How to Avoid Overselling in Your Online and Offline Store

Running a store, whether online or offline is not an easy job. One common issue many store owners face is overselling, selling more products than they actually have in inventory. This can lead to unhappy customers, negative reviews, and a lot of stress. But the good news is we have a solution for it! Using Selldone POS helps you manage the inventory in your online and offline store effectively.

In this blog, we will discuss practical tips to avoid overselling in your online and offline stores and introduce you to Selldone's POS. By the end of this post, you'll have a clear understanding of how to keep your customers satisfied and your business running smoothly without the headaches of overselling.

What Is Overselling?

Overselling happens when a store sells more products than it actually has in stock. Imagine one of your customers has bought leather shoes with discounts from your online store, the one that you just sold to another customer in person. Your online customer is certainly happy that they bought the shoes they needed for so long and at a very suitable price. But unfortunately, you don’t have that product in your inventory! Putting customer’s dissatisfaction and losing their trust aside, you’ll have to deal with the money-back process and some legal issues.

Overselling can occur for several reasons, such as:

• Inventory Errors: Sometimes, your inventory records might not be accurate which leads to overselling.
  

• Poor Synchronization: Your online store and physical store inventories may not be synced properly.
  

• Sudden Demand: A sudden spike in demand, like during a sale or a viral trend, can lead to selling more than you have in stock.
  

How Can Overselling Impact Your Business?

Knowing the impacts of overselling helps you fully understand this destructive business issue. Here are some negative effects that you need to know about.

Customer Dissatisfaction

When customers order products that you can’t deliver, they can become frustrated and disappointed. Then, they’re likely to leave negative reviews and complaints on different platforms. This can highly damage your store's reputation. Trust is also crucial in business. If customers consistently experience issues with overselling, they may lose faith in your ability to fulfill orders, causing them to shop elsewhere.

Increased Refunds and Cancellations

Handling refunds and cancellations for orders you can't fulfill is time-consuming and costly. It involves processing payments back to customers, which can affect your cash flow. This can cause problems in your inventory management system, as well.

Legal and Compliance Risks

In some regions, overselling causes legal issues, especially if it violates consumer protection laws. So, you may have to deal with fines or other penalties, adding to your business costs.

By and large, you need to prevent overselling in the first place. In the next section, we’ll take a look at practical strategies to manage your online and offline stores.

How to Efficiently Manage Your Online and Offline Store?

It’s ok if you’ve faced overselling and other issues of running a physical and online store so far. You can benefit from the tips and strategies explained below and apply them to your business.

1. Integrate Your Inventory Systems: Use a centralized inventory management system that syncs your online and offline stock levels in real-time. This ensures that your inventory is always up to date, reducing the risk of overselling.
   

2. Implement a Point of Sale (POS) System: A good POS system can help you track sales, manage inventory, and monitor stock levels across both online and offline channels. Many stores use different POS software and tools to get alerts when stock is running low, so they can reorder in time.
   

3. Set Up Inventory Alerts: Use inventory management software to set up alerts for low stock levels. This way, you’ll know when it’s time to restock before you run out of products.
   

4. Regularly Update Your Inventory: Conduct regular stock checks and audits to ensure your inventory records are accurate. This helps you catch any discrepancies early and maintain accurate stock levels.
   

What if you could apply all these strategies using one single tool? This is what Selldone’s POS is here for! This tool offers real-time inventory tracking and integration across all your sales channels. Want to know how? Don’t miss the next part!

How Does Selldone Help You Avoid Oversaling?

With the Selldone POS tool, you have peace of mind knowing your online and offline inventories are synced and efficiently managed. From the bar at the top, you can select “Orders” and click on “Physical” to see the product orders’ status.

In the POS section in the main bar, you can click on “Inventory” to see all the details of your products which are synced to your online inventory. You can change each product’s features by clicking on them and editing the details.

In the devices section, you can connect your hardware tools to your store in Selldone. For example, a barcode scanner that you need for in-person sales can be wirelessly connected to Selldone. However, if you use the Selldone POS barcode scanner app, you won’t even need the scanner device! All you need is your phone to scan the product and connect to the product page in the store.

That is not all! When you add a product to the shopping cart and click on checkout, you’ll see these options. Selldone POS also allows you to add discount codes, coupons, and other types of incentives for your customers.

Final Word

One thing that we learned throughout this blog is that you need efficient management for your online and offline stores to avoid overselling. Integrate your inventories, use a reliable POS system, and stay proactive with stock management to ensure smooth operations and satisfied customers.

Selldone POS is a powerful tool that can help you achieve this. With its real-time inventory tracking, low stock alerts, and seamless integration across all your sales channels, it simplifies the process and helps you stay on top of your stock levels. Start using Selldone POS now and experience the benefits of a well-managed store!