3 Ways to Ensure You Never Lose an Amazon Sale Because of Inventory Out of Stock Issues

3 Ways to Ensure You Never Lose an Amazon Sale Because of Inventory Out of Stock Issues

Oct 31, 2021 | Amazon Marketing Strategies, GROW

3 Ways to Ensure You Never Lose an Amazon Sale Because of Inventory Out of Stock Issues

It’s officially Q4…and one thing you must have to capitalize on this quarter’s Amazon sales and revenue growth is critical. Inventory.

With Amazon warehouse storage limits and supply chain issues, there are plenty of hurdles for small business owners to overcome this holiday season on Amazon. 

But what can you do when you go out of stock at Amazon? 

Well, I have 3 ways to make sure that never, ever happens to you. 

If you implement all three of these ways, then I can pretty much guarantee that you’ll never lose a customer to a competitor on your Amazon sales channel. 

Watch for all the details on how to Never Lose an Amazon Sale Because of Inventory Out of Stock Issues.

3 WAYS TO ENSURE YOU NEVER LOSE AN AMAZON SALE BECAUSE OF INVENTORY OUT OF STOCK ISSUES

As a seller on Amazon, running out of stock in your inventory can significantly hurt your sales and organic search ranking. Out of stock inventory not only means that you will not make a sale, but it also means your product will no longer be searchable on Amazon. It is especially important during the Q4 holiday season to ensure your product is always in stock, so you’ll need to implement Amazon inventory management to prevent any inventory-related issues and running out of stock. 

3 WAYS TO ENSURE ENOUGH STOCK IN YOUR INVENTORY

Ideally, you’ll be in stock at Amazon FBA all the time, but during Q4, Amazon only allows you to have limited inventory at their FBA warehouses. There is a chance that you could run out of stock when your sales are high. Below are three ways to backup your inventory in the case where your FBA inventory sells out. 

  • Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM) SKU.
  • Enlist a third party seller using 3PL.
  • Get a backup supplier.

Now let’s elaborate on these three ways in some detail:

 

1-FULFILLED BY MERCHANT (FBM) SKU

The first option to manage your inventory is to use a fulfilled by merchant (FBM) SKU. It is a seller fulfilled SKU that comes into use when your Amazon FBA inventory is out of stock. This feature enables sellers to ship the product to their customers via their own warehouse when the Amazon warehouse runs out of the product.

HOW TO SET UP FBM SKU

To create an FBM SKU, go to your inventory dashboard, copy your listing and create a new condition and make it Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM). With this, you will have two SKUs on the backend but only one product listing that the customer sees.

PROS OF FBM

The Amazon FBA inventory will go first and when it is out of stock, Amazon will default to your FBM inventory. This way you will never miss a sale.

CONS OF FBM

When your FBM SKU is in action, your search ranking may go down, and you will likely have a decreased conversion rate, but at least you will get the sales.

2-ENLIST A THIRD PARTY SELLER USING 3PL:

This method of backing up inventory is recommended for those anticipating a boost in sales due to extensive marketing campaigns or other factors and they are worried about running out of stock in the Amazon FBA inventory.

For this purpose, you can enlist another seller who can help you with your incoming traffic. It is not required for FBM, but you may need it for FBA at times, and there are plenty of sellers out there to help you in this regard.

These third-party Amazon sellers will back up your listings and send your inventory to FBA via their store.

GUIDELINES FOR CHOOSING A THIRD-PARTY SELLER:

  • Choose an authorized third-party seller to sell on your listing for you.
  • You should have a contract and authorization in place.
  • Make sure that they are not fluctuating on prices.
  • It is applicable on Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) SKU.

3-GET A BACKUP SUPPLIER

 WHY A BACKUP SUPPLIER? 

Aside from your primary supplier, it can be beneficial to have a backup supplier. The backup supplier will help you sustain the supply chain when your primary supplier cannot meet your demands.

 IMPORTANCE OF A BACKUP SUPPLIER

The disruption in your supply chain can be very painful for your business on Amazon. The pandemic has caused a lot of issues in the supply chain over the past couple of years and a lot of small businesses suffered. Make sure you’re not scrambling at the last minute and have a trusted backup supplier, at least for the products driving the majority of your revenue.

Learn More

If you’d like to learn more about selling on Amazon or offering it as a service to others, you can subscribe to my YouTube channel to see the videos I post each week.

I’d also love to see you in the Masters of Marketplace Member Site where we discuss all things Amazon all day long!