January 21, 2022
Why Overselling is a Hindrance to your Online Business
Overselling (the one thing every e-commerce business dreads!) Customers are the main driving force to monetising your products. Having positive reviews and a well-rounded image of your business are some of the key factors to optimising your online business. Customers put their trust into what you can deliver and if they’re let down by an item being out of stock researchers say that a staggering 89% of consumers chose not to buy from a certain online store due to their bad experience with them – and overselling is no exception!
If you’re looking to minimise shopping cart abandonment, then this blog will help to equip you with the main factors and framework to avoid overselling and boost your online e-commerce. If you’ve ever shopped online and experienced that unexpected email or notification saying “product out of stock” your heart sinks slightly. Your expectations have been let down – especially if it’s from a retailer that you had certainty in. Despite your e-commerce displaying that the product is in stock, that’s not always the case (especially if you sell on multiple marketplaces.)
Overselling plays a massive hindrance on your online business because if your customers experience a product being out of stock- instead of waiting, 70% of consumers will browse the web for other similar competitors (which is exactly what you don’t want for your brand or revenue!)
If you oversell on a marketplace, it will influence your product’s ranking on the search engine. Despite re-stocking your product, certain marketplaces will delay and revaluate whether to enlist your product again on their website. Moreover, your negative sales history (due to order cancellation or customers’ review) will make it difficult for you to hit the top search result list. A prime example of this (pardon the pun) is Amazon. Amazon has strict rules about overselling on their marketplace which can result in suspension or even blocking you from selling there altogether.
A way to prevent this from happening is to invest in an Inventory Management system from OnePatch. Not only does it link to all your marketplace integrations, OnePatch’s IMS refreshes and updates all your marketplaces’ inventory stock levels to prevent you from overselling. This handy tool keeps you in check and saves you from logging in and out of your different sales channels to update whether a product has sold. What better way for you to focus on other important aspects of your business.
OnePatch’s amazing feature refreshes every 5 minutes which is the fastest refresh on any other order management system. This gives you the upper hand against all your competitors. Overselling will be a thing of the past with this marvellous feature. OnePatch also has a feature on their system where you have the option to order more stock for the future – to avoid these predicaments from happening (especially with the most sought-after product on your marketplaces.)
In conclusion, investing in OnePatch’s IMS would not only benefit every aspect of your business but it will also benefit your customers and their experience of shopping with you in the future.