How Custom Filters Can Revolutionize Your Restock Decisions

While you can definitely sell just about anything on Amazon, you have to keep your bottom line in mind. The best way to ensure your success, therefore, is to sell the right items at the right times while maintaining your inventory. It’s obviously easier said than done!

One of the worst things that can happen, for example, is to run out of something while demand is really high. If you’ve got competitors with the same or a similar item in stock, you’re going to lose customers and profits. This can be catastrophic for your business.

Fortunately, you can use tools such as RestockPro to stay ahead of the game by creating custom filters to monitor SKUs more effectively. Here are some suggestions for becoming an inventory management master!

Keep Your SKU List Tidy

Watching your business grow is incredibly exciting but as you add more SKUs to your lineup, things can get a little messy. You might begin to struggle to keep track of your items if you offer a wide range of products. The good news is that there are ways that you can use RestockPro to tame the beast!

Consider classifying your SKUs by using the tags and notes columns to manage and group sets of items. This allows you to quickly identify seasonal or trendy products as well as those that require special prep.

You may also want to deactivate any SKUs that aren’t currently relevant. This applies to things that are out of season, suppliers you’ve dropped, or items you’ve stopped selling. You can always reactivate these SKUs at any time if needed.

Use the Watch and Ignore Statuses

It’s tempting to want to monitor everything in your SKU list but you can improve your efficiency by being more selective with your attention. Make use of RestockPro’s Watch and Ignore statuses to prioritize items appropriately.

For example, consider ignoring SKUs if they are out of season or watching SKUs you aren't actively restocking to see if they become profitable again. Classify the SKUs to make it easy to find and check on them on a regular basis.

Identify Your Top Sellers

You might think you’ve got a good handle on your inventory’s performance but it’s always worth the extra effort to definitively identify your top-selling items. Using the 80/20 rule, focus on which 20% of your SKUs are contributing to 80% of your profit.

Once you’ve determined which SKUs are making you the most money, tag them and monitor them closely. Look for patterns and make sure you never run out of stock. Losing customers on your highest-performing items could have a major impact on your business, so protect those items and keep them in stock.

Automate Restocking Decisions

Create some reusable filters to automate your inventory decisions. In addition to grouping your top sellers, you may find it useful to categorize seasonal SKUs, highest-ranked suppliers, and out-of-stock items as well as products that need to be re-evaluated on a regular basis.

Set calendar reminders to check on these filters monthly or bimonthly to make sure everything is still accurate. Being proactive can help you stay ahead of any issues or changes as soon as they arise.

Customize Your Default Filter

When you initially set up RestockPro, the “Default” filter is set to look for SKUs with any restock warning flags or with a Watch status. Customizing the settings so that they meet your specific needs is one of the first things you should do.

Think about the criteria that you use most when you are making restocking decisions and redefine your Default filter with that in mind. Remember that you can always come back and make revisions if anything changes.

Find Your Inventory Assistant

Keeping track of inventory can be difficult, especially as your business grows. To remain competitive, you need to identify your best sellers and keep them in stock at all times while simultaneously managing everything else.

By using tools such as RestockPro to create custom filters and automate inventory management, you will take the guesswork out of the process which can save you time and money.

Try our risk-free trial and unlock RestockPro’s potential for profit management and FBA forecasting as well as the ability to monitor shipments, create purchase orders, and so much more. It’s like having a personal inventory assistant at your fingertips!