How To Save Inventory Cost In Magento By Out Of Stock Notification Extension

Inventory management is a critical part of an organization, as it bears a cost that needs to be lowered by any means. According to the SBA, poor stock management is among the 4 biggest killers of small and medium size enterprises. And, about 1/4^th of the business cost is spent on holding and ordering the inventory.

 Source: shopventory.com

Due to the horrifying statistics, the management of stock shall be given utmost significance. These days, the online stores are also facing hurdles in managing stock, as they often delay topping up product line and may lose a potential customer. To bride the communication gap between customers and the store, and allow the management to take quick decision for stock-outs, the store owner needs to install a plugin. Among the notable and purpose built plugins, Magento out of Stock Notification Extension is worthy to be mentioned here.

Why Inventory Needs To Be Managed?

The profit margin of a manufacturer or retailer depends upon the cost it has to incur in holding inventory. There are various stock management methods, which have benefits as well as limitations. The basic purpose behind stock management is to achieve a considerable gap between the profit and cost, so that a business earns more than it spends. In other words, the management seeks ways of decreasing inventory cost, which ultimately results in higher profits. The simple equation of profit is; Gross Profit= Sales – Cost of Sales The “Cost of Sales” is further classified into three main factors like opening stock + purchase – closing, which can earn higher profit margins if perfectly managed. The equation makes it quite simple to understand the significance of stock management for a small business, because it majorly includes the cost of ordering and holding stock. The ordering cost includes placing orders to the manufacturer or a wholesaler, carriage cost, the time it takes to deliver and the cost of items ordered. A part of ordering cost is fixed and a part depends upon the quantity of goods ordered.

EXAMPLE

For example, if an online store orders 300 T-shirts twice a week from the manufacturer at a specific cost, it will have to pay for two orders. Suppose, it opts to order 200 shirts in an order, they will have to place 3 orders in a week, which will increase their ordering cost. Taking the same example further, if the same online store wants to decline ordering cost, it will place an order of 600 T-shirts in a week, but it will incur them costs of holding and storing the stock. For these kinds of complexities, online stores often delay sale of a product, which their customers are in need. The eCommerce is all about customer satisfaction that simply means making available the products they are searching for and avoid events like stock out. The online stores that are powered by Magento can now install ‘out of stock notification extension’ that allows the visitors to subscribe to the product and get notified when the stock is refilled. In an online store, the products often go out of stock and there is no tab from where the customers can opt for notification. To cover up the issue, an extension is installed that encourages them to leave their email and ensure them to be notified when the items are available in stock.

The Impact of Sending Notification to Customers

The competitors are often pitching creative deals to customers and you could lose them, if they are not kept engaged. The out of stock notification allows them subscription and they are hopeful about the instant availability. An online store that clearly shows a sign of ‘out of stock’ and does nothing to cater their need is likely to point audience to go somewhere else. The presence of a subscription form seems to be an alternate solution, where they can show their interest and hope for an instant and positive reply. Secondly, the customers feel overwhelmed when they find an email about the availability of the products they have been searching for. This propagates an image of customer care and satisfaction on the part of the online store, which ultimately spreads the brand by words of mouth. Most of the marketers send spam messages to email subscribers, which never result in sales, because those subscribers have never opted to receive such promotional emails, whereas out of stock notification via email are taken very positively because these users are willing to get notifications. The success of an online store depends upon how it treats their customers. Meeting customers’ requirements and expectations is the ultimate meaning of customer satisfaction. The Magento out of stock notification extension is helping merchants to know about the products their customers are interested in, but not available in the stock. Without this, the merchants can neither know the type and number of products their registered users are searching for.

Why should you use the Magento out of stock notification extension?

Magento, being a world class eCommerce platform, allows the merchants to use an endless extensions and add-ons for enhancing the functionality of their online stores without altering the coding of the website. The Magento out of stock notification extension is developed to facilitate the merchants to send automatic emails to subscribers, who have selected to be notified when a specific product is made available again in the stock. The online users are always eager to search for their favorite products and brands. Visiting an online store simple means they logged in to purchase a product, but they move onto another channel when through requirements are not met and see the tag line ‘out of stock’. People are spending billions of dollars in online shopping, so why shall a merchant miss a profit just because products were not available, and the customer wasn’t able to show interest right there from the product page. The out of stock notification extension facilitates them with quick email subscription and notifies them when the stock is topped up. In addition to this, there are countless benefits of installing this multifunctional extension on Magento.

• The admin/manager/merchant can send customized message along with the notification to the subscribers.
• Customers as well as guest visitors can subscribe for a specific product for out of stock notification rather than an entire product line.
• The users, who have subscribed to notifications, can view and alter their preferences. If they have opted mistakenly for the notifications, they can undo it easily.
• The merchants and store managers can easily track the number of subscriptions for each product, which will help in deciding which product to order first to cater a huge list.
• Besides the users, the owners are also given the authority to remove or unsubscribe any user from the list.