How to Effectively Optimize Your Inventory
Many businesses are making the exodus and moving to product-based business operations. Properly handling inventory is a vital aspect of every cannabis retailer. It entails ordering, storing, moving, and managing inventory. The whole process facilities the swift movement of the product from the warehouse to the customer immediately after the consumer makes an order. Optimizing your product inventory involves predicting and managing demand variables and supply while performing inventory management processes. Any hitch in the process ultimately affects the whole business operations by causing delays in orders.
Managing Inventory
The product inventory of any business needs to be handled with utmost precision and accuracy. When running an online storefront for the first time, you might be overwhelmed by product inventory operations. However, you can optimize these operations by implementing the following essential tips:
Forecasting the demand for inventory
product based markets tend to face a lot of fluctuations, and product demands can drop or skyrocket at any time. As a cannabis retailer, you must be flexible and prompt when responding to these changes. However, this might be challenging. For instance, when you are faced with an unexpected demand, you might need more stock to meet the sudden increased demand. Proactively anticipating fluctuations will give you an upper hand. Vende provides you with crucial data and sale insights that will help you know your brand's high and low seasons. Hence you know when to increase and decrease your products' supply.
Seasonality, promotions, trends, and new products
The modern consumer is greatly affected by various social factors determining their demand for a specific product. Seasonality and trends are critical factors buyers look at when purchasing products. Seasonality refers to the various times of the year and any public holidays and festivals which affect the demand for your products. A cannabis retailer will be more aggressive in selling cannabis products during the 420 celebrations than during the Easter holidays, despite both falling in the same month.
Conversely, trends affect the demand by causing highs and lows on the demand graph. Promotions and new products appeal to customers, which is why black Friday, and November tends to have more sales due to the many discounts. Your product inventory should be optimized based on seasonality and current trends, with relevant promotions to attract new buyers and retain the old ones. When launching a new product, ensure optimal timing to achieve maximum sales.
Replenishing Your Inventory Accurately
The first two steps focus on predicting consumer behavior and being relevant enough with your products to achieve demand. The next step is finding cost-effective means to meet the demand, especially during the high season. Most eCommerce and product based businesses make the mistake of carrying excessive stock to meet high service levels, which is costly in the long run. When you use a cannabis platform like Vende, you get a detailed analysis of your sales during peak seasons. You can use the figures to estimate the number of goods the target market will demand.
Calculating the safety stock levels entails avoiding under-supply or over-supply. You will use the past quantities and accurately reorder points to get the most optimal number. Your business should have a reasonable estimate of the optimum order quantity, which refers to the number of products ordered, considering critical factors like supplier constraints, demand forecast, and lead times. The main objective is to have enough products to meet market demand and safety stock to handle unforeseen demand.
Stock level optimization
The last step is using a stock inventory software or tool to ensure you have a smooth running of your online product inventory. Vende has simplified the whole stock level optimization for cannabis retailers. The cannabis platform has various tools and resources like the point of sale, delivery, and product ordering. Cannabis entrepreneurs can effectively manage, track and fulfill their customers' various orders. With the transfer inventory features, the stock level is automatically updated after placing an order. The product is transferred from the storage, main shelf, and in transit, with every activity updated on the platform. You can effectively manage everything from the Vende platform without facing any difficulties that might interrupt your operations.