Q re stock quantity

[knotjustjigs]

How much stock do you keep?

Do you set yourself a minimum quantity of a product before reordering or do you wait until you reach a min qty with a supplier before re-ordering iykwim?

I know my situation is slightly different as i do fairs etc but want to be more organised especially towards my first christmas of trading online and dont want to waste money on delivery costs for the sake of putting out of stock on the website.

It doesnt matter if i run out at fairs because what i havent got i cant display/sell lol but i need to get my head around the online side of it!

Thanks in advance

Ketty x

[funkydorydawn]

Totally off topic, but my mum and dad took our 2 eldest boys to Rufford yesterday and they saw you! :hyper:

I told her about you on Saturday, not knowing that you'd be there on Sunday.

Mum said you seemed to be doing really well and had some lovely wooden stuff - I think you were demonstrating a pop gun at the time she and Adam were at your stall :laugh:.

As for stocks - my mantra is to keep the least amount of stock as possible, although I'm still working out which ones I can get away with. Being in a 'bulk buy' business, I start of with say, 24 of an item and if it sells in the first month, I'll buy double for the next month, and carry on replenishing if sales continue.

I'm still getting to know the big movers and when I have more of a pattern I'll set minimum stock quantities based on how many per month they sell. That's a long time in the future though, so at the moment I list out of stock items as 'out of stock' and customers wil probably buy an alternative.

dawn
xx

[knotjustjigs]

LOL they should have said "hello were funky dorys parents" :cheesy: i would have done them a special demo! sold tons of pop guns and toothbrush timers there....

I think i am going to have to be a bit more business like and put out of stock instead of running myself ragged, worrying and paying over the odds on delivery costs.

Cheers hun,

Will have to organise another get together soon.

Ketty x

[funkydorydawn]

LOL they should have said "hello were funky dorys parents" :cheesy: i would have done them a special demo! sold tons of pop guns and toothbrush timers there....

I think i am going to have to be a bit more business like and put out of stock instead of running myself ragged, worrying and paying over the odds on delivery costs.

Cheers hun,

Will have to organise another get together soon.

Ketty x

Yes we will! My mum said she was going to say hello but didn't want to embarrass you if you didn't know who she meant :hysterica.

[knotjustjigs]

Ah bless, of course i would have known! lol


Ketty x

[Chell]

As I am quiet still I tend to let thing go out of stock or down to one before I reorder. I only ever order the minimum amount to get free shipping.

[lajlaj]

Hi

Stock levels is the never ending mystery for me! For the wristbands we always order in 10s of thousands for the single use and in the 1000s for the reusables and yet still seem to run out - it just takes one decent order to clear us of stock but I don't like to keep too much stock in because it is sitting on dead money if it doesn't sell through quickly although we do have a lot of cash tied up in a few different lines when we have had to buy in quantity from China.

The jewellery I used to always have three of each key size in stock but the range has expanded so much now that it is impossible to have three of each in stock due to the huge outlay it would mean. So I tend to keep it to one or two (dending on the style). One of my main suppliers has just changed their MOQ for me so that I can order smaller quantities more often which is fab because I don't wait anymore to order but if I need two or three braclets I will fill up the rest of the order with new lines or new sizes!

It is so hard to get it right though, I really struggle with wanting low stock volumes to keep cash in the business to having enough stock so that I don't need to panic about running out.

Edited to add that I also like to "buy effectively" so if I need to up the order volume to get a lower price then that is what we do - we look for the "break point" of when it becomes a good buy to when you are just buying for the hell of it as there isn't much difference in price.

[Lemon]

I am also having dilemma's over stock at the moment ! With me if I buy one style of say, a T Shirt, I have the colours and sizes to consider. I don't want to buy more than 12 of one style in case I get stuck with it ! Quite often with my business, if I run out of a good selling line I can no longer get hold of it ... arrgggh ... not easy.

[knotjustjigs]

Phew glad its not just me that has dilemmas about it too!

I think i need to have a re-think about how i am going to do this! What started off as a small stock room is now taking over my office too! lol I have loads of stock but panic when stocks go low or sell out! and i keep ordering small orders and copping for postage costs!

Ketty x

[Chell]

If an item sells out can you not just remove it from the site till you have it in stock again? You have plenty of products so hopefully one product won't be missed.

[littlesheep]

I have one or two of most things (except for pens, pencils and grips cos they come in bigger packs!) I tend to order the minimum quantities that qualify for free postage... and let things go out of stock on the site and therefore disappear if I haven't got them in stock and I'm not about to reorder.

[feistygal]

Stock levels are one of my biggest nightmare and over the last few months I have realised that I just can't keep on with the weekly or even bi-weekly orders of stock of my best selling items, and that wasn't even with MOQ of each product!

Up until now I have order 2-3 packs of each toy - so that has been anything from 4 (in the case of play mats) to 18 of one toy. Over the last few weeks I have started to increase this to 4-6 packs of each toy because I can sell out so quickly of my best sellers. I can sell 12 baby whoozits in 24 hours sometimes so I have just upped that order to 24 in the hope they will last 10 days or so.

I've got a huge order coming in the next day or so and within that I have ordered between 12 and 36 of everything. My absolute best selling item I can sell 30 of in a week/10 days so am hoping to move to ordering 90 of those at a time.

Apart from my top ten best sellers I re-order everything when they get down to 4, I have quickbooks set up to tell me when I need to re-order and its very helpful!

[knotjustjigs]

Thanks everyone....i think my " fear" if you could put it like that i would be potentially missing out on sale lol and that when i put the item out of stock it disappears from my site altogther and the images then shift about ???
Its also a faff because i sell on Amazon/Ebay/My Site/Tuggle and at fairs !

I think like you Claire i have to get into the mindset that i cant keep ordering weekly (sometimes twice a week) and stumping for delivery charges...its not best business practice!

Thanks all for replying its been very useful :kisshands:

Ketty x

[judithbl]

Yep I have that dilema too. It always seems one style that sells and then what do you do?? Order more in and get a bulk load of stock??

I usually keep about 3 of each style if I can but it's not always possible.... the dolls clothes I keep a lot more in, but the dolls are so bulky I don't have the space for more than a couple.
x

[babybiz]

Stock is a very hard thing to get right. I remember doing loads of work on it when I was learning accountancy including different methods and their benefits. I tend to go with just in time ordering, I order the minimum I think I will need and then up that if neccessary. These days it's not so bad because I order so frequently and am always over the min order value/qty that it's not a problem. My problem is items that are out of stock at the suppliers which is giving me a kick up the bum to try and work out what I will need and stock up on that. I'm dreading Christmas and have already put in some orders so I hope that is enough stock, we are already saving as last year saw me having to borrow my dad's credit card to bail me out in the short term because of cashflow. Although I'm no longer with worldpay who really caused the problem :)

In terms of how many of each item that varies hugely and I try to let the line itself dictate that but anything from 1's (very rarely these days) to 60's.

Tashxx

[feistygal]

I've only got three suppliers that are a pain with not having the stock and not telling you so you place your order and then find out when the stock arrives and then the out of stock bits arrive in dribs and drabs. One German supplier are the pits for this and it drives me mad (Tash you'll know which one!)

Also dreading Christmas this year but hoping that the move to premises might help alleviate it a bit. 23 boxes of stock downstairs that won't fit in the stock room or in the garage and more on the way has made me realise that it has to be premises now.

I don't pay postage charges because I'm always above minimum but if I really needed something and had already just received an order then I would Ketty - its worse to miss a sale than to pay a bit in postage.

[knotjustjigs]

Thanks everyone for their replys its been very useful and made me think about having 2 stores as such. One for online and a bigger one for offline as offline are there and then sales and are in greater quantitys.Hopefully one day my online sales will match my offline ones!

I am also glad its not just me (iykwim) that has found stock quantitiys a dilemma as i always question if its just me " not getting it!" lol

Cheers girls

Ketty x

[naturalnursery]

A bit of a mixture really. Key items for us, we keep a big stock in - so for example, big selling nappies we order in the 50s, other items, we will just order in a few at a time.

We do have a set minumum number to have in stock for each item - based loosly on how quickly they will sell (best estimate), how quickly the the supplier can get them to us and how annoying for the customer if we run out. So for example, some of the breastfeeding stock doesn't sell THAT fast, but when you want a pump you want it.

HTH

Axx