he inventories of an e-commerce store are the inventories of goods for sale. Because the inventory management mode has changed completely in recent years, physical stores that have one or more Web channels have been forced to place orders more continuously.

The assortment in the warehouse has expanded quite a bit, turning the activity of inventory management more complex than in the past.

Consequently, with the status of a warehouse changing very rapidly, it has become essential to update it, checking which goods are in stock, which to order, the quantity of a particular product, how long it has been in stock, and more.

Poor inventory management can cause unwanted errors and hiccups, leading users to abandon the cart without finalizing the purchase.

From an economic perspective, optimally controlling inventory means being able to measure the company’s performance and maintenance costs.

But how should an e-commerce store’s inventory be managed? Let’s look at it below.

Inventories of an e-commerce: how to manage them
Perfect management of an e-commerce’s inventories must take into account the following elements:

• The level of service: this is the ability to offer potential customers the products they want. If a customer’s request is not met, it means that an e-commerce was not able to offer him the service he wanted. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the available stock to meet his needs. An excess of items, however, could lead to a not inconsiderable expense. To measure the maximum service level point, one must multiply the marginal unit cost of an item by the daily cost of maintaining it inside the warehouse, then divide the product by one hundred. A satisfactory result is between 50 and 99.
• The status of the item: this is the classification of stock in the warehouse. In order to create a differentiation of stock according to specific criteria, it is necessary to distinguish them quickly and easily. Items that are sold more often should be more numerous than those that are sold infrequently.
• Lead time: should be calculated in days. If the company produces the items directly, the value identifies the time it takes to produce them; if it buys them, it is the time between their ordering and availability for sale.
• The reorder interval: is the time it takes to understand the type of goods needed and how much is needed before ordering them.

Stocks of unavailable products
Stocks of unavailable products is an event that rarely occurs, but it can happen. To remedy this inconvenience, you could offer a customer the purchase of a similar product at a discount or by returning the amount they paid or offering them a good buy of the same amount.

The key thing is to return to customers an e-commerce image of absolute efficiency and promptness. When a mistake is accompanied by a willingness to remedy it in every way, the error is always forgiven. On the other hand, the mindless carelessness is not.

In the next paragraph we will discuss dropshipping, that is, selling without a warehouse.

Selling without a warehouse: dropshipping
Dropshipping is considered by many as a logistics model, which allows a business to be liquid, since it will only be called upon to meet variable costs.

The characteristic of dropshipping is that it does not follow rigid, standard models. There are two logistics solutions:

• triangulation, with the supplier delivering the goods directly to the end customer;
• groupage, with the supplier shipping the goods to the e-commerce instead of to the end customer.

In the latter case, the e-commerce will receive what is ordered from the suppliers, especially if there are more than one product ordered for a single order. This is either to control the goods more accurately or to prevent different packages from arriving at the end customer.