As an entrepreneur navigating the intricate world of product development and sales, one of the fundamental aspects of your business success lies in effectively managing your inventory. Whether you’re an established company or just starting, sourcing products and maintaining a healthy inventory is crucial for meeting customer demands, maximizing profits, and staying ahead of the competition. Here are some invaluable tips to help you master the art of building your inventory with sourced products.
How to Scale Your Inventory with Sourced Products
Know Your Market Inside Out
Understanding your target market integral to successful inventory management. Knowing where your customers go to buy products similar to yours will help drive how you manage your stock. If you are making a sports product, those might mostly be sold in outdoor retailer or online stores such as Amazon.
There are several outlets from which you can sell your products, and you should try exploring what’s worked for your competitors as well as trying outside the box options. Ecommerce stores, Pop ups, Retail, Chain, and 3PLs are all options you can use to sell and distribute your product. Most or often than not, the market and demographic will dictate which you choose.
The type of distribution will affect how you stock your inventory. For instance, if you sell to a major retailer like Walmart, they will usually have their own warehouses that you’d ship the product to for them to store and sell as needed.
Widen Your Range of Products
Having a diverse product range not only attracts a broader customer base but also mitigates risks associated with relying too heavily on a single product. Having several different products to offer your customers will increase sales and also keep you afloat in case one of your products goes out of style or becomes antiquated.
If you are first starting out product sourcing, this can be a long term goal for the future as you’ll likely be starting off with one or two products, but it is something you should keep in mind.
Track Your Inventory
When you are sourcing products from overseas, you’ll need to make sure you give yourself enough of a lead time to order products. This’ll prevent you from having to go with air shipping which is usually significantly more expensive.
In order to know when to reorder to replenish your stock, you’ll need to keep tight control of your inventory. There are software systems that can help you do this. Knowing how much of an item you go through per month will give you plenty of time to reorder and maximize your profits by keeping your products in stock. Running out of stock or having too much inventory are both problems that will cost you time and money.
Have Reliable Suppliers
Building strong relationships with reliable suppliers is essential for securing quality products and maintaining a steady supply chain. The right sourcing agents can help you procure goods at cost effective prices while maintaining quality and ensuring success for your business.
At Global Trade Specialists, we have been helping companies both large and small source and procure their goods quickly, efficiently, and effectively.