What Happens When You Run Out of Stock?

The Consequences of Low Inventory Management

Eosty 🔹
3 min readFeb 12, 2023

Running out of stock is not a good look for your business. This is because it often leads to various issues when it comes to customer services, and financial costs, and you might even lose opportunities.

Poor Customer Service

poor customer service..
photo credit — pexels

When it comes to owning a business, your customer’s opinion is the most important aspect. There are plenty of businesses trying to have a place in the market you are in, which leads to plenty of competition. One of the most costly aspects of running out of stock is losing a client. This is because not having a product a client is looking for in stock can lead to poor customer service. Not to mention, running out of stock can leave customers unsatisfied and can even lead to bad reviews for your business.

Stockout Costs

If you do not plan your stock properly, but you still want to have satisfied customers, you might end up making rash decisions. In turn, you might end up having to have supplies shipped faster, which can lead to higher shipping costs. Additionally, you will not be able to shop around for suppliers, since you will need to make decisions quickly to get what you need fast. You can pull stock from your supplier and ship it straight to the customer. However, this can bring your fulfillment costs to an all-time high.

Lost Opportunities

Unfortunately, if you run out of stock, you might lose opportunities. For example, if you use an online marketplace, your ratings can go down because of unsatisfied customers. This can lead to your product appearing lower in result searches and prospective customers will end up purchasing something that is rated higher by a competitor.

How to Synchronize Demand to Supply for your Retail Store

Running out of stock is a result of poor supply management. Therefore, you should pay attention to what you are doing wrong to fix it. Additionally, you should make sure to have a supply chain management strategy in place that works well for your business.

Investigate the Issue

Before coming up with any strategy, you need to understand the root of the issue. Therefore, you need to understand your business’s sales and know what runs out quickly and what does not. For this, you should thoroughly look into your business practices and what is leading to stockouts.

Create a Unified Workflow

Once you understand why your business is running out of stock, you can set up a system that allows you to understand how often you need to restock. Not to mention, this information allows you to automate restocks for specific peak seasons and times in the year when your sales are normal. This allows you to have some peace of mind and it will cost your business much less than going out of stock or getting overstocked. Additionally, you should create a unified front between inventory and sales. If an emergency happens and something is low in stock, your inventory and your sales teams need to take the appropriate precautions for smooth recovery. Visit https://johngalt.com/ to learn more.

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This Post was previously republished on eosty.com

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Eosty 🔹

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