Inventory management

How to: Inventory management explained simply

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Woman carrying out inventory management

What's it about?

Inventory management helps you organise your item stocks in your online shop. This enables you to manage all stocks and track deliveries. It allows you to manage purchases and sales of items to your customers without losing track of things.

Small changes in inventory management can have a big impact on your bottom line — both positive and negative. With a clear strategy, inventory management can increase sales. Missed opportunities, on the other hand, can mean lost revenue.

Some sellers may not be fully aware of the importance of an inventory management system for their online shop.

This is exactly what this article is all about. Find tips for managing inventory levels with Amazon here.
Man pushing some boxes

What is inventory management?

Inventory includes all physical items that you offer for sale. In other words, it's the amount of products that you own and wish to sell through your company. Inventory management is the process of storing and tracking all product stocks to meet customer demand quickly and efficiently.

An effective inventory management strategy allows you to create a transparent and comprehensible cost overview. Inventory is an investment. Confusing inventory management can cost you money and result in dissatisfied customers.

You may lose track of spoiled or unsellable products, or incur high storage costs. Or, even worse, end up with exhausted inventories and unfulfilled customer orders. What's more, storage fees and storage costs can reduce your profitability, which can have a positive or negative impact on your return on investment (ROI).
Women holding up a particular stock

Useful information for your inventory management

If you manage your warehousing yourself, you have a direct influence on the entire process, including quality control.

Three aspects are essential in inventory management: organising, forecasting and auditing. Organisation is primarily about item category, expediency and order. Forecasting allows you to determine your inventory sizes. There are numerous software tools that can help you report minimum stocks and reorder them. Auditing includes quality control and regular inventories.

Alternatively, you can outsource all inventory management to a fulfilment provider such as Amazon.

Inventory management with Amazon

For sellers who use Fulfilment by Amazon, Amazon offers various inventory management tools directly in Seller Central.
These tools can help sellers manage their inventory efficiently and offer options for faster order processing.

The dashboard can help you get an overview of all important inventory information, such as sales rates, notifications about ageing stocks and recommended measures to optimise warehousing.
All available tools for your seller account can be found via Seller Central and the mobile Seller app.

Summary

Inventory management covers all processes from receipt of goods to sales to end customers. Changes to inventory management can have both a positive and negative impact on your earnings. Optimising inventory management can increase sales — neglecting it can lead to missed opportunities.

FAQs

How can I easily undertake inventory management?
With an inventory management system. This gives you an overview of your inventory in one place and allows you to optimise order fulfilment costs.
What is an inventory management system?
An inventory management system helps you manage your stocks and provides an overview of items, stocks, minimum stocks and sales rates.
What is inventory control?
This describes the process of ensuring the right quantities of items, so you can monitor and manage all your inventory levels and track deliveries.
Wie kann ich bei FBA auf Tools zur Bestandsverwaltung zugreifen?
Sie können auf die Lagerverwaltungstools über das Seller Central-Dashboard oder die Seller-App auf Ihrem Smartphone zugreifen.
Was ist das Amazon-Lagerbestandshaltung-Dashboard?
Ihr Lagerbestandshaltung-Dashboard zeigt Ihren Lagerbestandsindex (IPI) sowie die maßgeblichen Faktoren, die ihn beeinflussen.

Es ist wichtig, Ihren IPI-Score regelmäßig zu überwachen, da ein niedriger Score zu Überlagerungsgebühren führen und Ihre Kapazität zur Versendung zusätzlicher Waren einschränken könnte.
Wie kann ich meinen Amazon IPI-Score verbessern?
Um Ihren Amazon IPI-Score zu verbessern, ist es wichtig zu wissen, dass Ihr IPI-Score sich danach richtet, wie gut Sie:

- Beliebte Produkte nachfüllen
- Gesunde Lagerbestände aufrechterhalten
- Angebotsprobleme beheben
Welche Techniken verbessern die Bestandsverwaltung?
Es gibt verschiedene Techniken, um Ihren Lagerbestand zu optimieren und gesund zu erhalten:

1. Verwalten Sie überschüssige Lagerbestände effektiv, indem Sie verstehen, wann Sie Ihre Produkte reduzieren oder entfernen sollten.
2. Verfolgen Sie das Alter Ihres Lagerbestands und verstehen Sie die Menge, die Sie halten, um Langzeitlagergebühren zu vermeiden.
3. Halten Sie genaue Bestände von gestrandetem Inventar und halten Sie Ihre Angebote aktiv, indem Sie notwendige Preis- und Zustandsinformationen einschließen und Fehler beheben.
4. Erneuern Sie Ihren Lagerbestand, indem Sie sicherstellen, dass Ihre meistverkauften Artikel ständig vorrätig sind, um der Nachfrage gerecht zu werden.
Verwaltet Amazon den Lagerbestand?
Amazon bietet Inventarverwaltungsdienste für E-Commerce-Unternehmen und Unternehmer an, die Versand durch Amazon (FBA) nutzen, um ihnen bei der Überwachung ihres in den Lagern von Amazon gelagerten Inventars zu helfen.

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