Top Ways to Reduce the Cost of Inventory with Better Management

Posted on by Kaylyn Perry

It’s no secret that managing inventory is one of the most expensive aspects of running a business. More often than not, businesses that experience a sudden spike in demand also experience an increase in inventory costs. While it’s generally true that more demand means more profits, not a lot of people understand that it also drives up the cost of inventory.

From purchasing costs to carrying costs, we’re here to help you reduce your overall inventory spending to free up much-needed capital. After all, paying an exorbitant amount of money for storage isn’t a sustainable strategy regardless of the size of your business. But before anything else, what exactly is the cost of inventory?

What is the cost of inventory?

Inventory cost is an umbrella term that refers to the expenses related to ordering, holding, and storing unsold products. Having an understanding of your inventory costs enables you to optimize the amount of inventory to hold while also avoiding spoilage and obsolescence. The cost of inventory plays a vital role in the effective management of working capital and mitigates the risk of cash flow problems.

What are the types of inventory costs?

There are several costs associated with inventory management that affect a business’ overall budget. Generally, for accounting purposes, inventory costs are categorized into three main types: purchasing costs, holding costs, and shortage (or stock-out) costs. Let’s take a closer look at each of them below:

  • Purchasing costs – Purchasing costs are fixed expenses that businesses incur when replenishing inventory. These costs typically include labor, legal, taxes and duties, logistics, and other clerical costs associated with placing an order with your supplier.
  • Holding costs – Holding costs, also known as inventory carrying costs, are those associated with the storage of unsold goods. Product-based businesses should note that storage, management, insurance, and depreciation all affect the cost of holding inventory. The longer you store your inventory, the higher your holding costs will be.
  • Shortage costs – As the name suggests, shortage costs are costs incurred when businesses run out of inventory. It is a form of lost income and expense associated whenever a stockout occurs. Product shortages may be the effect of inaccurate forecasting, inefficient suppliers, and/or ineffective logistics management.

We know what you’re thinking… it can’t be that simple, can it? The true cost of inventory involves a myriad of different factors that may cause your expenses to fluctuate. However, having an understanding of the costs involved in inventory management may allow you to better predict your costs and manage your cash flow more effectively.

How can you reduce the cost of inventory?

Small to medium-sized businesses experiencing rapid growth for the first time can easily get overwhelmed by the volume of orders that they are suddenly receiving. While generally a good thing, businesses experiencing an increase in demand may find it difficult to manage surging inventory management costs. To help you facilitate the cost of your inventory more efficiently, we compiled some of the best strategies to keep costs low without compromising your inventory performance. Check them out below!

Apply the right inventory forecasting method

Inventory forecasting is more than just educated guesswork. It is a method used by businesses to accurately predict the amount of inventory needed to satisfy future customer demand. Proper inventory forecasting takes historical data, past sales trends, and expert opinion from industry experts into account when making informed decisions about future inventory orders. There are two main types of inventory forecasting: qualitative and quantitative.

  • Qualitative forecasting – Qualitative forecasting considers trends, seasonality, and the current market climate when forecasting inventory. This type of forecasting method is often characterized as subjective and is most useful in situations where data is unavailable or insufficient.
  • Quantitative forecasting – On the other hand, quantitative forecasting involves the use of concrete data and specific numerical information to calculate future demand and determine patterns that may influence a product’s future sales performance.

If done properly, inventory forecasting can help businesses secure the right amount of stock to satisfy their customers and allocate enough funding to purchase additional inventory.

Reduce supplier lead time

Supplier lead time? What’s that? In inventory management, supplier lead time refers to the amount of time that it takes for a supplier to fulfill an order from when the order was received. Essentially, reducing supplier lead time means lowering the cost of inventory as you don’t have to hold large inventory quantities for a long period of time. Speeding up supplier lead times also makes it possible for businesses to reduce the size of their storage facility, therefore saving more money.

Know your reorder point

The reorder point, or ROP, is simply the threshold that businesses set to initiate stock replenishment. Setting a precise reorder point saves businesses money and allows them to avoid stockouts. Thanks to leaps in technology, you can now automate your reordering point using inventory management software.

Implement an excellent inventory management system

Accurate inventory management saves you money in the long run and enables you to fulfill customer demand regardless if it’s during slow or busy shopping seasons. One way to ensure that your inventory management processes are running smoothly is to use inventory management software for your business.

Having an excellent inventory management software helps businesses monitor their inventory levels using real-time updates across multiple sales channels. An inventory management software can also help businesses set automatic reordering points based on past sales data.

Get rid of obsolete stock

Wouldn’t it be amazing if your storage facility is filled with your bestsellers? Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Having a realistic view of your inventory makes it easier for you to get rid of excess and/or obsolete stock so that you can free up valuable space occupied by poor-selling products. If you’re looking to get rid of obsolete stock, you can:

  • Continue to hold on to it (and incur more storage expenses!)
  • Sell it at a discount
  • Return it to your supplier (if you still can)
  • Donate it and enjoy tax deductions

Implement the Just-in-Time method

Among inventory management strategies, one popular technique is the JIT (Just-in-Time) method. JIT focuses on improving the efficiency of a business’ inventory while also reducing the waste associated with the production of goods. When using the JIT method, materials for production are ordered only after an order confirmation has been received. However, one big downside of the JIT method is that it leaves businesses vulnerable whenever there’s a sudden surge in demand.

Use consignment inventory

Consignment inventory is a great business strategy where vendors provide businesses with goods without the need to pay upfront. The consignor (vendor) maintains ownership of the products and the consignee (buyer) is only required to pay for the goods until after they are sold. The consignment approach enables businesses to maintain healthy cash flow and shift the inventory-carrying costs to the vendor. If you think consignment inventory is right for you and your business, try Kickfurther.

What is Kickfurther?

Kickfurther is the world’s first online inventory financing platform that enables companies to access funds that they are unable to acquire through traditional sources. We connect brands to a community of eager buyers who help fund the inventory on consignment and give brands the flexibility to pay that back as they receive cash from their sales. This alleviates the cash-flow pinch that lenders can cause without customized repayment schedules, allowing your brand to scale quickly without impeding your ability to maintain inventory or financial flexibility.

Final Thoughts: What is the best way to manage inventory?

Is there really a single best way to manage your inventory? The short answer is no, there isn’t. While it’s true that there are several strategies that you can use to better manage your inventory, it usually takes a combination of methods to achieve your desired outcome. One important thing to keep in mind is that maintaining optimal inventory levels differs from one business to another. The key to managing inventory successfully is to continuously monitor your key performance indicators and identify opportunities on how you can improve your operations.

How to Effectively Manage Social Media for Startups

Posted on by Kaylyn Perry

Any new startup company looking to expand their presence and position their brand properly will need to use social media to even think about competing in today’s business environment. Ideally, you may even want to consider hiring a professional with experience helping startups get their social media presence up and running. Unfortunately, it may be the case that a new business does not have that much initial capital to invest in a specific social media manager in the very beginning. Depending on the size of the startup, you may be the only one available to be the acting social media manager until business allows for bringing on new talent. Not to worry, by reading this article, you may be able to start to provide yourself with the knowledge necessary to help your business get its social media presence up and running. 

Here are some effective tips for any new startup trying to get its social media presence up and running.

  1. Market research is critical: When a new business is getting ready to launch a product or service or to launch the business itself, they always should conduct their market research. Who is the target market? Age demographics, income level, geographic location, etc. are all things examined in addition to a magnitude of other statistics about the market. Competitors, potential market share, just to name a few more. When you are ready to create your social media profiles, you may want to do the same types of research, only with social media as the focus. 
  2. Determine your platforms: Once you have completed your market research, you should have a better idea of your intended audience. Now, what platforms does that audience tend to engage in the most online? That is where you will want to spend your time, money, and energy. 
  3. Make sure your brand is the same across all platforms: Make sure you have a brand and a social media profile that is the same through every platform that you utilize. You do not want to create any unnecessary confusion, and you want to make it easy for your audience to find you on multiple platforms. 
  4. Have a marketing strategy: You may want to consider creating a social media marketing strategy with goals that are defined. They can be weekly or monthly goals. They can be about expanding your followers or about the number of ad buys you make. In the beginning, you may want to have more broad goals, and as you expand, make them more and more specific. 
  5. Do not spread yourself too thin: Make sure you do not try to take on too many platforms at once. Focusing on one or two platforms where you know your audience will be is better to make sure you are being as effective as possible on those platforms. 
  6. Position your brand: You want to be clear in your social media posts what your brand is all about and how you want your brand to look to your audience. Mixed or unclear messages can do more harm than good. 
  7. Be consistent: Make sure to make posts consistently and not overflood your social media accounts with too many posts that begin to annoy your followers. It is better to have one solid post weekly, than three water-downed posts per day. 
  8. Research what social media tools are available to you: There are several social media tools available to you that can help you automate posts and manage multiple accounts across several platforms all from one dashboard. Later in the article, we will discuss some of the best social media tools available on the market right now. 

Any startup is going to be stretched thin when it comes to roles that individuals play within the young business. Until there is enough capital to hire new talent, you or someone in your organization may have to take on the social media manager role in addition to all their normal duties. It does not have to be stressful. By remembering these effective tips, you can at least get a good start on your social media presence while your business is in its infant stage.

Why is social media management for startups important?

Social media management for startups is important because when a business is first starting out, social media is the cheapest form of marketing that they can access. Hiring marketing firms and/or creating an in-house marketing department that can create and purchase ad space for your business is expensive. Unless you have an angel investor or a giant war chest of funds available from venture capitalists, you are most likely not going to be able to make extensive investments in marketing and advertising when your business is new. By using social media, you can reach millions of potential customers for a fraction of the cost. 

The number of people on social media is astounding. It is estimated that there were around 3.6 billion active social media users in 2020, and that number is expected to continue to grow. Some estimates put that figure at around 4.41 billion sometime before the year 2025. Many of these social media users actually use their social media accounts to research products, new restaurants, and entertainment venues, and to gauge their peer’s opinions about specific products or services. This fact alone, in combination with the sheer volume of social media users and the cost-effectiveness of using social media as a marketing platform, makes social media management a crucial component of any new startup. 

Do startups need social media?

The two biggest marketing mistakes that any new startup can make is to not have a social media presence or to have a presence, but to use it ineffectively. Although it is not a requirement of any new business starting out, you would be hindering your business’s potential growth from the very beginning. 

How do I manage my startup social media?

As you grow your business, your general marketing strategy may take on new complexities, but in the beginning, focusing on social media is a great start.

  • Create social media profiles: When you are creating your social media profiles, remember to have a clear brand position and to be consistent with your brand’s image across all platforms.
  • Content strategy:  How many posts do you want to create? Who are the posts geared towards? How many new followers do you want to reach each week? Having a clear content strategy with defined goals is critical to social media marketing success. 
  • Engage with your audience: Make sure your content is engaging for your intended audience. Your content should define your brand, make a clear statement, and be entertaining. Also, do not fall into the trap of flooding your followers with too much content that they become tired of your presence on their feeds.

Tools to help you manage your social media

Remember, you are not alone when it comes to managing your social media presence for your startup. There are many tools out there designed to help take some of the workload off your plate so you can focus on other aspects of your new business. Here are some of our favorites.

  • Buffer Publish
  • HootSuite
  • Zoho
  • MeetEdgar
  • Loomly
  • Sendible
  • Iconosquare
  • Tailwind
  • Later

These social media management apps are useful for many and various purposes. You may want to use one or more of these tools to help you manage your social media accounts and the content you choose to share on those platforms. 

Conclusion

Social media can help drive traffic and grow sales. As your sales begin to grow, you will need to stock more inventory. Most startups struggle with cash flow which can affect their ability to keep inventory in stock. If you’re in need of inventory financing, create a business account on Kickfurther today. 

Exceed your sales goals. . . discover affordable inventory financing today!

What are the different ecommerce seller platforms and their benefits?

Posted on by Kaylyn Perry

E-commerce platforms allow consumers to discover products from all around the world. The best eCommerce platforms are user-friendly with thousands of available products. As an eCommerce retailer you can enjoy reduced overhead expenses, but you’ll need to have cash available for inventory and other expenses. To have a successful eCommerce platform it’s crucial to ensure you have a plentiful supply of inventory. In some cases, you may need to use inventory financing. Keep reading to learn more about eCommerce platforms.

What is an eCommerce seller platform?

An eCommerce seller platform is essentially a software that is used to sell goods through the internet. The software creates an interface for consumers to search for products, manage their orders, and pay for their purchases securely. Many companies choose to use an online eCommerce platform for the sake of simplicity, while others may see a benefit of developing their own proprietary platform that they manage internally.

As the online marketplace has grown significantly in recent years, many small businesses are enjoying the numerous benefits that online eCommerce platforms offer to help their products reach their customers.

Why do businesses choose to use an online eCommerce seller platform?

Many small and medium-sized businesses have begun to fully recognize all the advantages that an online eCommerce seller platform has to offer. Many times they are low cost, it is easy to list new products and have them available to consumers instantly, and it can help businesses find customers who are ready to make a purchase. Let us take a look at these advantages in a little more detail.

Advantages of an online eCommerce seller platform:

  1. Low cost: This is especially important for new businesses that are just starting out and that may not have the upfront capital needed to invest in many portions of the business. For example, a small business may only pay a small monthly fee for the platform to manage their domain and give them the tools they need to start listing their inventory. You may also use dropshipping through a platform that does not require you to make a large upfront investment in inventory. Also, many platforms have built-in marketing tools that help you to utilize social media, Google Adwords, and many other marketing tools at a low cost. 
  2. Easy to list new products: Listing products on your own website through the eCommerce platform is simple and it can be done in a matter of minutes. Simply upload pictures, product specifications, prices, and any other details the platform may require. It then can be published on the web and ready for shoppers to purchase instantly. The platform also allows businesses to create secure, attractive, and reliable websites without needing a large budget, and without needing the technical know-how to do it on their own.
  3. Find customers who are ready to buy: Not only do online selling platforms make it seamless for customers to make their purchases by preventing undesired roadblocks, it also helps bring customers to the site that are looking for specific items and that are ready to make a purchase.

These are just three of the advantages of using an online eCommerce platform that has helped small businesses expand into the global marketplace in recent years. Other advantages include access to customer data insights, help with brand development, and that online selling platforms are extremely useful for businesses that serve niche markets.

What are some of the most used eCommerce platforms?

There are many reasons that small businesses and individuals have chosen particular eCommerce platforms to help grow their business and to get their products into the hands of consumers. Below is a list of some of the most widely used platforms currently on the market.

Shopify

Shopify is one of the most widely used online selling platforms that is currently used by over 1.7-million businesses across 175 countries. There are approximately 1.58-million active websites running Shopify as of 2021.

Benefits: Some of the main benefits of choosing Shopify as an online platform are its ease of use, extensive library of apps and third-party extensions, and that the platform accepts an incredible number of payment options. 

Pros:

  • A great option for larger stores that have an extensive inventory.
  • Allows sellers to sell their products across multiple channels.
  • Supports over 100 payment options.
  • Contains over 3,000 different apps and third-party extensions. 
  • Customer service is available any day and any time.

Cons:

  • Higher transaction fees.
  • Can be expensive depending on the number of apps and transactions you use to run your site.

Magento

Magento currently serves over 260,000, making it another one of the most popular online eCommerce selling platforms available to businesses. There are two editions of Magento, Magento Open Source and Magento Commerce. Globally, both the Magento Open Source and Magento Commerce helps to facilitate $155-billion in gross merchandise volume per year. 

Benefits:  Magento Open Source offers one of the best platforms for individuals and businesses that are independently tech-savvy and that want to use the platform’s powerful capabilities.

Pros:

  • Highly customizable and easy to scale up any type of business. 
  • Software is free to download. 
  • Contains many features and powerful capabilities for tech-savvy individuals. 

Cons:

  • Not designed for small businesses just starting out.
  • Users should possess some developer skills. 

BigCommerce

BigCommerce was established in 2009 as an alternative to Shopify, and since then, it has grown extremely fast. BigCommerce powers over 90,000 online stores and is used in 65 countries.

Benefits: One of the biggest advantages of BigCommerce is that smaller businesses and businesses just starting out will be able to take advantage of many of the platform’s options to make expanding their online business simple and user-friendly. 

Pros:

  • Built-in SEO options for users not familiar with SEO processes.
  • Many customizable pre-built site templates make creating your business’s website easy for non-tech-savvy individuals. 
  • Allows businesses to sell across many different sites from one easy-to-use product dashboard.

Cons:

  • Customer service is lacking compared to other online selling platforms.

SquareSpace

SquareSpace was founded in 2004, and since then, it has developed a reputation as being one of the most aesthetically pleasing and easy-to-use drag and drop website builders. 

Benefits: SquareSpace is one of the most widely used platforms for artists, creatives, and anyone who appreciates that websites can be a work of art themselves. The incredible templates are automatically optimized for desktops, tablets, and mobile devices.

Pros:

  • Inexpensive, costing only $12 a month.
  • Best platform for bloggers, artists, and designers.
  • The mobile APP has the same capabilities as the desktop version. 
  • Allows you to restore deleted pages and posts within 30-days. 

Cons:

  • Has a bigger learning curve than other platforms. 

WooCommerce

Woocommerce was created in 2011 as an answer to help busy online retailers looking for a simple eCommerce solution that did not require a lot of time and effort so that they could focus on other aspects of their businesses. In 2015, WooCommerce was purchased by Automattic who is responsible for bringing WordPress into the mainstream. Currently, over 300,000 online retailers use Automattic online platforms. 

Benefits: WooCommerce works directly with WordPress as a plugin to offer eCommerce solutions to one of the number one content management systems in the world.

Pros:

  • Works for the sale of both physical and digital goods with the option to add multiple variants and configurations of the goods. 
  • Instant download option available for any digital goods.
  • The base WooCommerce plug-in is free. 
  • Compatible with over 100 payment integrations. 

Cons:

  • Must be used in conjunction with WordPress.

What is the biggest eCommerce platform?

There are three main types of eCommerce platforms, B2B, B2C, and C2C. 

The largest eCommerce platform in the world that participates in both B2B and C2C types of eCommerce is Alibaba with over $768-billion in Gross Merchandise Value. The next closest competitor is Amazon with around $239-billion in GMV. 

For only C2C, Shopify takes the largest market share with around $33-billion in GMV. 

For strictly B2C, Rakuten has around $31-billion of B2C.

What is the easiest ecommerce platform to sell on?

One of the easiest and most used ecommerce platforms to sell on is Shopify. It is versatile in that it could be used by a large business with thousands of products or a first-time business owner with only a few products. For the small business, Shopify also provides a platform that is one of the easiest to scale your business and to see real growth with little effort. Though Shopify may be one of the easiest platforms to sell on, it may not be the best for your situation. It is in your best interest to research all of the above-mentioned eCommerce platforms to see which one is right for you.

How Kickfurther can help?

Kickfurther can help eCommerce companies secure financing for inventory. Small businesses and eCommerce businesses may struggle to qualify for traditional methods of inventory financing. In addition, they can be expensive.  Kickfurther is up to 30% cheaper than other options and Kickfurther does not make business owners give up equity. Instead, Kickfurther allows supporters or investors to purchase inventory on consignment. To get started, small businesses can create proposals including a time frame for producing goods, a specified rate of return, and a schedule for repayment. Depending on your expected cash flow, you can set the repayment schedule between 2-10 months. Kickfurther supporters are repaid in full plus dividends. 

Need affordable inventory financing? Visit Kickfurther today!

Tips on How to Define Your Brand’s Positioning

Posted on by Kaylyn Perry

Brand positioning can differentiate your brand while creating value for consumers. Regardless of the phase of maturity your business is in, it’s important to set up brand positioning. So what exactly is brand positioning? Keep reading to learn more.

What is brand positioning?

Brand positioning can be summarized as the space within someone’s mind that a company occupies. How does a brand differentiate itself from its competitors? What does an individual first think about when it comes to a particular brand? How does someone feel when they hear the name of the brand? These are the million-dollar questions that businesses find themselves asking and trying to shape the answers to every day when it comes to their brand and their products. Ideally, companies want to control their brand’s positioning, and they will take steps to do so by using specific messaging, imagery, and advertising techniques to convey their brand’s position into the minds of consumers. 

Brand positioning does not always only require advertising, there are other ways that companies can affect how the average consumer views their brand. For example, philanthropic work is an enormous influence on how individuals see a particular brand and how it relates to them, their community, and the rest of the world. Sometimes, although the results are positive, philanthropy can backfire and actually make a brand suffer or evoke negative feelings from consumers when they hear about certain companies advertising their philanthropic work. 

Another way a brand can position itself into the mind of the average consumer is by sponsorships and endorsements. Many brands will purchase the naming rights to a local sports venue, or even sponsor an individual, like a pro-golfer, NASCAR driver, or another form of professional athlete. Although the company is not directly advertising their brand, they are positioning their brand in the minds of sports fans and individuals who consume sporting events at a venue or on television. Again, this can backfire if a certain celebrity sports personality should suffer a scandal. This is why so many companies will pull out their brand endorsement of particular personalities if it may have the slightest chance of reflecting negatively on their brand image. 

The same way brands can endorse sport’s figures, they can endorse actors, TV personalities, fashion icons, and basically anyone who has a large enough following to make a difference. That is why you see certain makeup lines partnering with certain celebrities, fragrances with certain actors, etc. By the brand being associated with a particular celebrity, the brand positions itself in the mind of the consumer who may follow that celebrity’s line of work and personal life. 

Brand positioning strategies 

Before a company is ready to develop a new marketing campaign or launch a brand new cornerstone product, they may want to understand what their brand represents and how they should position the brand in the minds of consumers. There are many strategies that a company’s marketing department or an advertising firm can implement in order to best position a brand in the markets of its target audiences, however, there are also just a few basic principles that a company may want to consider at the core of its marketing strategy. 

The first key to successfully marketing a brand and conveying its message is to be authentic. Nobody likes super cheesy, phony, and unrealistic advertising with lofty promises that feels ingenuine. Consumers want a brand that is real, relatable, and trustworthy. They want to feel like it is a win-win situation for both the company and the consumer. The company provides a good or service that serves a purpose in someone’s life, and in return, it is understandable that the company will make a profit. Any brand positioning should contain a story that encapsulates the mission of the company and the values it bases itself on. 

What are your competitors doing?

Next, make sure to do diligent research. See what your competitors are doing. Where are their brands positioned? Where does your brand fit into the larger picture? There are many ways that competitors can all be profitable while cornering their share of the market. Of course, there may always be overlap and direct competition, but you may be surprised that certain competitors may not be well-equipped to cater to certain types of customers, and it is there that there is a need. You may be able to position your brand strategically to fill that void and then some. 

Last, make sure you are adaptable. Do not be afraid to adjust our messaging on the fly once you begin to receive customer feedback and see what is working and what is not. A brand’s position is not a stagnant thing. It is constantly evolving. Even the biggest brands like Pepsi and Coca-Cola need to reinvent themselves from time to time.

Advantages of brand positioning 

Being in control of a brand’s messaging and its positioning has numerous benefits. Here is a small sample of some of those benefits. 

  • Brand loyalty: Brand loyalty can be a strong advantage. First, you will have a strong customer base who will always choose your products over competitors, and second, those same customers will always advocate for your product to undecided consumers. 
  • Brand recall: When consumers begin to automatically associate a brand with its brand position, this is called brand recall. When presented with a handful of products, the easier they are able to recall a particular brand, the more often they will instinctively choose it. 
  • Compete on more than price: With successful brand positioning, you can appeal to a consumer base that may understand that your products may not always be the cheapest, but they are the best. Price competition is important, but it does not always have to be a race to the bottom, nor should it be. 

These benefits and more are the reasons why brand positioning is so important in today’s global market.

How do you define brand positioning?

Brand positioning is the active shaping of a brand’s image and messaging in the mind’s of consumers. It is how people think and feel about a particular brand. 

Tips on how to define your brand’s positioning

When you are in the early stages of positioning your brand, there are a few ways you can improve your positioning. 

First, make sure you always listen to your customers. You may want to set up focus groups, send out surveys with products, or just have one-on-one conversations with customers at events. Customer feedback can be crucial to ensure you are getting the right feel for how your product is being received on the open market. 

Next, do not be afraid to refocus or adapt your statement and position. Maybe your messaging tries to do too much, is too abstract, or it isn’t reaching the people who make up your target audience. Go back to the drawing board and focus on the basics and do not be afraid to change, adapt, and refocus your messaging. 

Last, it is always good to create some buzz around your product. You can run some paid advertisements or sponsor an event and give out samples and interact with potential new customers. 

Conclusion

Growing your brand involves great attention to detail. Some startups and small businesses may try to avoid brand positioning due to a lack of funds. However, this may ultimately lead to their failure.  Part of creating products that consumers love is finding your brand position. Startups and small businesses may struggle to find financing to help their business grow. If you own a startup or small business and need inventory financing, you can turn to Kickfurther for the funding you need. Kickfurther is the world’s first online inventory financing platform that enables companies to access funds that they are unable to acquire through traditional sources. We connect brands to a community of eager buyers who help fund the inventory on consignment and give brands the flexibility to pay that back as they receive cash from their sales. This alleviates the cash-flow pinch that lenders can cause without customized repayment schedules, allowing your brand to scale quickly without impeding your ability to maintain inventory or financial flexibility.

Searching for affordable inventory financing? Check out Kickfurther today!

How to Survive the Post-Holiday Ecommerce Slump

Posted on by Kaylyn Perry

As the holidays come and go, business owners search for holiday selling eCommerce tips. In most cases, your sales will increase around the holiday season. When the holidays are over most businesses suffer from a post-holiday sales slump. If you have been in businesses a few years now, you may be starting to grasp a better understanding of how the holidays impact your sales. Whether you are new to business or established, eCommerce holiday planning and readiness is important. Keep reading to learn valuable holiday selling eCommerce tips such as how to survive the post-holiday sales slump.

Tips to Prepare for the Post-holiday Slump in Sales

As a small business owner, you do everything you can to prepare for that critical shopping season that falls between Thanksgiving and Christmas. You ensure your inventory is at sufficient levels, you possibly take on new staff to meet volume expectations, you coordinate with your logistical partners, and then you brace yourself for long hours to ensure every customer is satisfied with their purchase experience. When the holiday shopping season hits, you are in it deep, and before you know it, the last order hits the delivery truck. So, what’s next? Sure you may have a week or two of dealing with returns and exchanges, but overall sales, for any business, typically takes a dramatic dip during the weeks and months after the holiday.  So it’s  important for any business to prepare for this post-holiday slump in sales. 

Here Are Some Tips That May Help You Prepare for the Dreaded Post-holiday Slump:

  1. Explore marketing automation: Marketing automation helps you keep track of customers and market to their personal interests based on past spending habits. By making product suggestions based on a customer’s psychological needs and wants, the chances of making a follow-up sale can increase. 
  2. Impulse purchase tactics: As much as people hate to admit it, many of us make impulse purchases frequently or semi-frequently. By playing on those impulses, businesses can potentially increase their sales by engaging customers they may not have thought to market to previously. By utilizing mobile technology and social media, and by using attractive design principles to attract customers’ attention, you can maybe take advantage of some of these impulse buying behaviors that many of us have. Other tactics include offering free shipping, using suggestive selling at the point of sale, and creating time-limited promotions. 
  3. Mobile access is key: More and more consumers are making purchases using their mobile devices. As apps and websites have become more accessible to mobile users by making purchases as simple as possible, people have responded openly with their wallets. Make sure your site is no different. 
  4. Create a separate “after the holidays sale”: After holidays clearance sales, inventory clear-out sales, buy one get one free sales, etc. are sometimes attractive to consumers if the sale is enticing enough. 
  5. Launch a new product: Some businesses may not think that after the holidays is a good time to launch a new product since sales, in general, are much lower, however, if your product is enticing enough, you may enjoy launching your product during a time when other businesses are quiet. Competition may be much more scarce, and ad channels much quieter, making your product stand out. 

These five tips may not bring the same results that you had seen during the holiday shopping season, but if properly utilized, they may help to give your business some continued business in the weeks and months following the New Year. 

How to Plan For the Post-holiday Decline in Volume

Just as you will want to prepare for the post-holiday slump by using some of the tactics we previously discussed, you may also want to do some more big-picture planning for the post-holiday decline in volume. As the previous tactics were more about how to directly increase your sales during the slump, the following are ideas for planning for the decline in overall volume.

  • Keep your marketing efforts strong: It is easy for businesses to make the mistake of slowing down marketing efforts during the first quarter of the new year. But there are still plenty of marketing tactics you can deploy to keep your customers engaged and attract new ones. Additionally, you may have just collected an immense amount of customer data from all of the sales you just made. This is an excellent opportunity to begin to study the sales and consumer data to create some amazing follow-up marketing material. Maybe you want to create an email blast giving tips about how to get the full experience from one of your best sold items? You could send this email out to every customer that had just bought this item coupled with some suggested items that would best accompany the original product. Or, maybe you want to see which items were the most abandoned in the cart at the time of sale? You could then create a social media advertising that offers steep discounts on that particular item hoping to attract those potential customers who may regret never finalizing the initial purchase. Not only are these some tactics you may want to consider for future marketing campaigns though the entire new shopping year, they have the added benefit of boosting sales during the post-holiday slump. 
  • Plan for the next season: After the holiday shopping season has ended, ideally you will have more time to plan for the next one. There are still some shopping events that fall early in the calendar year. The Super Bowl and Valentine’s day are still major events that happen early in the first quarter. This little bit of down time that you hopefully can enjoy may be a good time to plan a sale or offer that caters specifically to the next big event.

In addition to using the post-holiday decline in volume for big picture planning considering next year’s sales, promotions, and marketing efforts, you may want to take some time to address some more of the nuts and bolts of your business. Did everything operate smoothly during the holiday shopping sale? Were you adequately staffed? Were there any technical issues that arose that need to be addressed immediately? What about inventory? Did you have sufficient stock of your most popular products? Inventory management is a large part of a business’s success. 

Tips to Manage Your Holiday Inventory Requirements

When your business is experiencing that quiet time that typically occurs directly after the holidays, it is a good time to assess your inventory management skills in preparation for the recent holiday season. Here are some basics you should look at when making that assessment. 

Forecasted holiday sales: Did you make a proper forecast for how much inventory you expected to sell for each particular item? What information do you use to come to these estimates? How accurate were they? This is a good time to fine tune your inventory management processes to make sure you can accurately prepare for the next holiday season. 

Did you order your inventory early enough: How was shipping and receiving in anticipation to the previous holiday shopping sale? Did everything arrive in time to be properly received and stocked before orders started coming in? Maybe you missed on some steeper discounts from vendors because you ordered too late? If you can afford to sit on inventory for longer periods of time, it may be a good time to discuss steeper discounts with your vendors for stocking up on certain products earlier in the year when they too are experiencing a general slow down. 

Have reliable logistics in place:  The last thing you may want to consider is setting up a meeting with your shipping companies during this time. Have some frank conversations about your expectations if you had any issues during the holiday season. Were deliveries late? Do you need to think about adding extra pick-up times throughout the day to make sure all your orders get out the same day they are processed? Shipping companies, just like any other company, are running past capacity during the holiday season. They do the best they can, but they still should hear about any issues you may have had. They will appreciate the feedback and the opportunity to do better rather than losing your partnership. 

The time after the holiday season is not only a time to try to pick up additional sales or to plan for the next year’s marketing strategy, it is a time to address general operations and inventory management in anticipation of next year’s holiday shopping season. 

How Kickfurther Can Help

Managing cash flow and keeping inventory in stock can be an ongoing battle. During the holiday season it can be especially difficult. While you need to ramp up inventory prior to the holiday season, you may encounter an unavoidable sales slump after the holidays are over. This can make it especially tough to manage cash flow. Most businesses need to use inventory financing. Small businesses and eCommerce businesses may struggle to find affordable inventory financing. At Kickfurther, eCommerce businesses can discover inventory financing that is up to 30% cheaper than other options. We connect brands to a community of eager buyers who help fund the inventory on consignment and give brands the flexibility to pay that back as they receive cash from their sales. This alleviates the cash-flow pinch that lenders can cause without customized repayment schedules, allowing your brand to scale quickly without impeding your ability to maintain inventory or financial flexibility.

Prepare for the holiday season. . discover affordable inventory financing today!

Reseller Tips for Sourcing Inventory Online

Posted on by Kaylyn Perry

Starting a reselling business is a great way to make money on the side. You can even do it in the comfort of your own home. Reselling items online is one of the easiest businesses to manage and it could even be an excellent option for those starting their entrepreneurial careers. But what if you don’t live in close proximity to mom-and-pop stores or thrift shops? Thankfully, there’s online product sourcing.

Online sourcing is a business process of finding, evaluating, and purchasing products online. This type of sourcing method allows you to access a broader range of suppliers and assess various products that you are planning to sell. But before we talk about sourcing inventory online, let’s go back to basics. What exactly does sourcing mean?

What does sourcing mean?

In business, sourcing refers to the process by which a company procures the products that it plans to sell. Regardless of the type of business that you have, product sourcing is an important aspect of your operations as it lets you identify potential suppliers that would provide you with the best bang for your buck. These days, however, more and more business models are relying on sourcing their products through the Internet.

What is the purpose of sourcing inventory online?

As the business landscape becomes increasingly reliant on technology, companies are recognizing the potential benefits of sourcing inventory online. The same goes for independent entrepreneurs like resellers. Factors such as time and procurement costs play a significant role in a reseller’s decision to use online inventory for their sourcing needs. Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of sourcing inventory online.

What are the benefits of sourcing inventory online?

  • Reduced costs – Sourcing inventory online eliminates costly paperwork, in-person site visits, and errors that happen frequently during traditional sourcing methods.
  • Increased productivity – In online sourcing, resellers can essentially sift through hundreds of items without having to physically visit brick-and-mortar stores. Having your payment records stored electronically also makes it faster and easier for you to pay for the products that you are planning to resell.
  • Improved transparency – With online sourcing, resellers can enjoy improved transparency when it comes to data acquisition and budget management. Since almost all information is centralized, resellers can make informed decisions and ensure that procurement procedures are aligned with their policies.
  • Access to technology – Resellers can make use of procurement software that can help automate the entire sourcing process. This mitigates the risks associated with sourcing and streamlines inventory control measures to keep your bestsellers always in stock.

Are there any drawbacks to sourcing inventory online?

  • Due diligence can be difficult – Since all transactions are made online, it can be difficult to scrutinize the quality of the products that you are purchasing.
  • Susceptible to shipping problems and delays – Even the most successful resellers experience shipping problems and delays every now and then. There will be circumstances where items are lost or damaged which could affect customer satisfaction.

What are the different online sourcing options?

Resellers can choose from a wide range of sourcing methods that can cater to their overall business goals. It is of utmost importance to take a step back and spend considerable time when choosing a sourcing strategy to make sure that you are implementing the right approach. If you’re considering sourcing your inventory online, here are some of the most common sourcing options to help you get started.

  • Online arbitrage – Similar to retail arbitrage, online arbitrage is a sourcing method that involves buying discounted products from an online marketplace and selling them for more money elsewhere. The key to online arbitrage is to use various tools to be able to find the right products that can be sold at a profit. For resellers, it’ll also pay to visit multiple online platforms like Amazon and eBay to make sure that you are getting the best prices possible.
  • Dropshipping – Dropshipping is a fulfillment method that enables businesses to open an online storefront and address customer demand by passing sales orders to a third-party supplier. The supplier then takes care of the logistics involved in shipping the product to the customer. This eliminates the need for storage facilities which would incur overhead costs.
  • Wholesale – When resellers buy wholesale, they take advantage of bulk discounts to be able to purchase a large number of goods at a lower price point. Resellers that use this type of sourcing strategy purchase products from a wholesaler and sell their goods at retail prices to turn a profit.

Tips for successful online sourcing for resellers

There’s no way around it – reselling is one of the most affordable business ventures that you can start in your spare time. However, that doesn’t mean it’s easy. In this section, we’ll provide you with some tips on how to successfully source your products online. Check them out below!

  • Do your research
    • In any kind of business undertaking, research will be critical to your future success. As a reseller, it is necessary for you to conduct market research as you look into potential products to resell. Market research will help you determine if there is enough demand for a specific product and provide an overview of your potential target market. s
  • Pay attention to the quality of products
    • As a business owner, one of the most important things to do is to ensure that your products are of good quality. Sometimes, it can’t be helped that discounted products contain design flaws that justify their low price. Make sure to pay attention to the quality of the products that you are about to flip before you list them on your online storefront.
  • Shop around and look for reasonable prices
    • Shopping around enables resellers to look for more reasonable prices when sourcing their products. While shopping around may seem tedious and overwhelming, it allows you to learn more about the products that you are trying to procure and gives you a better idea about how these items are priced in the market.
  • Look for products that are easy to source
    • Sourcing inventory, as a reseller, can be a complicated task. This is why it makes sense to look for products that are straightforward to source. Consider factors such as cost, supply chain stability, as well as logistics when sourcing your inventory. Make sure to employ a sourcing method that’s flexible enough to support your business as you scale and grow.

Conclusion

When it comes to reselling, online sourcing can be a great way to save on the plethora of costs associated with procurement. But before deciding to become a reseller, it’s important to conduct your due diligence and get a feel of the current market to determine the best products to resell. If we could leave you with one piece of advice, it’s this: take it slow. It’s easy to get caught up in the reselling business especially if you experience success early on. Always remember to take only what you can handle and put emphasis on satisfying your customers first before anything else.

About Kickfurther

Kickfurther matches your business to a community of eager buyers that help fund your inventory on consignment. It is the world’s first online inventory financing platform that enables companies to access funds that they are otherwise unable to acquire through traditional sources. With Kickfurther, businesses have an alternative financing option that alleviates the cash flow pinch that traditional lenders can cause. This creative and innovative financing option allows your brand to scale quickly without impeding your ability to maintain inventory or financial flexibility. Continue reading “Reseller Tips for Sourcing Inventory Online”