Maximizing efficiency through PO optimization

Featuring Josh Bartel and Drew Roth

Guest-at-a-glance

Josh Bartel

CEO

Hydrian Inventory Optimization

Josh graduated from Stanford and previously co-founded Sanitopia.

Drew Roth

Director of Product Engineering

Hydrian Inventory Optimization

Experienced software engineer focused on inventory optimization.

Episode summary

In this episode, Josh Bartel and Drew Roth discuss PO (Purchase Order) optimization, a crucial component of inventory optimization services. They explain how PO optimization focuses on improving the “how” of placing purchase orders, aiming to minimize inventory while maintaining high customer service levels and reducing labor costs.

Josh and Drew highlight common issues in traditional PO processes, such as long closure times and multiple receipts per order. They introduce key principles of PO optimization, including building orders unique to each fulfillment facility and matching quantities to vendor stock levels. The duo emphasizes the benefits of this approach, including reduced lead times, fewer errors, and labor savings through improved unit of measure rounding.

The conversation also covers the advantages for suppliers, the data requirements for implementing PO optimization, and the significant improvements seen in clients’ operations. Josh and Drew share examples of how this process can lead to more efficient truck loading and drastically increase the percentage of order value arriving in the first receipt. They conclude by noting that PO optimization is part of Hydrian’s broader service offering, aimed at enhancing coordination between clients and their vendors.

Key insights

Understanding PO Optimization

Understanding PO optimization means making sure we use less inventory and spend less on labor while still making customers happy. It’s all about getting better at how we order things from our suppliers.

Factors in Purchase Order Creation

Factors influencing PO creation include tailoring each order to suit specific ordering and fulfilling facility lanes. By customizing POs in this manner, companies can optimize logistics, minimize errors, and ensure smoother operations throughout the supply chain. Additionally, verifying that ordered quantities align with vendor stock levels is crucial to prevent fulfillment complications, such as backorders or delays.

Vendor Benefits and Collaboration

Optimized PO has advantages for both clients and suppliers. By enhancing the efficiency of order fulfillment, vendors may experience significant cost savings and operational streamlining. Importantly, these benefits can be achieved without disruption to existing workflows, fostering a positive collaborative environment between parties. Overall, optimizing purchase orders fosters mutual gains and strengthens relationships within the supply chain ecosystem.

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We’re so confident in our results, we offer a free performance assessment to all prospective clients. This isn’t a canned sales deck – it’s a bespoke presentation that takes 10-20 hours of our time. Whether we work together or not, we promise you’ll walk away with useful insights that will improve your business.

Product sourcing challenges in the automotive industry

Featuring Josh Bartel and Drew Roth

Guest-at-a-glance

Josh Bartel

CEO

Hydrian Inventory Optimization

Josh graduated from Stanford and previously co-founded Sanitopia.

Drew Roth

Director of Product Engineering

Hydrian Inventory Optimization

Experienced software engineer focused on inventory optimization.

Episode summary

In this video, Josh Bartel and Drew Roth discuss product sourcing in the automotive industry. Josh and Drew explore the challenges faced by distributors, wholesalers, and online retailers when dealing with multiple sources for each product.

The conversation covers key considerations for selecting the most suitable source, including drop-shipping capabilities, cost and margin analysis, and lead times. They emphasize the importance of balancing profitability with maintaining stock availability to retain customer trust. Josh and Drew also discuss the concept of “gap buying” — making smaller domestic purchases to bridge inventory gaps while waiting for larger, more cost-effective overseas shipments.

The duo highlights the significance of understanding stock-out costs and maintaining good relationships with multiple vendors. They stress the value of diversifying supplier relationships, even with competitors or smaller partners, to ensure business continuity and flexibility in sourcing. Josh and Drew conclude by addressing the complexities of dealing with “gray market” products and the benefits of having access to vendor inventory data for making informed sourcing decisions.

Key insights

Understanding Product Sourcing Dynamics

The podcast delves into the complexities of product sourcing, particularly within the automotive and automotive aftermarket industries. It highlights the challenge of selecting the best source for each product, considering factors beyond just profitability.

Considerations for Selecting Sources

Drew outlines three primary considerations for selecting sources: drop shipping feasibility, cost analysis including margins, and lead time assessment, with a focus on domestic suppliers’ quicker turnarounds compared to potentially cheaper but slower overseas options.

Importance of Vendor Relationships

They emphasize the importance of maintaining good relationships with vendors, even with secondary or smaller-scale suppliers. These relationships can prove crucial during stock shortages or if primary suppliers become unavailable.

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AutoZone’s supply chain expansion: A case study

Featuring Josh Bartel and Drew Roth

Guest-at-a-glance

Josh Bartel

CEO

Hydrian Inventory Optimization

Josh graduated from Stanford and previously co-founded Sanitopia.

Drew Roth

Director of Product Engineering

Hydrian Inventory Optimization

Experienced software engineer focused on inventory optimization.

Episode summary

Drew Roth sits down with Josh Bartel to discuss the challenges and opportunities of supply chain expansion. Using AutoZone’s ambitious plan to build 200 new distribution centers as a case study, Josh explores the potential benefits and downsides of multi-echelon networks.

While expanding a company’s geographic footprint can lead to faster delivery and increased sales, Josh cautions listeners about hidden costs. Internal freight costs, outbound shipping expenses, and the complexity of managing inventory across multiple locations can cut into any potential gains.

Josh emphasizes the importance of focusing on local fill rates as a key performance indicator. He advises companies to prioritize optimizing inventory at existing facilities before expanding their network. This episode offers practical advice for any business leader looking to improve their supply chain strategy.

Key insights

Don’t confuse network fill rate with success

While expanding your distribution center network might look good on paper — increasing your overall in-stock rate — it can mask inefficiencies. Josh cautions against focusing solely on network-wide fill rates. He stresses the importance of local fill rates, meaning the percentage of orders fulfilled from the DC closest to the customer. A high network fill rate alongside a low local fill rate often indicates an imbalance requiring attention.

Hidden costs can undermine expansion benefits

Before embarking on an ambitious DC expansion project, businesses need to fully grasp the potential hidden costs. Josh highlights internal freight expenses as a common culprit. Moving inventory between DCs to fulfill orders adds up quickly and often goes unnoticed as it’s grouped with general transportation costs. Additionally, increased inventory carrying costs and the added complexity of managing a larger network can significantly impact the bottom line.

Prioritize inventory optimization before expansion

Josh advises companies to exhaust inventory optimization strategies at existing facilities before investing in new distribution centers. Often, companies can achieve significant improvements in delivery speed and customer satisfaction by simply improving inventory management practices at their current locations. This might involve implementing demand forecasting tools, optimizing safety stock levels, and streamlining warehouse operations for greater efficiency.

Test new markets with 3PLs before full expansion

For companies considering expanding their geographic reach, Josh recommends a cautious approach. Instead of immediately investing in new facilities, he suggests partnering with a third-party logistics provider (3PL). This allows companies to test demand and gauge the market’s response to faster delivery times in a new region without the significant upfront costs associated with building or leasing a DC.

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Optimize your offering: Item level net profitability

Featuring Josh Bartel and Drew Roth

Guest-at-a-glance

Josh Bartel

CEO

Hydrian Inventory Optimization

Josh graduated from Stanford and previously co-founded Sanitopia.

Drew Roth

Director of Product Engineering

Hydrian Inventory Optimization

Experienced software engineer focused on inventory optimization.

Episode summary

Josh Bartel and Drew Roth tackle the crucial question: which items should distributors and wholesalers carry? They explore the pros and cons of common inventory strategies including stocking, just-in-time ordering, dropshipping, and removing items from your catalog entirely.

Drew emphasizes the need to analyze factors beyond gross margin when determining true item profitability. Minimum order quantities, vendor performance, shipping costs, and even customer order composition can significantly impact an item’s financial viability.

Discover how one client achieved impressive results by embracing a “SKU diet.” By strategically reducing their product catalog by 40% based on Hydrian’s data-driven analysis, they unlocked revenue growth and increased overall profitability. This episode offers valuable insights and advice for anyone interested in optimizing their inventory.

Episode summary

Guest-at-a-glance

Episode summary

Key insights

The "SKU diet": Less can be more

Distributors and wholesalers often feel pressure to offer vast product catalogs. However, carrying too many SKUs can negatively impact profitability and customer experience. Josh and Drew advocate for a “SKU diet” – strategically reducing your catalog by eliminating underperforming or unprofitable items. This simplifies operations, reduces inventory costs, and can even lead to sales growth by improving customer focus.

True profitability: Beyond gross margin

Don’t be seduced by a product’s seemingly attractive gross profit margin. Drew emphasizes the importance of considering all costs associated with an item, including inbound freight, storage, outbound shipping, and potential obsolescence. By calculating the true net profitability, businesses can make more informed stocking decisions.

Vendor performance: A key factor in dropshipping

Dropshipping can be an attractive alternative to stocking inventory, but vendor reliability is paramount. Drew and Josh advise carefully evaluating potential dropship partners on factors like shipping speed, packaging quality, and inventory accuracy. Inconsistent vendor performance can damage customer relationships and negatively impact your brand.

Data-driven decisions: The key to inventory optimization

Making sound inventory decisions requires more than intuition. Josh highlights the power of data analysis in identifying underperforming SKUs, optimizing inventory levels, and ultimately improving profitability. By leveraging tools and insights, businesses can move away from gut feelings and towards objective, data-supported inventory strategies.

Want to learn more? Check out this blog post.

Master item-level profitability and maximize your product portfolio's potential

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Want to see how your inventory management stacks up?

We’re so confident in our results, we offer a free performance assessment to all prospective clients. This isn’t a canned sales deck – it’s a bespoke presentation that takes 20 hours of our time. Whether we work together or not, we promise you’ll walk away with useful insights that will improve your business.

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Higher demand and longer leadtimes: The COVID “double whammy”

Presented at International Fastener Expo 2021

In early 2020 as COVID swept across the globe, supply chains began to reel as the consequences of the pandemic forced actions such as factory shutdowns and workforce shortages. The resulting leadtime increase led to a jump in order quantities to account for the extended time between receipt of shipments, but between March and May of 2020 there was a massive plummet in demand. All of a sudden businesses had more inventory than they had had in the recent past and half the demand, leading to a tremendous jump in ‘Days on Hand’.

Fortunately, this March to May stretch did not last and demand recovered quickly and continues to climb. The only issue is leadtimes have not recovered like demand, in fact, they have continued to decline. This has led to the opposite problem experienced in March through May as businesses now have declining ‘Days on Hand’ caused by rising demand and inability to get items on the shelf.

The above is obviously applying a broad brush to the current set of issues created by COVID, but is representative of the “general” inventory issues present for most businesses. Using some anonymized client data from Hydrian, it is possible to see how these effects have played out with a real business and lends itself to a discussion on how to mitigate the effects of the current state.

Pulled from actual client data, we can see in the graphic below that since September of 2020, lead times have not only risen but the spread between the median lead time and 75th percentile of leadtime has widened. This means that it takes longer to get what you ordered from your supplier AND the actual count of days you will receive it in is less predictable, culminating in increased inventory values.

In the chart below, it is clear to see how leadtimes have affected inventory investment. Inventory on order has risen to account for increased demand (shown by the red line), longer leadtimes, and less predictable lead times. However, we also see inventory on hand declining which tells us that receipt of shipments cannot keep up with demand due to these leadtime delays.

With unprecedented ‘inventory on order’ levels, the potential for an “ocean” of excess stock is a real concern if supply chain challenges suddenly resolve themselves. However, what we know about COVID is its impacts are hard to predict, so being prepared to be nimble regardless of circumstances is the new requirement. Below are some strategies to minimize stockouts in the face of huge demand and supply uncertainty and ensure that when lead times do recover and customer demand returns to normal, inventory doesn’t balloon in value due to a bullwhip effect.

1. Develop highly responsive inventory controls (e.g. min/max) and buying strategy

As lead times or demand grow, get more inventory “into the pipeline”
Conversely, be ready to reverse changes if demand falls or suppliers improve

2. Work with suppliers to adjust PO qtys, push / pull deliveries, and cancel if needed

Establish guidelines for “finalization” dates of PO qty, release date, etc
Share sales forecasts with suppliers (and ensure they utilize them)

3. Recognize unavoidable excess before it hits your shelf

If quantities can’t be changed / cancelled, start liquidating excess before it arrives
Consider price reduction, added marketing spend, or other promotion
When it makes sense, divert incoming POs to other facilities

4. Track appropriate metrics for measuring supplier and internal performance

Track both median / average as well as the distribution of lead times
Inventory turns / days on hand, in-stock rates, delivery speed, etc

A link to the full presentation can be found here.

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Fill rate vs. in-stock rate: what’s the difference and why it matters?

At the start of any engagement with a client, one of our first tasks is to agree on the language we’ll use to talk about inventory performance. One of the most important metrics is how much of your product is in-stock and available for sale to customers each day. In this post, we’ll talk through different ways to measure in-stock performance, how to calculate each one, and how each one can help you improve customer service in different ways.

Definitions

A sample of terms we hear clients use to talk about inventory performance include:

Fill rate
Backorder Rate
In-Stock Rate
Service Level

While each of the terms above has a textbook definition, we’ve found that it’s rare for clients to use that exact definition in their operation. Below, we’ll stick to the most common usage of each.

Fill Rate / Backorder Rate

Fill rate and backorder rate both refer to the percentage of actual demand from customers that you were able to fill immediately from inventory on the shelf. In companies that do not allow backordering, order lines that cannot be filled from stock are generally cancelled, and the customer is notified.

For example, assume a customer orders 100 units of an item, and you only have 50 in stock. You ship the 50 and backorder or cancel (depending on your policy) the remaining 50 units. In this case, you have a unit fill rate of 50% (from here on out we will use “fill rate” to mean both fill rate and backorder rate).

Unit, Line, and Order Fill Rate Examples

In the example above, we are using units shipped from stock for our fill rate. Many companies will instead measure their line fill rate. The difference is that 100% of the units on a line must be in-stock for that line to count as in-stock. So if a customer placed a 10 line order and all lines were fully in stock except the one above, that order would have a 90% line fill rate – we don’t get any credit for the 50 unit partial fill.

An order fill rate works the same way – all units on all lines of the order must be 100% in-stock in order for the order to count as in-stock. If we received 10 customer orders and all but the order above were 100% in-stock, we’d end up with a 90% order fill rate. We don’t get any credit for the 9 perfect lines on that last order, because the 10th line only had a 50% unit fill rate. Another term for order fill rate is “perfect order rate” since from the customer’s perspective, a successfully filled order, where all units on all lines are in-stock, is the best possible outcome.

We’d recommend tracking all three – unit, line, and order fill rate. Unit fill rate is the standard in many industries, but it can be dominated by low-impact items if you sell some SKUs at extremely high quantities relative to others. Line fill rates can correct for that sort of bias. Finally, order fill rates are probably the best measure of a total customer service success.

In-Stock Rate

In-stock rate measures the percentage of expected demand that you have in-stock and available for sale. There are two major implications of using expected demand, rather than actual demand, as an inventory metric:

1) In-stock rates are generally based on a sales forecast, and as such, are subject to forecast error. For example, if you haven’t sold an item for a couple of months, you may have a zero forecast and won’t “ding” yourself if you are out of stock on that item. Of course, that doesn’t mean that a customer won’t buy that item. The broader and longer the “tail” of low volume items in your catalog, the less reliable in-stock rate will be as a metric.

2) In almost every business we work with, sales are depressed when an item is out of stock. Even among companies that don’t purport to advertise or share inventory status with customers, we see fewer orders arrive on days when items are out of stock vs in-stock. What this means is that fill rate (which measures only actual demand from customers) is going to be a falsely optimistic measure of performance, since you can’t have a backorder if the customer never bought the item! This is the main reason to utilize in-stock rates as well as fill rates in your metrics. (We’ll do a future article on “spill rate” which will allow you to quantify the financial impact of lost sales when out of stock.)

When is an Item In-Stock?

Generally, we recommend counting an item as in-stock if it has at least one day of expected demand or the median customer order quantity (whichever is greater) in stock at the start of the day. However, we find that unless you run an extremely tight inventory, the result you get using this method will be extremely close to the result achieved if you count any item that has any units available as in-stock.

Weighting In-Stock Rate

Most of our clients that utilize in-stock rate track this metric for each sales velocity class. For example, they will have an in-stock rate for A, B, C, and F items. While this is a good start, we strongly recommend weighting in-stock rate by sales volume at the item level.

For instance, if you have an item that sold 80 times in the last 90 days, and another item that sold 20 times, both may be “A” items. But the former item is four times more impactful to customer service if it is out of stock. A single, weighted in-stock rate is usually the best indicator of overall customer experience.

Simply take all the SKUs you stock, find the percentage that are in-stock on a given day, and then weight that percentage by each item’s forecast, recent sales, or some other volume indicator. We recommend weighting by order lines rather than units if possible, and find that lines sold during a rolling 90 day period is a good measure.

Service Level

Service level is a term that has a wide range of definitions among our clients. Generally, it refers to either the fill rate, backorder rate, or in-stock rate… depending on which of those metrics the client in question tends to prioritize. So feel free to be as liberal as you like with this term.

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Is your fill rate right for your business?

One of the questions we are asked by nearly every new client is: “What should my fill rate (or service level / in-stock rate / backorder rate) be?” Without diving into item-level sales and supply chain data, this is an impossible question to answer, and we strongly caution against trying to set fill rates against an industry benchmark.

We have clients with profit-maximizing fill rates in the 80% range, and clients with profit-maximizing fill rates well above 99%. This is a number that will vary not just by industry and company, but also among the different items sold within a single warehouse. In this article, we’ll talk about the 5 main factors that you should use to determine the right service level for any item in your inventory. In the end, the goal is to reallocate inventory dollars from low-quality items into higher quality, maximizing profit.

1) Profitability

Items that are out of stock will sell less (if at all, depending on a company’s backorder policy). Thus, you want to make sure that the items which return the most profit are also in-stock the most often.

2) Holding Cost

Item that are more expensive to keep in inventory should be more conservatively stocked, which will naturally lead to lower fill rates. For example, all else being equal, you want large, bulky items like bubble wrap to have a lower in-stock target than, say, a small pack of washers with the same cost and margin.

3) Sales Volume and Variance

As said above, many companies target different service levels based on sales volume. This is the right approach. Another thing that should be considered is sales variance. For example, assume two items have the same total sales, but one item sells smoothly and consistently while the other has more “chunky” demand. The more consistent item should have a higher target in-stock rate.

4) Lead Time Length and Variance

Items which have long or highly variant leadtimes are harder to stock efficiently. They require more safety stock, and thus, will have a lower profit-maximizing in-stock target.

5) Strategic Importance

Finally, if an item is an own-brand, “front page” flagship, or otherwise strategically important item, you may want to target a relatively high in-stock rate, no matter how it stacks up using the other metrics above.

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3 tips to avoid excess inventory when leadtime changes

Most of our clients receive notices from vendors when leadtime changes significantly. Sometimes these notices are at the product level, for example when a SKU is on extended backorder. Occasionally, a notice may impact many items, such as when a manufacturing facility is temporarily shut down.

The COVID pandemic is causing more frequent supply chain disruptions, leading to an increase in leadtime updates from vendors. Hydrian has been getting a lot of questions about how to respond, particularly when it comes to updating leadtimes within an ERP or purchasing system. In this short article, we will provide some pointers on how to use leadtime updates to improve customer service while avoiding unnecessary excess stock.

Determine the type of leadtime change

The most important question to answer before taking any action in response to a leadtime update is: how long will the new leadtime be in effect? There are generally two possibilities here:

The first and most common situation is that the new leadtime is due to a temporary delay, such as when a needed component is backordered, or a facility is shut down for cleaning. In this situation, once the backorder is resolved or the facility is back online, all open orders can be fulfilled and will ship simultaneously. We refer to these leadtime delays as shark fins.
Alternatively, the new leadtime may represent a long-term change. For example, a vendor may be shipping product from a new facility that is further from your warehouse. In that case, leadtimes will likely never return to their prior level. We refer to this leadtime changes as plateaus.

When to act on a leadtime update

Many systems automatically update leadtimes based on recent receipt history, which is generally a good thing. However, depending on the type of leadtime change that has occurred, it’s important to ensure that the leadtime in the ERP or purchasing system is reflective of what future leadtimes will actually look like.

In the first scenario, there is nothing that can be done to avoid stockouts – ordering more product will only cause an even larger receipt to arrive once the disruption is over, exactly when the extra inventory is no longer needed. In this case, the vendor’s leadtime update should be used solely as a service tool, to communicate with customers about when they can expect delivery. Receipts impacted by the temporarily increased leadtime will need to be excluded from the system’s calculation, or leadtimes will need to be manually adjusted downward so that inventory targets are not increased in error. This is illustrated in the chart below.

In the second scenario, leadtimes must be adjusted upward in the ERP or purchasing system, so that inventory targets can be increased appropriately. This will likely need to be done manually, to reflect the new reality and override the older, shorter leadtime history. The goal here is to get the system to increase the amount of product on-order at any given time, so that high service levels can be maintained despite the longer transit time to your facility. This is illustrated in the chart below.

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The COVID inventory explosion

One of the counter-intuitive rules of inventory management is that after a sudden drop in sales (like the one many of our clients are experiencing) inventory on-hand will rapidly increase before falling back below its original level. This is because vendor purchase orders are, to some extent, created to replace future sales that are going to occur during leadtime. If sales during leadtime are lower than expected, there will be more inventory remaining on the shelf when receipts arrive, leading to excess stock.

The chart below shows a hypothetical client that has around $1MM in weekly COGS, and typically has $4MM in inventory, with another $4MM in open POs not yet received. Leadtime is 2 weeks. At week 3, we’ve modeled a 25% sales drop. We assumed that the drop was immediately detected and that inventory targets (and thus purchasing) were immediately reduced:

Note that despite a drop to zero purchasing as we attempt to draw down the inventory, dollars on hand increases 12.5% to $4.5MM before finally starting to fall.

Had vendor leadtime been longer, the increase in inventory would be proportionally larger. For example, if this was an overseas vendor with a 12 week leadtime instead of the 2 week leadtime modeled, inventory would continue to build by $250k per week to a total of $7MM, a 75% increase! That increase will happen regardless of reductions in purchasing, because all of that excess stock was already on order when the sales drop occurred.

Mitigating the Spike

There are a few ways to minimize the damage from rising inventory value if there is a sudden drop in sales:

Ensure that forecasts and inventory targets are updated frequently (at least weekly) during periods of high sales variability.
As new inventory targets are set, look for items that will be overstocked once all open POs arrive. Contact vendors to see if these POs can be at least partially cancelled or pushed back.
Utilize forecasts with a higher bias towards recent sales so that sales drops and spikes are quickly detected and properly weighted. If your system uses a simple monthly forecast (e.g. last 90 days / 3 or even last 12 months / 12) then extensive manual overrides will be needed.
If space or cash are a concern, it may make sense to utilize discounts or other marketing activities to increase sales velocity closer to normal levels, thus reducing the amount of excess stock.

Library

Demand Planning

Distribution

E-commerce

Inventory Management

Stock Optimization

Supply Chain

Video

Maximizing efficiency through PO optimization

Guest-at-a-glance

Episode summary

Key insights

Understanding PO Optimization

Factors in Purchase Order Creation

Vendor Benefits and Collaboration

You might also like

How aerospace MROs can optimize purchase orders for better efficiency

Avoiding inventory losses: How to manage expired and obsolete parts

The real impact of import tariffs—and how to respond

Subscribe to our newsletter

Subscribe

Want to see how your inventory management stacks up?

Library

Demand Planning

Distribution

E-commerce

Inventory Management

Stock Optimization

Supply Chain

Video

Product sourcing challenges in the automotive industry

Guest-at-a-glance​

Episode summary​

Key insights​

Understanding Product Sourcing Dynamics ​

Considerations for Selecting Sources

Importance of Vendor Relationships

You might also like

How aerospace MROs can optimize purchase orders for better efficiency

Avoiding inventory losses: How to manage expired and obsolete parts

The real impact of import tariffs—and how to respond

Subscribe to our newsletter

Subscribe

Want to see how your inventory management stacks up?

Library

Demand Planning

Distribution

E-commerce

Inventory Management

Stock Optimization

Supply Chain

Video

AutoZone’s supply chain expansion: A case study

Guest-at-a-glance​

Episode summary​

Key insights​

Don’t confuse network fill rate with success​

Hidden costs can undermine expansion benefits​

Prioritize inventory optimization before expansion​

Test new markets with 3PLs before full expansion​

You might also like

How aerospace MROs can optimize purchase orders for better efficiency

Avoiding inventory losses: How to manage expired and obsolete parts

The real impact of import tariffs—and how to respond

Subscribe to our newsletter

Subscribe

Want to see how your inventory management stacks up?

Library

Demand Planning

Distribution

E-commerce

Inventory Management

Stock Optimization

Supply Chain

Video

Optimize your offering: Item level net profitability

Guest-at-a-glance​

Episode summary​

Episode summary​

Guest-at-a-glance

Guest-at-a-glance

Episode summary

Key insights

Understanding Product Sourcing Dynamics

Guest-at-a-glance

Episode summary

Key insights

Don’t confuse network fill rate with success

Hidden costs can undermine expansion benefits

Prioritize inventory optimization before expansion

Test new markets with 3PLs before full expansion

Guest-at-a-glance

Episode summary

Episode summary

Master item-level profitability and maximize your product portfolio's potential