Seasonal Inventory Management

Suppose you are dealing in the wholesale or distribution business of physical goods and products. In that case, it is inevitable that you haven’t crossed paths with a seasonal impact of the sale of the goods that you deal with throughout the year. Though it completely depends on what you are selling and dealing with, there are high chances that you might witness some dip or rise in the price of the goods that you are dealing with.

The seasonality factor does involve the changing of seasons, or you can witness a drastic shift before the coming of major holidays. There is certainly no denying the fact that customers tend to shop more when the festival season is around. This is because they are getting great deals and discounts on their favorite products.

Well, the result of this kind of shopping fluctuation is witnessed comprehensively by eCommerce store owners.

What is Seasonal Inventory Management

As we are now aware of the fact that the seasonal inventory is something that can be correlated with an uncertain demand throughout the year. This seasonal inventory has got its lows and highs during some particular times of the year.

On the one hand, where festivals are the key drivers of seasonal inventory in India, eCommerce stores witness a significant drop in sales due to changes in the seasons.

Considering the high demand during particular times of the year, such times require the managers to be proactive in preparing for the waxing and waning of demand during these key times of the year.

However, it should be noted that not all the products in the market are seasonal if you are dealing with a product whose demand is constantly increasing, your sales will be consistent or even growing throughout the year.

While in contrast to this, there are some goods that are super seasonal, and they are highly responsive to seasonal demands leading to some notable rise and fall in the sale of the goods.

Challenges Faced by Seasonal Inventory

Seasonal factors have a crucial role to play in your planned inventory purchases. It goes without saying that purchasing stock is a constant business risk that the wholesalers and distributors undertake in running their businesses. Purchases are required to be paid in cash to suppliers that could be utilized elsewhere in your business instead of being tied up in stock that might still not be sold after 30 days.

Stock-Outs

Another crucial thing to ponder upon is that in case you don’t replenish your stock before a good season appears, then it is highly likely that you will experience stock-outs, unhappy customers, and lost sales.

During peak seasons, there are high chances that your inventory might go out of stock, which is definitely going to lead to unsatisfied customers switching to competitor stores. So, it is better to take care of the fulfillment problems arising from other wholesalers and distributors.

Excessive Stock

Well, as you can guess by the name, excessive stock of your goods indicates only one thing that your goods have little to no demands or you are holding too much stock in your warehouse. You will likely face a dead stock situation if the inventory doesn’t make a sale for a year.

This whole situation will be highly responsible for contributing to your losses for your eCommerce business. After some point in time, you will be facing the need to offload all your stock by offering notable discounts and offers to the customers.

Ways to Manage Seasonal Inventory Effectively

Using Predictive Analysis

The utilization of real-time technology will always help you with accurate predictions about the stock that you currently have and the stock that you will require in the future as well. These predictive modeling will help facilitate the optimization of your safety stock and keep what you require at hand to a minimum.

Adequate Demand Forecasting

Proper forecasting of demand can be considered one of the most effective ways to deal with seasonal inventory as you are counting your historical sales numbers and the present market trends for forecasting the products that are in demand. Investing in a suitable inventory management system can help predict the need for your inventory during a particular period.

Offloading Slow-Selling Inventory

If you don’t want that, your inventory should not convert to dead stock, and then the inventory should not be stored for long. You can do so by offering promotional discounts and offers and reducing the stock in your inventory with a clearance sale on all the slow-moving products.

Offer Package Deals

Customers are highly likely to buy a product if they feel like they scored a deal. What’s best here to do is to use multiple techniques by utilizing the technique used by eCommerce giants. You can bundle up the slow-moving goods with products that sell fast to customers as a package deal.

Streamline Order Fulfillment

Here comes the most important and useful way in which you can manage seasonal inventory effectively, and it is by streamlining your order fulfillment process. Handling everything right from picking off products, packaging, shipping, and managing return orders can be a hassle, especially during the peak season.

Summing Up: Why Choose AWL India for Seasonal Inventory Management

Well, it does not require any mention that dealing with seasonal inventory is almost unavoidable, and the best way to deal with the fluctuations in demand is to get in touch with AWL India. We are the best order fulfillment company aimed at helping our with end-to-end order and inventory management, ultimately helping you with end-to-end order and inventory management.