November 21, 2016

Limited Inventory

That's me - imploring the audience to generate scarcity in their marketing/merchandising efforts ... during a talk at the Marketing Festival in Ostrava (click here).

Look at the audience ... 1,500 seats, sold out in eight minutes.

A limited inventory of seats to an event with a good reputation yields a quick sellout ... you can't sit and wait, you have to ACT, and ACT NOW! 

The story of Christmas 2016 is bloated inventory levels. Some would say that's a function of a bad sales environment or The Election or they'd blame it on Amazon. But this has been happening for close to a decade now.

Our omnichannel / multi-channel strategy promised the customer that we'd have endless inventory in any channel or store.

Endless inventory levels discourage urgency. Why order now? We promised the customer that the widget would be available in any channel at any time.

In 2017, we're going to focus on offering a limited merchandise assortment. Sure, core items can be available 24/7/365 - but "long-tail" items and new items need to be limited. Once we train the customer that these items won't be available for long, the customer will act like the audience at the Marketing Festival in Ostrava.

Limited inventory levels are a key part of a rebuilding project.

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