Strategies To Prevent Overselling When Using Retail Pro Connected Multichannel Ecommerce

In the 21^stcentury, neither selling nor buying is limited to brick-and-mortar stores. More people are inclined to online shopping from marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and others.

As a seller with access to a powerful Retail Pro POS & retail management system, the chances of overselling on physical stores are pretty minimal.

However, as the complexity of selling increases, more retailers find difficulty in managing inventory and getting hold of orders.

This sometimes causes overselling, which is a very common problem with omnichannel retailers.

What Is Overselling?

Overselling refers to a situation where you sell more than you actually have.

So, if customer A has purchased the last piece from your store’s website and another buyer, say, customer B has purchased the same item from Amazon. Now, one of those customers will receive an apology message saying the item they shopped for isn’t available.

When you sell an item that you don’t have, it leads to dissatisfied customers.

Overselling is both accidental and intentional.

For instance, the airline industry oversells to a price where 40,000 people have to be involuntarily removed every year from their seats even when they had their tickets. They mostly do it to save their cost on cancellations and keep their plane entirely booked.

But, most of the time, overselling is unintentional. Many retailers still depend on manual handling of stock while selling on multiple channels.

Thus, it’s impossible to predict the real-time quantity of the product, leading to overselling.

Strategies To Combat Overselling While Selling On Multiple Platforms Simultaneously

There are a number of strategies that omnichannel retailers can use to control overselling, like: 

1.   Create forecasting & velocity report

The turnaround time for your product does give retailers an idea of when they should order next from the supplier.

But that’s not it. To break down these numbers further, you will have to build a forecasting and velocity report.

The velocity report helps sellers predict how fast or slow a product will sell. Having these numbers in place will allow retailers to make accurate inventory decisions for their business.

In addition, the forecasting is just an extension of the velocity report. This reporting system takes numbers from the velocity sheet and predicts future sales of every product, helping sellers make smart data-driven interpretations.

2.   Conduct regular inventory audits

If you are still manually handling your inventory, then the chances of making mistakes are always high. 

Doing regular inventory audits will definitely reduce that number and prevent e-commerce overselling. Retailers can do this in the following ways:

• Fix a timeline, maybe once a week, two weeks, or a month. We highly recommend that you do not pass this timeline; otherwise, you will never find the root cause of the problem, and the mistakes will keep piling up.
• Make a list of your highest-selling products. These items need to be checked more frequently than the rest.
• Do a special inventory count for products that are prone to errors.

If you are consistent with your inventory audits, your chances of overselling will reduce dramatically.

Also, Read: How to Pick the Best OMS for Ecommerce

3.   Use advanced POS eCommerce integration software

Selling on multiple platforms might seem hefty because you are still using traditional methods that are not working for your business.

Manually handling stocks are prone to errors, and any mistake you make while selling on digital platforms can tarnish your brand image drastically.

The only thing that can help you here is adopting technology.

Using advanced POS eCommerce integration software gives you real-time information on the number of orders placed and its effect on the inventory.

It simplifies product management and is the most effective solution for overselling.

Final Thoughts

There are a multitude of reasons that can lead you to oversell. If you fail to establish a proper inventory system, take care of orders, and ensure that you have a minimum product inventory in place, then overselling can happen more regularly.

Thus, opting for a POS eCommerce integration is a must.

The Octopus Bridge is a cloud-based integration plugin that allows retailers to connect their POS, including RetailPro with various e-commerce channels. It calculates web orders, updates stock in real time, and transforms your POS data into e-commerce compatibility. Level up your online game today with Octopus Bridge POS eCommerce integration software.