Inventory Management
Inventory management is tracking what stock you have and when to reorder, balancing stockouts against overstock.
What inventory management is
Inventory management is knowing what stock you have, where it is, and when to order more: tracking units in, units out, and the money tied up in between.
Why inventory management matters
Stockouts lose sales you already earned; overstock locks cash in boxes and ends in markdowns. The whole discipline is steering between those two losses.
Core inventory practices
- Accurate counts, synced across every sales channel
- Reorder points based on sales velocity and lead time
- Safety stock sized to demand swings
- Regular audits to catch shrinkage and errors
Frequently asked questions
What is a reorder point?
The stock level that triggers a new order: expected sales during the supplier’s lead time, plus safety stock. Hit the point, place the order, and new stock lands before zero.
What does a stockout really cost?
The missed orders, plus the shoppers who found an alternative and stayed with it, plus ad spend pointing at an unbuyable page. Back-in-stock alerts recover some of it; prevention beats recovery.