Central Books Online is an online bookstore and education portal, offering a wide range of general books, stationery, as well as academic books for schools and competitive exams. Along with its own website, CBO also sells its range of products on ecommerce marketplaces – specifically Amazon.
Their challenge: Low regional consumption
Despite making several attempts to move inventory to Amazon’s multiple warehouses across the country, the brand’s regional consumption remains low. For example, a fulfillment center in the southern part of India may deliver a majority of orders to PIN codes in all other regions of the country but not in its immediate vicinity.
This mismatch in the regional demand and supply is often the result of improper inventory allocation. When this happens, a seller is often subjected to consumer demands and expenses caused by inefficient and inadequate inventory planning and forecasting, leading to:
- Excessive national shipping costs
- Slower delivery
- Low conversion rates
- Poor customer satisfaction
To correct these inefficiencies, Central Books Online would require data-driven recommendations on their reorder quantity to prevent stock depletion, a nudge to prevent an out-of-stock scenario, and the optimal disposal of their overstock (dead stock).
Our strategy: Inventory optimization and regional utilization
Inventory optimization and regional utilization are important crucial profitability factors for any ecommerce business. That’s why we employed Tensight to analyze sales data across various lengths of time – from the previous month, increments of 3-6-12 months, previous season, and custom lengths.
With this, we built smart maps with inventory across warehouses to provide detailed information and vital insight into relocating stock at appropriate warehouses, plan for future reorders, and dispose of dead stocks based on historical data. We were able to help Central Books Online:
- Examine opportunities to optimize warehouse inventory levels and achieve high sell-through rates
- Reduce the cost of aged or obsolete inventory that has a direct impact on the business and a high holding cost
- Assist with prompt inventory sourcing, marketing, and procurement decisions
- Examine regional utilization to optimize demand-based inventory allocation across all fulfillment centers (FCs)
Our impact: 7-point improvement driven by Tensight
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