What is inventory planning in e-commerce? It’s a strategic planning of stock levels to meet customer demand and minimize operational costs. An e-commerce business can seek professional inventory planning services from a reputable 3PL company to avoid spending a lot of resources or failing in the process.
The company may package the services differently, so ensure that your stock levels are maintained to meet the market demand and increase sales over time.
This article will focus on this concept as offered by a professional 3PL company and its benefits to your e-commerce business.
Where Does a 3PL Company Come In?
Logistic companies that specialize in e-commerce businesses are called third-party logistics (3PL) companies, and they offer an array of services, such as warehousing, inventory management, order processing, and specialized services. For now, we will look at how they offer inventory planning services.
They have the necessary expertise, experience, and resources to handle any form of inventory, such as receiving, sorting, and repackaging, on top of keeping track of its movement. They have heavily invested in digital systems that track stock and report, allowing a seamless flow of goods.
Whether you sell your goods on a single e-commerce platform such as Amazon, or numerous other platforms, these companies will still offer seamless inventory planning services.
How to Hire a Professional 3PL Company
Do you want your e-commerce to meet the market demand? Then you should let a professional 3PL company offer you inventory planning services on top of other logistic services. It is easy to hire such a company after making the following considerations:
Evaluate the capability to meet your needs – Now that you know your needs—for example, the order volume—you can research various 3PL companies with capabilities to offer you the necessary services. You can learn a lot about such companies online or from other e-commerce businesses that have used them. Start your search by checking the Packageman website to understand their capabilities.
Discuss the inventory planning services – There are many inventory planning services you can get from a reliable 3PL company. If you don’t need all of them or want to customize your services, then discuss that with the company. This will give you a great start.
Sign contracts – Have you agreed on the inventory planning services you need and their prices? Then it is time to sign contracts with the service provider. Ensure that you understand each clause to satisfaction to avoid future challenges.
Various Inventory Planning Services
A reputable 3PL company offers a variety of inventory planning services to e-commerce businesses to ensure that they run smoothly and meet the demand. These are the most popular services:
Replenishing planning
Before anything else, an e-commerce business should know how to keep stock replenished at all times. Timely stocking ensures that the business is currently running smoothly. A 3PL company that offers professional inventory planning services uses an automated reordering system with minimum order levels.
Demand forecasting
Planning the future demand for a growing e-commerce may sound simple, but it is an intricate process that requires the efforts of a professional 3PL company. They use historical data, seasonal trends, current trends, and market analysis to predict and advise the entrepreneur on stock levels.
Inventory optimization
After the above inventory planning services, the company will come up with the current and future ideal stock levels. This ensures that your business will stay optimized regardless of how many e-commerce channels it uses. Most current inventory planning programs and apps can optimize the inventory in a perfect way.
Stock safety
This is also among other inventory planning services that your e-commerce can enjoy. The system may include a buffer of stock to take care of demand surges, returns, and other challenges. This will ensure that your customers can access products at all times, and you will also avoid challenges related to the “out of stock” status.
Inventory control
Most 3PL companies also do inventory control as a part of inventory planning services. This takes care of stock data for accountability to reduce waste. If you have this as part of the services, you can rest assured of reduced costs as your e-commerce business grows.
General supply chain management
Whether your e-commerce business relies on one selling channel or many, you need supply chain management services for a smooth flow of goods. An efficient inventory management system orders replenishing stocks, keeps clean inventory records, and processes orders appropriately. This is what any e-commerce business needs to succeed.
Benefits of Using Inventory Planning Services
Are there any benefits to using inventory planning services in your e-commerce business? From the above insights, you can already tell that there are many of them.
Better customer experience – Customers all want to find exactly what they want. Inventory planning services ensure that every item you sell on your website or any other e-commerce platform is available unless it is out of production. Customers, especially repeat ones, will definitely enjoy this experience.
More sales – Ensuring that stock is available gives you the most sales possible. Sometimes, the best marketing strategy is to make sure that products are available for customers. Once you meet your customer demand, you are assured of more sales. This also leads to more profits and growth.
Lower operation costs – We have already seen that inventory planning services can lower waste and chances of lost revenue. You can keep operational costs low when you optimize sales by availing stock to meet market demand.
Efficient supply chain management – First of all, 3PL companies eliminate the hassle of managing your supply chain processes. They come in to offer professional inventory planning services and other logistic services. In the end, your business will enjoy efficient supply chain management that meets demand.
Conclusion
There you go—this is how your business can meet demand today. All you need to do is hire inventory planning services from a professional 3PL company and let it take care of your inventory issues. They can also offer other logistic solutions as part of the package, so plan carefully. Make sure to hire a 3PL company with a good reputation for your e-commerce business to run smoothly and grow.
Tags: 3PL CompanyInventory Planning
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