can offer a bundle of skincare products, including moisturizers, facewash, and serum altogether. In such a way, you can upscale your sales without losing a penny.

Offer Discounts at the Checkout Process

To ensure each purchase is complete, this strategy can work tremendously. In this process, you need to offer some discount on shipping or on the product itself at the final checkout process. In this discount strategy, you can offer your seller a significant discount on their credit card, debit card, and even on UPI payments. Ideally, sellers offer discounts on the payment modes, not specifically on the products. This tactic can help you to attract your existing customers as well as your potential customers also. Another approach you can apply is to offer discounts on the minimum order amount. For example, you can offer your customer a Flat 20% discount on purchasing products on a specific price. Undoubtedly, this discount strategy can help you achieve multiple business goals by adding an enormous number of potential customers and encouraging them to repurchase.

Offer Flash Sale For a Limited Time

Such a type of discount inspires customers toward impulse buying. Limited period offers have the potential to create a hustle in the customers’ minds to make most of such offers within the time. You launch a new product during the flash sale and offer attractive discounts on them for a limited period. It can be 2 hours, 24 hours, and a maximum of 2 days. During the flash sale, you can consistently offer discounts on products with lower sales and no sales. It can also prove to be a compelling way of clearing out your stocks. If you have ever experienced a stock situation, you need to worry about it because such practice can let you sell unwanted items by generating potential revenue. On the other hand, to manage your inventories effectively, you get along with any available inventory management software. It can send inventory reports from various marketplaces and regulate your inventory effectively.

Offer Discounts to New Customers

Offering discounts to new customers can help you attain new and potential customers. You must have seen several offers for first-time customers on various marketplaces. Most sellers implement such tactics to intensify their customer base. In this process, you can offer the actual price of the product by representing it as a discounted price. On the other hand, you can offer them a welcome gift by making their first purchase. This procedure can save you a lot of money and add more value to your business. Understand the fact that customers always want to get some special offer before trying a new product. It provides them the satisfaction that they are getting a product at the lowest price, so it doesn’t matter whether the product is good or not. If they experience that they have bought a good product at a discounted price, they can become your loyal customer.

Hence, these excellent ways of offering discounts can do wonders for your eCommerce business without hurting your pocket. Such discount offers can let your business thrive and add an enormous number of customers to your business.

Conclusion

Undoubtedly, in such specific ways, you can not only drive maximum sales but also attain more and more customers for your online business. Although, whatever the ways you select to offer discounts to your customers, do analyze what works better for your business. It is not required that what works for your competitors can also work for you as well. By initiating various discounts, offers, and promotions, you can experience which tactic is doing well for your business. There is one more factor that you need to take care of; whatever the discounts tactic you are implementing, you need to execute the order fulfillment process as quickly as possible. In this regard, an eCommerce order management software can help you efficiently. Several software such as eVanik OWS, can automate the entire order fulfillment process and help you make your customer happier than ever.

Top Emerging B2B eCommerce Trends of 2022!


Top Emerging B2B eCommerce Trends of 2022!

B2B refers to the business-to-business eCommerce module. This emerging business model is attracting millions of eyes as it has been increasing rapidly. In the past two years, this eCommerce trend has increased by more than 18% in India itself. Market gurus have predicted that this eCommerce model may increase by 35% by the end of 2024. Undoubtedly, it has provided immense opportunities for sellers to get along with the business model and establish their online presence at various marketplaces.

You must encounter that various trends are now establishing a robust foothold and making their pathway to B2B eCommerce. In the year 2022, B2B eCommerce will get along with more new trends, and we have mentioned them in this blog. Nowadays, almost every seller is looking forward to acquiring the latest marketing trends and business models to attract potential customers and establish their business in a successful manner. Hence B2B eCommerce module has the solution as per the sellers’ requirements an accurate expansion of their online business. In this blog, you will learn about the top emerging B2B eCommerce trends of 2022. So, what are we waiting for? Let’s get in and find out what they are.

Five B2B eCommerce Trends of 2022

Indulging into Omnichannel

Omnichannel is a business that is preferably selling through all of the prominent eCommerce channels and has a method for providing the best experience to the sellers and customers. That targets satisfactory customer purchases more crucially than just their engagement. To provide a personalized shopping experience to your customer, B2B businesses are moving towards indulging in omnichannel. Customers are the king, and you need to make the king happy. Customer satisfaction should be the goal for B2B sellers because they already have various options. Believe it or not, providing them with a consistent and seamless omnichannel shopping experience is the authentic game changer in today’s B2B eCommerce picture. So, if you were unaware of this trend, it is time to make omnichannel an integral part of your eCommerce journey. However, to manage your omnichannel inventory, you can take advantage of any available inventory management software in the market, such as eVanik OWS.

Multichannel Integration Trend

B2B sellers are inclined towards the eCommerce platform after analyzing customer demands and market trends. In this regard, multichannel integration is the need of the hour. To sell your products robustly on multiple platforms and increase your revenue, you need to take the help of integrated software for online sellers such as eVanik OWS. It can easily integrate with your ERP system and provides all the information from various channels in a single dashboard. This individual software can eliminate various difficulties of an eCommerce business, no matter which model you choose. It can minimize the need for manual inventory and accounting management.

Onboarding Social Commerce Platforms

You must be aware of several social commerce platforms in India, such as Meesho. Shopsy, BulBul, Mall91, etc. According to the latest research, more than 35% of consumers are making online purchases through social commerce platforms. That is the reason why B2B sellers are getting indulged in this compelling eCommerce trend. The peculiarity of selling and promoting products through multiple social media platforms can keep your customers attached to you. It can be a compelling game-changer for you this year. As a B2B seller, you can directly set up your online store on social media platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. Social commerce platforms are predicted to hike up more than 45% by the year 2025. Hence you can also come along with this trend to accelerate the growth of your B2B eCommerce business. These Days it is not necessary that you can sell your products only through eCommerce platforms but from social media platforms as well.

Speedy B2B Order Fulfillment

The urgency for fast and efficient order fulfillment processes is crucial as more B2B businesses cross the digital verge. The thriving demands of customers have made it essential for B2B sellers to fasten up the order fulfillment process to meet the demands of their customers. However, in this digital era, you can not speed up this essential process without taking the help of any order management system of eCommerce such as eVanik OWS. This software automates the various aspects of your business, such as inventory, payments, shipping, and returns. B2B businesses are taking advantage of such available software in the market to boost the speed of order fulfillment. It is one of the critical B2B eCommerce trends in 2022.

Demand For Real-Time Inventory Availability

Accuracy in inventory is the basic need of any eCommerce business model, whether it is B2B, B2C, or D2C. To get in this fast-paced world, you need to fulfill the order requirements of your customers as soon as possible. But if you do not know what products are available in your inventory, you won’t be able to fulfill your customers’ requirements. In this regard, if you need to integrate your ERP system with a robust inventory management software that can provide real-time inventory and automatically adjust the inventory on marketplaces. These days sellers are prioritizing this feature and attaining considerable benefits.

Apart from these astonishing B2B eCommerce trends, as a B2B seller, you also need to focus on the content because it has become an essential aspect for advertising your products on various platforms and attaining an enormous customer base to accelerate your sales and revenue simultaneously. Evaluating the strategies of your competitors is also imperative to stay competitive in this eCommerce world. It will help if you have an idea of what your competitors are up to; missing on them means you are missing out on something important that can add more value to your eCommerce business.

Conclusion

The past two years were all about getting online for B2B businesses. The year 2022 and beyond will upgrade your online presence to keep up with ever-evolving customers’ expectations. Keeping that in mind, as a B2B seller, you must focus on these emerging B2B trends of 2022 that we have identified in the above paragraphs. You must prioritize them all because that can be the only roadmap to your entire online business success. Understanding these new trends can take your B2B business to the next level of this eCommerce game.

Although to implement and adapt these trends, you may require a powerful eCommerce management software such as eVanik OWS. This astonishing software can take care of every aspect of your B2B business: inventory, accounting, shipping, payments, and returns. If you are facing difficulties in managing these aspects of your business, without thinking twice you must get along with us. The centralized integration feature of this enormous software can eliminate manual errors by automating the entire order fulfillment cycle.

Top Five Inventory Management Techniques and Their Pros & Cons!

Top Five Inventory Management Techniques and Their Pros & Cons!

As an online seller, you should know that inventory is an essential factor of an eCommerce business. Mismanagement of inventory can destroy your business in so many ways. If you do not realize the importance of inventory management during the initial period of your business, you may lose your value among the customers on the first attempt only. This is the reason why one should consider the importance of this crucial aspect of online business management.

Without having clarity over inventory management, you can not successfully process the order fulfillment process. The fundamental purpose of eCommerce inventory management is to meet the customer’s demand without gathering an overstock and to escape the situation of stock out. To execute this significant process accurately, you must know about several inventory management techniques. Apart from various techniques, you can also get along with an eCommerce inventory management software that provides authentic and precise information about your inventories. In this particular blog, we have mentioned some of the effective inventory management techniques and their pros and cons as well. It can help you manage your inventory and select the best technique for your business.

Five Effective Inventory Management Techniques with Their Pros & Cons

1. ABC Inventory Management

It is one of the most effective inventory management techniques; through this procedure, you can keep your products in order of importance. ‘A’ refers to the most valuable, ‘B’ stands for moderate valuable products, and ‘C’ stands for least valuable products. Because every product can not stand for equal value, and that is why your priority should be paid to the most popular products in your inventory. This technique’s major factor is selling the most valuable products in the first go. Here are some of the pros and cons of this technique that can help you determine whether it is an effective inventory management technique for you or not. You can segregate your products into the ABC category by multiplying the annual number of products sold by cost per item and finding the annual usage value per product.

Pros:

  • This technique can help forecast demand by closely analyzing a top popular product over time.
  • It offers effective time management and resource allocation.
  • It can help in determining an excellent customer service approach.
  • ABC inventory management technique enables inventory accuracy.
  • It can help in implementing strategic pricing for your products.

    Cons:

  • The disadvantage of this inventory management technique is that you may not be able to follow the current trends because your priority will be selling the most valuable items first.
  • This technique may require human resources and more time to segregate the products as per their value.
  • This procedure may require more accurate data collection and measurement.

2. Just In Time (JIT) Inventory Management

Just-in-time inventory management techniques are also considered an effective method. In this process, sellers only receive products from a third-party supplier when they need them. You can say that the primary objective of this technique is to increase inventory turnover and reduce inventory holding costs. This method requires strategic planning for order fulfillment till it gets delivered to customers. Most eCommerce sellers use this method to eliminate inventory wastage. Although this effective technique also beholds significant pros and cons, which we have mentioned in the following points.

Pros:

  • This method is highly effective in eliminating inventory wastage.
  • It also decreases the warehouse inventory holding charges.
  • This technique requires less investment because one only acquires the limited and essential products to sell.
  • JIT inventory management method allows having complete control over the manufacturing process that works on a demand-pull basis.

    Cons:

  • One of the primary disadvantages of this method is that you may experience difficulties fulfilling the order on time.
  • This technique beholds the immense risk of the stockout situation.
  • In any disruption, the just-in-time method can drastically affect your business because there will be no excess inventories to fall back on, and your sales may halt.

3. Backordering Inventory Management Technique

Backordering is another inventory management technique that allows your customers to place an order even if it is out of stock or you do not have sufficient stock of that product. eCommerce sellers implement back ordering when they experience a sudden increase in sales or sell significant products faster than you can stock them. It can be considered as the most common and efficient practice that can be used by online sellers whenever they face a surge in demand. In other words, you can say that backorders are a manifestation that indicates the demand for a product exceeds its current supply rate. In this scenario, you directly send the product request to your vendors, and they fulfill your request, and you then you can ship them to your customers. However, this process also has some pros and cons. Let’s’ check them out.

Pros:

  • This Inventory technique can help you with maintaining the revenue flow in the high-demand low stock situation.
  • It can help you fulfill the customer’s demand even if there are not enough products in your stock.
  • It provides more flexibility to small eCommerce sellers.
  • This inventory management technique minimizes the risk of overstocking.

    Cons:

  • Involvement with this method can highly affect the customer satisfaction rate because of the delay in the fulfillment process.
  • This technique involves a massive chance of order cancellation and refund requests.
  • You may lose your existing customers along with the potential ones.

4. Bulk Shipment Inventory Management

In the entire eCommerce inventory management process bulk shipment method is highly recommended to sellers to meet the higher customer demand in less time. It is cost-effective as buying products in bulk always becomes cheaper in terms of shipment as well. We can say that the bulk shipment inventory management technique is ideal for predominant products with higher customer demand and long shelf life. Let’s find out some of the pros and cons of this inventory management technique.

Pros:

  • The bulk shipment inventory management technique involves a high potential to generate maximum revenue.
  • Though this method allows bulk shipment, hence eventually lowers the shipping costs.
  • It works effectively for prominent products with particular demand and long shelf life.

    Cons:

  • This inventory management technique requires a hefty investment.
  • It increases the essential holding costs for product storage.
  • In this method, it can be challenging to adjust the inventory during the time of demand fluctuations quickly. However, to escape such a situation, you can take the help of some inventory management software such as eVanik OWS.

5. Consignment Inventory Management

In this inventory management technique, the wholesaler has legal ownership of the products, and the sellers are not required to pay for them until they are sold. In this method, sellers can even decide to return any unsold inventory without worrying about financial loss. The most crucial aspect of this method is to manage the consignment inventory so that it moves quickly and efficiently from a wholesaler to the sellers and then to the customer’s doorstep. Lets’ see what the pros and cons of this technique are.

Pros:

  • This inventory management technique allows you to offer your customers a more comprehensive product range.
  • It may decrease the wane time of restocking the products.
  • A seller can also return the products in case of no sale without paying a penny to the wholesaler.

    Cons:

  • Consignment inventory is difficult to manage on a spreadsheet due to the constant movement. However, an online inventory management software such as eVanik OWS can help you with it.
  • A wholesaler may own the stock, but the seller will be responsible for storing them and paying the warehouse.
  • You still have to pay for the warehouse space if there is no sale.

Conclusion

Hence, these are some of the profound inventory management techniques you can use while associating with an eCommerce business. Indeed there are pros and cons to every method, but still, you can choose one as per the nature of your business or whatever method suits you the best. The fundament is inventory should be managed accurately never to disappoint your customers and maintain the supply chain flow. As an eCommerce seller, you can take the help of any prominent inventory management software like eVanik OWS to avoid the over-stocking or less stocking situation. It provides you with an accurate inventory report to clarify your inventory.