But how can you best manage your inventory during this period of intense demand? This blog post will share some top tips from the team at 360 Accounting Services.

Budget and Forecast

Before the Christmas rush begins, it's essential to do some maths to ensure you know where you are with regard to your stock. There are a number of different calculations available, but one of the most important is your inventory turnover rate.

This calculation helps you see how fast you get through your stock. It's advisable to do this calculation earlier rather than later. Many people begin their Christmas shopping as early as October - so if you don't already have a handle on the figures, you need to do that soon.

Remember, though, that – depending on what you sell – you're likely to experience increased demand at Christmas. If you have previous years of data to use, it may be worth going through them to find out how much your inventory turnover rate surges during the Christmas season. If you don't have data, it could be wise to build in some buffer and perhaps earmark some additional inventory so that you don't sell out.

Explore drop shipping

Many Amazon sellers fulfil their orders directly by ordering the stock and storing it themselves before sending it out to the buyer. The dropshipping way, however, is different: this allows you to manage a storefront and process orders, but without actually handling the goods. Instead, the order is fulfilled directly by the warehouse to the customer – but with your branding on it.

One advantage of taking the dropshipping option during the Christmas rush is that you don't have to commit quite as deeply to your inventory purchases. If you can find a dropshipping inventory provider who is happy to be flexible, you can instead simply call on them as and when you get an order. There are some downsides, though. You may find that everyone else has the same idea, and you might not be able to bank on your dropshipping provider to fulfil orders if there is a rush of demand. Having your own stock circumvents that problem.

Launch some promotions – carefully

Promotions are a great way to get sales through the door – and at Christmas, it's even more likely that you'll want to get some promotions going. Why not consider something interactive, such as a Facebook giveaway?

However, it's important to not get too far ahead of yourself. If you launch a buy one get one free offer, for example, you need to be sure that you have double the level of stock required to cater to your expected demand. Again, calculations and advance planning is your friend here – so don't be afraid to get organised and arm yourself with knowledge about what stock you can access and when.

Use some Amazon integrations

Here at 360 Accounting Services, we're passionate about the role that Amazon integrations can play in helping sellers get organised with inventory management.

Integrations are an ideal way for your business to connect inventory and accountancy. The benefits are numerous: one of the main ones, however, is that it makes the communication of information between these two arms of your business pretty seamless. It means that you don't have to worry about getting it wrong, as you might have to do if you don't have an integration tool and you're going for a manual system. It's all automated, and the tracking is done entirely for you.

We've got a few preferred tools here at 360 Accounting Services. The Xero integration is one tool: this comes with a handy dashboard that allows you to see your position at a glance. Sellerlegend tool is also a good bet: it comes with amazing visualisation options.

The Christmas rush is just around the corner, so switching right now might not be advisable. But if you do want to make a change, why not speak to our friendly team and ask for an assessment of what the options are.

Do you need some assistance when it comes to accounting for your Amazon store? Here at 360 Accounting Services, we've helped loads of e-commerce merchants over the years – and we're happy to help you too. Get in touch today.

Sources:

https://osome.com/hk/blog/how-to-manage-inventory-for-amazon-sellers/

https://www.xero.com/au/why-xero/your-business/amazon-seller-accounting/

https://sellerlegend.com/about-us/