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Know What is in Stock

August 6, 2008 By Joe Rawlinson

Knowing what products you have available for sale is not only good inventory management but good customer service.

Last week I stopped by Best Buy to buy the video game Mario Cart for the new Wii my wife got me for my birthday. While in the video game section, a Best Buy employee approached and asked what I was looking for.

He told me they didn’t have any of the game I was looking for in stock. After all, they are very popular right now. However, some would be arriving in a shipment the next day.

In this brief interaction with the Best Buy employee, he quickly explained the situation and answered my questions before I even asked them.

When customers ask about an out-of-stock or low-stock item, you need to convey three things:

  1. What is the current inventory level?
  2. Why is there nothing in stock?
  3. When will you have more in stock?

I returned to Best Buy a few days later and found the game in stock and made the purchase. Some customers will follow this pattern, but others will need to be actively pulled back to your store.

In addition to knowing when you’ll have more product in stock, you could create a notification or waiting list that the customer could join. This will give you some very qualified sales leads that should be easily converted to purchases.

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