In the fast-paced world of eCommerce, every product in your inventory should be working hard for you. But what happens when some of those products start gathering dust? Slow-moving stock isn't just an inconvenience—it’s a silent drain on your resources, tying up capital, taking up valuable warehouse space, and reducing your agility to navigate towards higher-performing products. For an eCommerce manager or Head of Omnichannel business, optimizing slow-moving stock is crucial to maintaining a lean, profitable operation.
The Business Impact of Slow-Moving Stock
In a multichannel business, slow-moving stock can create multiple layers of challenges. First, there’s the financial impact. Inventory that lingers too long on shelves ties up capital that could be better invested in fast-moving or higher-margin products. The longer these items sit, the more they risk obsolescence, leading to potential write-downs or write-offs.
Then there’s the operational impact. Space occupied by unsold goods could be better utilized for products in higher demand. Not to mention, holding onto slow-moving stock can lead to a cluttered warehouse, making it harder to manage inventory efficiently and increasing the likelihood of errors.
Finally, slow-moving stock can have a negative impact on customer perception. A bloated inventory with outdated or undesirable products can dilute the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and reduce the overall appeal of your product range.
How Ellis Helps You Optimize Slow-Moving Stock
Ellis offers powerful tools designed to help you detect, analyze, and ultimately reduce the impact of slow-moving stock. If you have physical stores and are using Shopify POS, you can use all the tools to analyze stock of your whole omnichannel business. Here's how you can leverage Ellis to turn potential dead weight into opportunities for growth.
1. AI Highlights: Slow-Moving Goods Warnings
Ellis uses AI to give you a head start on managing slow-moving inventory. The AI Highlights feature automatically identifies slow-moving goods and provides timely warnings. By integrating this into your daily routine, you can quickly address any stock that isn’t performing as expected, ensuring that you never let valuable resources go to waste.
Pro Tip: Use these AI-generated insights during your daily check-ins to spot and act on anomalies, keeping your inventory nimble and responsive to changing market conditions.
2. Inventory Overview Dashboard: Inventory Categories & Inventory Products Reports
For a broader view, the Inventory Overview dashboard offers detailed insights through its Inventory Categories and Inventory Products reports. Filter with both Sell-Through Rate and Potential Sales to get the slowest-moving good with highest value. This feature is particularly valuable for a monthly deep dive into your stock performance. It allows you to identify which categories or products are lagging, giving you the data needed to make informed decisions about discounting, bundling, or even phasing out underperforming items.
Pro Tip: Schedule a monthly review using this dashboard to stay ahead of trends and ensure that slow-moving stock doesn’t creep up on you unexpectedly.
3. Product Analysis Dashboard
When it comes to long-term strategy, the Product Analysis dashboard is your go-to tool. This feature allows for an in-depth analysis of slow-moving goods on a quarterly or yearly basis. Whether you need to drill down by category or variant, or you want to export detailed SKU data for further analysis, this dashboard provides the comprehensive insights necessary to make strategic decisions.
Pro Tip: Use the Product Analysis dashboard for a few deep dives each year, focusing on long-term trends. This can help you identify patterns and optimize your inventory strategy across the board. You can also export this data.
