Inventory management: enough stock to sell, not so much it sits
Holding enough of each product to keep selling, without so much that cash sits on a shelf. Get it wrong either way and your emails end up apologising or discounting.
- 064Inventory Management
- The supervision of non-capitalised assets (inventory) and stock items, ensuring that the right amount of stock is available to meet customer demand without overstocking.
- Tracked per
- SKU, the stock keeping unit, because sizes and colours sell at different speeds
- Two ways to fail
- A stockout that loses customers, or overstock that ties up cash
- Where email helps
- Waiting lists, back in stock alerts and clearing slow lines
A stockout and an overstock cost you different things
Run out, and you lose the sale in front of you. Worse, the customer goes looking, and the shop they find might get their next order too.
Hold too much, and the cash you need for the next bestseller is sitting in boxes. It costs storage every month, and too often it ends in a discount nobody planned.
The numbers an inventory plan runs on
- Stock on hand: what's sellable today, not what's on the dock
- Stock on order: what's coming, and the date you actually believe
- Rate of sale: how fast each SKU goes in a normal week
- Lead time: from placing the order with your supplier to having it on sale
- Reorder point: what you'll sell during the lead time, plus a safety buffer
Work it out per SKU, not per product. A jumper that sells out in medium and sits in extra large looks healthy at product level, and isn't.
Turn an out of stock product into a waiting list
A sold-out product page shouldn't be a dead end. Put a back in stock sign-up on it, and the back in stock flow turns the restock into an email somebody actually asked for.
The waiting list is also the best demand data you'll get. Requests per variant tell your buyer which sizes to order deeper, before the next container is booked.
Then check the rest of the account. Pause replenishment reminders for anything you can't ship, and make sure the product blocks in your flows can't recommend something that's sold out.
Clear overstock without teaching your list to wait for a sale
The reflex is a sitewide sale. It clears the stock, and it teaches everyone on your list that waiting pays. Send the slow line to the people who've shown interest first: past viewers, buyers of what it goes with, the people who bought it last year.
Bundles, a gift with purchase and early access all move stock without a code on the front. There's more in alternatives to discounting.
Related terms
FAQs
How do we stop emails promoting out of stock products?
Check three places. The product blocks and recommendations in your flows, which can usually be filtered on stock. The hero product of any campaign, checked the morning it sends. And replenishment reminders, which should pause while the product is out. A click through to a sold-out page is worse than no email at all.
Should we tell customers when stock is running low?
Only when it's true and it matters to them. A low stock note to somebody who viewed that product this week is useful. A countdown on every email is noise, and once people catch one fake warning they stop believing the real ones.
Do we need inventory management software?
Shopify tracks stock well enough for one warehouse and a modest catalogue. Once you add locations, wholesale orders or long supplier lead times, a planning tool or your third-party warehouse's system earns its place. Whatever you use, one system holds the master count and everything else reads from it.
Rather we explained it on your own account?
Bring your Klaviyo account to a growth consultation. We'll walk through what this means for your numbers, in plain English, and what we'd fix first.
Half an hour with Theo, our founder.
We're all about relationships built on trust, mutual respect and a shared vision for success. If that sounds like your vibe, let's make some waves together 🌊
