Running out of stock and restocking inventory are routine occurrences for eCommerce entrepreneurs. However, like many other aspects of managing an online business, they can get overwhelming quickly. The tricky part is that you don’t have all the time in the world to figure it out. Online businesses are intensely competitive, and customers can easily turn to competitors if you run out of stock.
However, with a comprehensive structure, you can manage stockouts and restock effectively without losing your customers. In this article, we’ll look at the best ways to manage restocking while keeping your customers loyal to your brand.
Tips for Managing Your Customers Before and After Restocking Inventory
It is inevitable to run out of stock on items, especially in high-demand seasons, which are unpredictable. Here are some tips for reducing bounce rates from stockouts and keeping your customers updated about restocks:
Highlight New Stocks of Popular Products
When you run out of stock on certain items, it is important to add a feature that indicates that those items are not available. Typically, this is an out-of-stock tag or greyed-out product image. Either way, the goal is to immediately let the customer know that the product is unavailable so that they can focus on available items.
When you are restocking inventory, it is necessary to highlight the new products for buyers who had browsed through the site before. This is especially important if the item is a popular or best-selling product.
Typically, you should promote your featured products in a prominent place on your web store’s home page. If you have several bestsellers or a slew of recent releases, here are a few tips for narrowing down the items that would appear as featured items on your website:
- Read product reviews and highlight pieces that have received rave reviews. If your consumers regularly rave about one of your items, even if it isn’t one of your best sellers, consider making it a Featured Product on your online store. The additional publicity may be just what the product needs to become a best-seller.
- Items with a high-profit margin or surplus inventory may be ideal candidates for featured products.
- Savvy eCommerce business owners go a little deeper and examine site metrics to assess their site’s most common search keywords. Having items on the website that correspond to what many online customers are currently searching for is a great way to boost sales. This can be a lot easier if you use an inventory management tool that delivers real-time product analytics to truly reflect the product’s performance on the website.
Reorder Products Using a Merchandising and Inventory Management Tool
One way to mitigate the negative effects of a stockout is to push out-of-stock items to the bottom of the page so that customers have a more seamless shopping experience. eCommerce customers who experience an out-of-stock item before or after adding products to their cart may leave the site entirely, even abandoning other items already in the cart.
When you restock the previously unavailable items, you can reorder your eCommerce storefront to place focus on the new restocks.
An automated inventory system such as Smart Merchandiser saves merchants the time and effort of manual inventory management, allowing them to focus on other parts of their business.
With Smart Merchandiser, you can automate your platform to push out-of-stock products to the bottom. That way, you make a good impression on customers and prevent them from forming negative associations with your brand.
Smart Merchandiser sorts products according to their popularity with a visual indicator that is based on customers’ clicks and views. This helps you know which products are performing best and helps you make informed restocking decisions.
You can also study customer behavior and purchase patterns with this feature–knowledge that is useful for cross-selling, upselling, and subsequently increasing revenue.
You can also use Smart Merchandiser to customize your product pages with a simple drag-and-drop feature, so reordering the products on your front-end according to your inventory is very easy.
Send “Back in Stock” Alerts When Restocking Inventory
If a product is briefly out of stock and your eCommerce shop plans to restock it quickly, it’s a good idea to ask consumers to submit their email addresses so they can be notified when the product is back in stock. This way, not only do you raise the likelihood of the customer returning to your platform, but you also obtain the visitor’s email address for email marketing. You’re killing two birds with one stone. The customer is satisfied, and you have expanded your email recipients’ count. You could also send push notifications if the customers use your mobile app.
Statistics from customer satisfaction research show that customers value the quality of service more than speed. If your customers are pleased with your website’s shopping experience, they will be more inclined to wait for your restock.
To boost your email clickthrough rate (CTR), use phrases that express urgency, such as:
- “Hurry”
- “Limited Time”
- “Back in Stock but Not for Long”
- “Selling Fast”
Use Data and Insights to Predict Demands
The sales and inventory data you have access to can help manage and restock goods. You can use past sales data to forecast high and low demand periods and adjust stocking to prepare. It is also beneficial to identify high-demand SKUs on a temporary and permanent basis so that you can notify your suppliers or manufacturers to produce adequate product volumes.
These will help you plan your future inventory management and ensure you already have enough supply to satisfy demand.
Conclusion
Having a customer land on your out-of-stock page is not a bad thing. What matters is what you do to turn around the situation and make a good impression.
To successfully procure, maintain, and restock inventory, you must develop standard processes and protocols to ensure that consumers are never dissatisfied while preserving the inventory and preventing overstocking. You’ll need an inventory tracking system that allows you to monitor stock effectively, helps you understand the records, and make strong restocking arrangements.
Zobrist’s Smart Merchandiser can help you put an airtight structure in place to manage your inventory like a pro and keep your customers coming back. Reach out to us today if you need help taking charge of your inventory and automating the process for more reliable outcomes.