Sarah from Boutique Hub shares three ways to prevent stockouts: track accurate inventory levels, know where items are stored, and monitor how long items have been in stock. Losing inventory means losing customers to competitors.
Hey guys, it's Sarah with the Boutique Hub and I'm back today to answer one of our frequently asked questions that we get asked all the time by our members and that is about running out of inventory, running low on stock and how to avoid this. Well, guys, I'm going to give you three tips. Three Ls, levels, location and life cycle. What does that mean? Well, proper reporting will tell you about the levels of inventory. If you're running out of inventory, that means you're missing out on sales. If you miss out on sales and you can't present something to your customer, they get discouraged and they will shop somewhere else. So knowing what you have on hand and if you're running low on those key quantity items, right, those white layering piece tank tops, those gotta have it. Sell everyday pair of denim jeans, right? Maybe it's the cardigans in the winter and fall season. If your levels are running low, a good reporting system will tell you. So that's on you to make sure you're documenting everything and recording things properly and analyzing those reports. Check those levels. The next thing is the location. Where the heck is your inventory at? Do you have it identified? Is it in your warehouse? Is it in store one or store two? Very important. Knowing where your items are allows you to sell it quickly. If you have a live sale, like a customer in your store looking for the size 12 in a pair of denim jeans and your computer says you have it but they're nowhere to be found, you're going to miss out on that sale. So knowing the location of your items is so important. The last L I want you to focus on is your life cycle. How old is this inventory? Right. So running out of inventory or running out of good quality inventory, that's another pain point for a lot of retailers. And sometimes we just get so busy we don't notice. Well, that's on us. To really analyze those reports and understand, looking at a rack full of items doesn't tell us the whole story. We have to know how old that item is. We have to know where it's at in its life cycle. So what can you get out of it when it comes to sales? If your sales at the end of the month are low compared to where you think they should be, but you've went through and sold a lot of quantities of items. That's because your life cycle of your products, that's because the offering you were presenting to your customer was old. So running out of inventory. What kind of inventory? High quality inventory. No excuses. Identify those three Ls, right? The location, the levels, and the life cycle of your products. If you keep on those three Ls and really analyze those and be in the know about that, you're going to make your sales. You won't let those inventory levels get low. You won't let that inventory age. And you're going to know exactly where every piece of clothing is in your store warehouse, or maybe it's in your garage. But when it sells, you're going to know where to go find it. You do not want to frustrate your customer because a frustrated customer will shop somewhere else. All right, guys, that's Sarah from the Boutique Hub with an answer to your frequently asked question today. Let me know what else you guys have questions about, and I'll be back to answer more the next time. Thanks, guys. Have a great day. I.
