What is Inventory in your eCommerce store? How to apply it to your Merchandising strategy?

There have been so many articles on the web about how to increase online sales or how to boost your eCommerce revenue but only a few talk about an important element that will determine the success or failure of your store -- your inventory.Your products that make up your online store's inventory are at the core of any eCommerce merchandising or marketing strategy you may adopt. Having the right inventory at the right time is equal to meeting consumer demand and increasing eCommerce sales. Not doing so may diminish any competitive advantage that your online store may have gained through eCommerce merchandising and marketing strategies.This is where the importance of merchandising with inventory consideration steps in. The secret to getting this right is tapping into the data along with dynamic merchandising solutions like Tagalys. Let's learn more!

What is Inventory in eCommerce?

The term "inventory" is the total amount of goods or services you offer to your consumers and potential consumers for sale online. In layman's terms, inventory is the total number of products that you have at any given time to sell on your eCommerce store. For example, clothes, jewelry, food, household items, gadgets, etc.

Why is Inventory Management or Planning a crucial element for higher profitability? What are the merits & demerits?

Optimal inventory facilitates sales. If you plan your inventory well, you can boost your profits. These are the merits that highlight how important inventory planning is for your eCommerce store:

• Prevent/reduce out of stock products.
• Make more people purchase by decreasing the bounce rate through such out of stock products.
• Increase the conversion rate in the long run by always being prepared for consumer demand
• Fulfill your orders faster.

But if you do not have optimal inventory planning, you face these demerits:

• Ineffective marketing campaigns, when the landing page leads to an out-of-stock product.
• High bounce rate leading to an increase in cost per acquisition.
• Affects your brand value in the long run.

How to use Inventory data in your eCommerce Merchandising strategy?

If your merchandising strategy was a race car, data will be its nitro boost. There are multiple ways in which you can use inventory data for your merchandising strategies. Here are the three most important ways:

1. To promote high-inventory products along with your bestselling products to prevent longer stocking times.
2. To filter out low-inventory products at the time of product promotions or marketing campaigns. Product demotion is also necessary for your eCommerce store.
3. To create customized product listings for 'Clearances' / 'Sales'

Getting actionable insights from Tagalys reports

Tagalys' reports can help gain insights by deciphering traffic and consumer behavior.Vital questions for inventory planning that Tagalys' reports can help with:

• What to order? You'll know what products are working well.
• How much to order? You'll know the bestselling products and when to order extra quantity.
• When to order? Know your buyer behaviors and predict your next order.

Tagalys allows you to create customized and dynamic landing pages so you can choose what products from your inventory you want to highlight. Tagalys' solutions also offer an array of reports like product segment reports, tag reports, listing page reports, etc. that offer invaluable insights to help you plan your inventory better.And there's more! Learn about how our intuitive merchandising solutions for your eCommerce store can improve your collections/categories, site search, and offer product recommendations.References:

1. https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/spreadsheets-concept-illustration_6450135.htm#page=1&query=inventory&position=1
2. https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/data-report-illustration-concept_6195527.htm
3. https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/site-stats-concept-illustration_7140739.htm
4. https://medium.com/analytics-and-data/optimal-inventory-quantity-for-e-commerce-websites-559675f160d6
5. https://exponea.com/blog/top-5-e-commerce-inventory-management-techniques-2-better-ones/