Managing Inventory As A Reseller
With Help From List Perfectly!
I live in a very small, two-bedroom apartment with my boyfriend. We're both entrepreneurs that work from home so we share our little second bedroom/office space. He's been gracious enough to give me all but one corner of the room, but storing over 300 pieces of inventory in this space still presents plenty of challenges!
It's taken me over a year to get my inventory system to a place I'm happy with. When I started reselling, I had maybe 20 listings and shared a bedroom in my sorority house with a roommate. I eventually got my own room but was still storing all my pieces in two big bins under my bed. Now that I have an office space, I FINALLY have the room to properly organize and store all my inventory!
Where's It All From?
I'll start by breaking down where I got all my storage supplies. The cube shelves and bins that hold all my clothing listings are from Target! They have tons of options, but I've collected several over the last few years and decided to just stick with what I had. There are three shelves stacked on top of each other for a total of twelve little cubby spots. Anything too bulky to fit in the bins, like sweatshirts and coats, gets hung in the closet!
My shoe rack is from Amazon! I LOVE this rack so much. It has space for many pairs of shoes, including tall boots! I wanted to make sure I got one with plenty of space because I absolutely love sourcing shoes (even when I may not necessarily need to lol). This rack is made of metal and has held up really well!
Inventory that hasn't been processed yet, otherwise known as my death pile, is stored in a big metal basket I got from Target a couple of years ago. At this point the basket is so full you can't really see it, but I promise it's there! The plan is to not go sourcing again until I've worked through every single item in my death pile. We'll see if I can hold strong and stick to that!
How's It All Organized?
Each clothing bin has been assigned a letter (Don't judge the fact that half are missing their labels! I just moved!). They all have about 15 items that have been assigned a number, and labeled, given a SKU, according to that number and the bin they are in (i.e. A1, A2, A3, etc.). Shoes have been assigned the SKU SR#, which stands for Shoe Rack, and the items in the closet are assigned the SKU CL#.
I use index cards and painter's tape to label each item so that the SKU cards are reusable! All I have to do is pull it off the item when it sells and save it for inventory processing day. A new item will take the place of the one that just sold!
Each item is assigned a SKU when it gets processed. I spend one day a week processing inventory items, but only when I have SKUs available (meaning only when I've had sales). That way, I know I have space for the item and I'm not getting too overwhelmed with too many pieces.
What's Inventory Processing Day??
Processing Day starts by creating a listing in List Perfectly, the AMAZING software program I use to help me manage inventory, crosspost, and do about a million more things. I love List Perfectly because they allow me to assign SKUs to my items within their system, and because I'm on the Business Plan, I have access to their downloadable CSV files and Sales Analytics, virtually eliminating the need for my old and bogged down google spreadsheet. They also let you add unlimited products to your catalog so I never have to worry about running out of space or paying to upgrade to more space!
I take all photos on a separate day because they're both such time-consuming and tiring tasks. I start by uploading all photos of the item to List Perfectly. I then take measurements, fold, and bag the item. Finally, I pull a card from my SKU cards and attach it to that item. I also take this time to fully complete the listing in List Perfectly, so it's ready to get listed that week!
List Perfectly recently relaunched their add/edit product page and I am LOVING the updates! The flow is great and the provided fields help keep me so organized! I love having sections to keep track of the Cost of Goods, enter a SKU and so much more.
When an item sells, all I have to do is go into List Perfectly, search for the item, mark it sold, and it's deleted from all marketplaces it was listed on! Then, since my SKU is in List Perfectly, I can easily pull my sold item from my storage bins, package it and ship it out! I also delete the SKU from List Perfectly's system once the item is packaged so it's freed up for a new listing!
SKUs are also how I decide to relist, another List Perfectly feature I'm obsessed with. I can sort my catalog items in List Perfectly by SKU, and to relist, I follow the order that the items are in, in storage. This keeps me from relisting the same groups of items over and over again, and ensures that nothing slips between the cracks.
With over 200 active listings, it's easy to lose track of things if you're not keeping it all organized. The system I've created, and List Perfectly, provide me with a little bit of a security net. Before I started with List Perfectly, I was using a Google Spreadsheet to keep track of my inventory, sales, and profit margins. It was nearly impossible to actually keep it all updated and organized.
Now, I have access to downloadable CSV files that also have image links and sales analytics that even tell me what my top performing platforms are. I've just recently started diving into this side of List Perfectly and I wish I had started sooner. It's been beyond helpful to have all my information all in one centralized place and to not have to do too many calculations on my own!
If you're interested in trying out List Perfectly for yourself, I have a coupon code! Just plug in THEHIPPYEDIT at sign-up and you'll get 30% off your first month! You'll also get a free three-day trial so it's completely risk-free! I recommend starting with the Business or even Pro Plan because they both give you access to bulk cross-posting and the Downloadable CSVs & Analytics! I'm currently considering upgrading to the Pro Plan myself, so if/when I do I'll be posting about the awesome features you get access to with that plan!