You may be difficult to find some of your favorite products online or on the shelves recently. Car, medicine, food and wood are only a small part of the items that are in short supply.
Unfortunately, the supply chain interruption has become the norm this year. In fact, they increased by 638%in 2021 -for business owners in some industries, this number was shocking and frustrating.
If the product you sell is any scarce product category -or , use any of these materials -you may scramble to figure out how to deal with things. Let’s take a look at several methods you can handle the supply chain shortage, maintain income, and satisfy your customers.
1. Evaluate your own supply chain
Time to analyze all parts of your manufacturing and performance process. Understand the source of each item and material, how long it takes to reach the cost of each piece, and where is there any gap or delay. Visible nature is definitely the key to improving processes and overcoming any shortage.
After completing this operation, please find a place to improve. Can you place a larger purchase order so that you can have more materials or products on hand? Can you spend more money to speed up transportation speed to avoid stagnation of delivery?
If you encounter problems when you get a product from a supplier, you may need to find alternatives. Although this is not always helpful in the global shortage, it may be a good choice for specific situations. For example, if the problem is on overseas suppliers, local manufacturers may have more usability. Moreover, although they may be more expensive, they are always better than those without products.
In any case, diversification is a good strategy in many cases. If you cooperate with multiple suppliers on the same project, then you have backup when there is a problem.
2. Find alternative materials
This is the best time to play a creativity. If you encounter difficulties when looking for specific materials, or if it becomes very expensive, consider the alternative you can use. For example, if you usually use wood to make products, consider using bamboo, hemp or wood composite materials. If you can’t find rubber, you can try to use silicone instead.
Or, if the supply of transportation and packaging materials is in short supply, please embrace your brand and be different! If you sell knitting products, why not use a yarn instead of a bubble film to fill the transport box? If you sell snacks, including a few bags of popcorn, they can also be used as light -padding.
3. Inform your customer delay and shortage
One of the most important things you can do is to let customers understand the situation of shortage, shortage of stock, and delay in transportation. In most cases, if you let them know in advance, people will understand. But if they only found out after placing an order, they might feel frustrated. So how can you do this?
- Add notification to your entire store
- . One of the best ways to display important information is to display store notifications on each page of your website. Notify customers to produce delays or shortages of items so that they can understand in advance.
- Add new order status and send emails based on them so that customers can accurately understand the location of their products during the performance. For example, you can create one for \”projects in production\” or \”delivery orders\”.
- . The last time reminds customers that items may be delayed so that they know what it will happen.
- . Let the shoppers check their orders and know its location during the delivery process.
Create a new order status.
Including information on the shopping cart page
Make the tracking information available at any time
4. Master the inventory management Inventory management is absolutely essential here. What you don’t want the most is people who buy out of stock and unavailable products.
You may want to browse your warehouse or performance center first, and fully understand the inventory Exact content (and content without!). Then, update your online inventory accordingly. If you know that a certain product becomes difficult to find or manufactured, consider temporarily marked it as out of stock.
5. Add the alternate list option to your store
Even if the product is out of stock, the alternate list is also an excellent way to prevent missing sales opportunities. Loyal customers -even excited new customers! – It may be wrongChang Le will wait until you have more products at hand.
With the expansion of the Wooocommerce alternate list, shoppers can register an email reminder and receive notifications when the product is replaced.
6. Adjust the price if necessary You may still find what you need Materials and products, but they may be much more expensive than before. This means you may need to increase prices to maintain profits. After all, due to the rise in manufacturing, labor and material costs, in September 2021, the price of consumers purchased products increased by 5.4%.
Sit down to analyze your fees for products and materials so that you can understand how to keep profits. Once the correct figure is determined, you may want existing customers to know what happened so that they will not be shocked when they visit your store next time.
Send an email or contact your most loyal shoppers in person, such as wholesale customers. The more you notify them, the better. Let them know why you increase the price, inform them of the new price, and give them the opportunity to ask questions.
7. Reduce waste
View your performance process and find ways to reduce waste. The fewer materials and products thrown away, the more you can sell. The following are aspects you can check and improve:
Packaging. How to protect your products the best during transportation to prevent damage or deterioration? Considering the additional fillers, investing in higher -quality boxes, and ensuring that refrigeration is first -class.
Storage.
- How to store your items to prevent accidents, damage and damage? Is there a way to improve?
- Manufacturing.
- Return.
- 8. Prepare emergency inventory and work in advance
- As much as possible to any problem. Don’t wait for the materials or items to place new purchasing orders. Instead, please order in advance. You may also want to keep the emergency inventory of the manufacturing materials, packaging materials and products of the hand at hand to prevent delays or shortages. This will enable you to be as long as possibleTime is performed until you get the required items or find an alternative solution.
Do you make full use of the materials of each ounce? How do you reuse or re -use items?
Consider the method of minimizing the return, such as providing product descriptions in advance, including accurate photos, and answering questions as much as possible before purchasing.
to understand the situation at any time Although the supply chain shortage is sometimes attractiveDeficiency and fear, but you can still promote and keep the store run smoothly through some methods.All this is to master your processes, understand the ways that can be improved, and keep in touch with customers as much as possible. What do you find solutions to the shortage of supply chain?Let’s know in the comments!
