Sold out, but still selling
You make your own skincare range and also make products for a couple of brand clients. The web shop showed forty of the rose face oil in stock. A salon group then placed a wholesale order that took most of them, which was picked from the same shelf. Nobody adjusted Shopify. Over the weekend, twenty-odd web customers bought an oil that no longer existed.
On Monday, the office emails apologies and refunds, and the next batch is rushed into the schedule.
Three views of the same shelf
Many cosmetics makers that also run their own brand grew their channels one at a time: the web shop first, then wholesale, then contract work. Each came with its own way of counting.
- Shopify holds a stock count that is updated by hand when batches are filled.
- Wholesale orders are picked from the same shelf but recorded in a spreadsheet or the accounts software.
- Stock set aside for a brand client or a retailer order is not reserved anywhere.
- Marketplace listings have their own stock figure, updated occasionally.
- Newly filled batches are added to stock whenever someone gets round to it.
What overselling costs
Cancelled web orders and refunds damage reviews and repeat purchases, and each one takes office time. Marketplaces penalise sellers who cancel. Wholesale customers who are told late that part of their order is short go elsewhere. Meanwhile, some products show as out of stock online when there are cases in the warehouse that were never added. The production plan is made from guesses about what is really available.
Promotions make it sharper. A newsletter or an influencer mention can sell a week's stock in an afternoon, and if the web shop is showing a number that includes cases promised to a salon group, the oversell happens faster than anyone in the office can react.
One stock record for every channel
- Finished batches are added to stock when filling completes, by scanning at the end of the line, so stock exists as soon as it is made.
- Every channel draws from the same record: web shop orders from Shopify, wholesale and trade orders, marketplace orders and brand client deliveries.
- Wholesale orders, retailer orders and brand client stock reserve quantities when they are confirmed, so the web shop only sees what is truly available.
- The available quantity is pushed to Shopify and marketplaces automatically, with a buffer you set for fast sellers if you want one.
- Low stock for your own brand products is flagged against the production plan, so batches are planned before the web shop sells out.
- Stocktakes adjust one record rather than several.
| Channel | Now | With one stock record |
|---|---|---|
| Web shop | Count updated by hand | Available quantity pushed automatically |
| Wholesale | Picked from the shelf, recorded later | Reserves stock when confirmed |
| Brand client stock | Set aside physically | Reserved in the record |
| New batches | Added when remembered | Added when filling completes |
If Shopify alone, or an inventory app you already have, can do this with better setup, we will tell you rather than build something new.
Selling what you have
Web customers buy stock that exists. Wholesale orders reserve stock the moment they are accepted. New batches appear online as soon as they are filled, rather than days later. The production planner sees true stock by product and can plan the next batches of your own brand around what is actually selling.
Is this happening to you?
- Web orders have been cancelled because stock went to wholesale.
- Shopify stock is updated by hand.
- Stock for brand clients or retailers is only set aside physically.
- Products show out of stock online when cases are in the warehouse.
- Marketplace stock figures are often wrong.