Inventory Management for Small Business (or BIG)

If you’re an online seller on eBay, Poshmark, Mercari, Etsy, Depop, and others, you know the importance of inventory management for resellers.

Inventory management is a crucial part of any reselling business, big or small. It becomes especially important as you scale and grow. To maintain a large inventory, you’ll have to keep things in order to operate efficiently. 

In this article, we’ll discuss reseller inventory management with Vendoo!

Inventory Management for Resellers

Reseller inventory management includes both a physical inventory management system and an electronic inventory management solution. 

Here is my inventory management system:

The primary function of these systems is for storage, practical, and bookkeeping purposes. Think about what you need as a reseller:

1. You need an organized system so that you can quickly locate things when they sell.

2. With a large inventory, you need a system that tells you where to locate things.

3. You need a system to tell you what is listed and where it is listed.

4. You need an electronic system to keep track of the information you need for bookkeeping and tax preparation, such as date of purchase, COG (cost of goods), sale date, revenue, marketplace fees, etc. 

These are the main components of a successful inventory management system. Let’s break each one down a bit more:

Physical Inventory Storage and Organization for Resellers

As your inventory grows, you need the space and processes to store it organizationally and effectively. There are many ways to do this, and I have tried them all.

I started by putting my inventory in boxes in the corner of my bedroom. This quickly became inefficient, as I would dig through them each time I made a sale. Then, I tried a shelving unit, which required me to unfold garments to locate the right one. I quickly outgrew this, too.

Then, I purchased 10 industrial hanging racks when a local department store went out of business. This was my solution for several years, and it worked effectively. I hung things by category and color (and then size as the third categorization). With this system, locating things was pretty simple after the sale, unless I sold a pair of jeans, and found myself looking through hundreds of pairs. The rack system also took up a ton of space; my entire dining room became a storage room. It was time for a bin system. 

As you’ll see in the video, I now use a bin system, which I find to be the most efficient and organized type of inventory management system for resellers.

Some sellers number the bins only. If there is room in Bin 1, they put an item in Bin 1 and note that somewhere. I use a SKU system: each item has a SKU number, and the bins just go in order. You can find my recommendations for bags and stickers here. 

Whichever physical system you choose, here are a few inventory management tips:

1. Make sure you can locate things quickly.

2. I recommend having things ready to ship for efficiency.

3. Your system should be so organized that anyone could ship for you with very little instruction. 

4. You need an accompanying electronic system with your item details.

That takes us to electronic inventory management for resellers:

Online Bookkeeping and Inventory Management for Resellers

Inventory management isn’t just about physical organization, you also need a system to record all of the information you need for administration such as:

• DOA (date of acquisition)

• COG (cost of goods)

• When/where it is listed 

• Quantity (available & sold)

• Sale date

• Sale price

• Any fees you paid (marketplace fees, shipping fees, etc.)

used to manage all of this in a spreadsheet and it became impossible as I grew my business. I was spending way too much time on bookkeeping and boring business administration. 

I tried a few different softwares and services, some were quite pricey, and none of them did exactly what I needed them to; that is, until I found Vendoo! 

Vendoo Offers Superior Inventory Management For Resellers

Vendoo offers the best inventory management for resellers, especially for sellers cross-listing on multiple marketplaces such as eBay, Poshmark, Mercari, Etsy, Shopify, Depop, and more! 

Vendoo offers full inventory management, organization, and tools for multi-platform e-commerce resellers.

Vendoo hosts all of your unlisted, listed, and sold inventory including all of the important information and numbers that you need for bookkeeping and tax preparation. 

Did you know that Vendoo has a mobile app? Manage your inventory wherever you go with mobile inventory management on the Vendoo app! 

Vendoo Inventory Tools & Filters

You can search, sort, and filter your inventory in many ways, including by status, title, SKU, price, alphabetically, platform(s) listed, platforms not listed, date created, date modified, stalest, and more!

With Vendoo’s advanced filters, you can segment inventory by specific actions or characteristics!

You can even sort by custom labels that you assign to items!

Think of Vendoo Custom Labels like electronic "color-coded stickers" that you can apply to your inventory for organizational purposes!

Custom labels allow you to segment your inventory by those specific items, and also access analytics by items with those labels!

The best part: you do not need to keep your own spreadsheets: Vendoo does it for you! 

On Vendoo, you can download a CSV Spreadsheet with all of your inventory information. Effectually, this is an Inventory report and/or Sales Report all in one. It is customizable and editable!

Say goodbye to spreadsheets! This information is logged as you use Vendoo. Vendoo centralizes your inventory information in one place. Bookkeeping and tax time just got much easier! 

And, don’t forget about Vendoo’s insights and sales analytics!

Profit, revenue, marketplace comparisons, listing activity, ASP (average sale price), sales volume, and top sellers, all powered by Vendoo! 

In addition to these, there are so many other inventory management tools with Vendoo like image hosting, profit-and-revenue calculation, stale listing warnings, sales analytics, bulk tools, and more! Learn more about Vendoo’s Inventory management tools here. 

Vendoo Enterprise For High-Volume Sellers:

What is Vendoo Enterprise?

Vendoo Enterprise is a white glove service for advanced resellers selling high inventory volume.

We work with Enterprise clients to create services to fit their business needs. Vendoo becomes an extension of your business and manages and performs tasks for you so you can sit back and enjoy the sales!

What Services are Available to Enterprise Clients?

Vendoo enterprise clients receive custom white glove services from the Vendoo team at a high level of expertise.

Vendoo Enterprise offers custom services, so every client has a personalized solution based on their needs. 

Enterprise Services include (but are not limited to): 

• Consulting: recommending marketplaces based on inventory and operations
• Curating relationships between sellers and the marketplaces directly
• Bulk uploading in high volume via custom SKUs, CSVs, or directly from marketplaces
• Hands-off listing to the marketplaces of your choice
• Listing maximization, including category mapping and SEO optimization customized by marketplace
• Bulk editing and removal upon sale
• Multichannel inventory management and book-keeping services
• Custom services and listing maintenance
• Spreadsheets, analytics, and reports

….and so much more! Vendoo Enterprise clients receive white-glove premium services, an account dashboard, and VIP customer support with a dedicated account executive to assist them directly. 

Our experts work collaboratively with clients to create a personalized plan for their business. 

Schedule a FREE consultation with the Vendoo team Vendoo for Vendoo Enterprise and unlock your business's potential.

Check out our FREE Guide to Multichannel Expansion.

You might also be interested in the article Vendoo vs. Vendoo Enterprise, Find the Right Plan For Your Reselling Business!