Take Inventory Management To a New Level With Chelsea Cohen

Take Inventory Management To a New Level

SoStocked’s inventory management software allows Amazon sellers to customize their data and capture important information to make forecasting more accurate.

Incomplete data will give you inaccurate answers. Amazon inventory software in the past provided unclear data and solutions, leaving you to order X number of inventory without really knowing why. The systems weren’t customizable, leaving the data incomplete. That’s why Chelsea Cohen developed the SoStocked software to allow customizable inventory management and forecasting so sellers can make better business decisions and grow. Our CEO Izabella Ritz met with Chelsea to find out more.

 

Beginning Sellers Stockout More Than the Average Seller.

“When you hit something big, you’re not really prepared for reacting to it,” Chelsea explains. Many new sellers face stockouts, and today, lead times can be 90-120 days (up from 60 days pre-COVID-19). It takes weeks to produce the product, and if it gets stuck at the port, you’re looking at 4-5 months of being out of stock. One SoStocked client lost $130,000 in potential revenue when they didn’t have a system in place to prevent stockouts.

Sellers will often use air shipment at the last minute to prevent stockouts, which is faster than shipping by ocean, but also more costly for you. SoStocked’s database looks at inventory and various factors to generate a Stockout Risk Report, which Chelsea emphasizes is important for new sellers to avoid stockouts. This report shows trends based on your customizable data so that you can restock well in advance.

 

Inventory Meets Marketing.

Chelsea and her partner created SoStocked because they didn’t have a tool that married an inventory plan with a marketing plan. She refers to “inventory-minded marketing,” where advanced Amazon sellers have two teams – inventory and marketing – that should collaborate to improve numbers. However, the two teams tend not to communicate often, and inventory teams frequently respond reactively.

With SoStocked, the inventory team can generate various reports to understand inventory status. The Overstock Report tells you what inventory you have too much of. The Liquidation Report presents the slow- or low-selling products which should be liquidated to recover at least some of the cash and avoid a loss. Marketing teams should use the data from these reports to create sales campaigns to liquidate these products, such as coupons or email list sales. This helps sellers avoid slow sales, overstock, and paying too much in storage fees.

Sell-through is the most important metric for Amazon. The faster you move inventory, the more money Amazon is making. This is why sell-through can impact your restock limits and your inventory performance index (IPI). The more you sell, the more they want you to keep selling, so your IPI and restock limits increase. Paying close attention to the reports SoStocked generates and proactively acting in response to them is crucial for knowing your sell-through and improving the health of your Amazon business.

 

How SoStocked Stacks Up Against the Competition.

Other similar softwares have tools that are more focused on the marketing side like keyword research. Their inventory tools are usually very basic and not customizable. SoStocked allows you to customize and factor in your marketing in order to be ahead of your inventory. Being able to customize calculations provides the right data.

SoStocked also listens to its clients. They encourage customers to speak up and make recommendations when they need a new feature within the software. Some customers even participate in beta testing when they are trying out the new features.

 

Chelsea’s Advice.

Optimize your pallets, cartons, and containers. Put more units in every carton and pallet when you are shipping. More units in each carton means less cartons needed for shipping, and less cartons that you are paying processing and storage fees for.

Inventory can be a liability or an asset. It becomes a liability when it costs you more money than it’s making you. Remember that there are ways to regain even when this happens, like liquidating your inventory at a loss.

 

You can reach Chelsea at SoStocked.com/connect. New SoStocked users can visit SoStocked.com and enjoy a 30-day free trial when they sign up.