Cycle stock optimization is how you set your item-level ordering quantities based on the costs of holding your forecasted inventory versus the transaction costs of ordering and receiving it.  The economic ordering quantity formula is a well-known model of cycle stock strategy that considers some of these cost trade-offs.  Your cycle stock represents half of your ordering quantity.  Cycle stock, however, is often driven by minimums and multiples like case pack quantities.  Cycle stock optimization considers forecast, numerous carrying and ordering costs and any line-item ordering constraints.  Generally, your cycle stock strategy makes up most of the inventory you have stocked which is why it is important to manage in your inventory optimization and strategy policies.  By planning and optimizing your cycle stock, you can achieve significant service levels without holding any safety stock. ​

I often get asked what the difference is between inventory management, planning and optimization.  It is an important question and one that needs to be answered and understood, especially when you are looking to purchase software to help you with your inventory.  There is, of course, some cross over, between the three (picture a Venn diagram), so I will provide some examples to best describe and highlight how they are each unique in their own way.

Inventory Management is often misused to describe inventory planning and inventory optimization.  Although, it does and should include some inventory planning, like a min/max type of inventory policy, it almost never includes inventory optimization.

Think of Inventory Management as the tracking and trace-ability of inventory through out the supply chain.  A good example would be RFID tracking.  Using bar coding to track and know where your inventory is in your network at any given time is the simplest and most unique way to differentiate that which Inventory Management does, but inventory planning and optimization do not.

Inventory Planning is what most companies look for to understand their inventory position and to control their inventory levels and investment.  Inventory Planning in its simplest form is included with Inventory Management.  And, an optimal inventory plan will and should include Inventory Optimization.  So, they are intertwined and Inventory Planning sits in the middle.

Back to what exactly is Inventory Planning.  From a bottoms-up perspective (i.e., item by location), it is a proactive inventory policy that defines what your cycle stock and safety stock should be.  The policies are such that they can be forward looking to help you understand where your inventory investment will be.  A typical example is calculating policies by the number of days of forecast you should order and stock, respectively (e.g., days of supply).

From a top-down perspective, Inventory Planning is the forward looking investment in inventory spend.  This is generally performed at a product category level and deemed to be your open-to-buy budget and extremely popular among retailers where working at the item by location level can be cumbersome (especially in fashion).

Inventory Optimization can be viewed as a sophisticated inventory plan.  It takes on two forms, a bottoms-up inventory plan and a top-down inventory plan.

The top-down inventory plan, if optimized, can be referred to as network optimization.  It is the optimal inventory investment for all stocking locations and all items within a distribution network.  The bottoms-up plan if optimized is referred to as multi-echelon inventory optimization.  This is the item by location inventory plan for each item at every stocking location.  To be optimized at this level, safety stock is driven by a service level target and the cycle stock is derived by the trade-off in carrying and ordering costs.  

Reconciling both the bottoms-up and top-down plan is the key to optimizing the inventory investment. The end result being a forward-looking, time-phased replenishment plan that takes into consideration how wrong the forecast is, the variability in lead-time, your service level objectives, the costs of inventory,  and the budget and investment constraints of your business.

Each business has its unique needs and issues. If you are looking for Inventory Management, a warehouse management software will generally have the functionality you are looking for.  But, if you are looking to manage and control your inventory spend and investment so your inventory does not get out of control, I recommend starting with the simplest approach - a top-down software like open-to-buy planning.  Start with managing your sales objectives, your purchase orders, your profit and margin targets, and from there back into an inventory budget that you are comfortable with.  Translate that budget into a prioritized list of orders, hence balancing your financial goals with your assortment.

​So you acquired a new customer via your stellar advertising efforts, now what? Our partners at FeedbackWhiz put together a short article detailing how you can leverage email to not only nurture relationships with your customers, but also gather more reviews to help improve that all-important conversion rate and ability to win more customers in the Amazon jungle. If you’d like to learn more about how reviews affect your advertising performance, check out our article on FeedbackWhiz’s blog here.
 
Communicating with your customers by email is an important part of your seller toolkit, but doing it right can require a little delicacy. There are strict Amazon guidelines around how you should communicate with your customers and what you should and shouldn’t say.
 
When crafting an effective Amazon product review email, the tone is certainly important, but so is the layout of the email. How and when you deliver your email content will have an important impact on the way your customer responds.
 
Creating email templates can save you time and money, enabling you to send effective Amazon product review emails with little more than a click of a button.
 
Here’s everything you need to know about crafting and sending the most effective emails possible. 

​First, let’s think about the scheduling of each email. When it comes to email campaigns, less can often mean more. Customers may respond to emails initially, but things often trail off quite quickly. If you send too many emails or schedule them at the wrong time, it can reduce their impact and could even cause irritation.
 
In general, you should send a maximum of three emails and each of them must have a purpose. The receiver needs a good reason to open the email – otherwise, it’s heading for the trash folder.
 
Always think about your end goal. What outcome do you hope will be produced by the email? Do you want the receiver to click through to leave a product or are you hoping to build your relationship with them in the hopes of creating a repeat buyer?
 
It is important to never send an email to an Amazon user who has opted out of receiving emails. Amazon allows buyers to opt-out of receiving emails that do not contain or relate to crucial information related to a purchase.

​When it comes to emails, the first thing someone sees is the subject line. If you’re sending lots of emails and nobody is opening them, it could be because you are not writing compelling subject lines. In other words, you are not giving the customer a clear reason to click to open.
 
It is important to note that your open rates can vary depending on the type of product you are selling. If it’s an expensive item, people are much more likely to open emails about it than they are to open an email about a less expensive, smaller item.
 
However, in general, you should hope to see an open rate in the area of 35% and customers leaving product reviews at a rate of 1-2%.
 
Those figures, though, will be boosted if you can encourage more people to open your Amazon product review emails. This all begins with your subject line. Avoid vague subjects – tell the receiver exactly what the email relates to and why they should open it.
 
For example, when sending an order confirmation, you could start with: ‘Hello, your order [[ORDER_ID]] is on its way!’ This will encourage the buyer to open it up to see when they can expect the item to arrive.

When designing an email, getting started is often the most difficult part. If you can prepare a number of templates in advance, it can save you these creative headaches at the time of sending. The exact look of these email templates will be different depending on when you send them and what you hope to accomplish but here are a few general design rules to keep in mind:
 

1. Keep it simple: A clear and concise design will allow the buyer to focus on your key message.
2. Be useful: The content of the email has to be of value to the buyer.
3. Ask for one thing: Try to only ask for one thing in the email. If you ask for more, you may well get nothing.
4. Set the right tone: Be personal, friendly and useful – try to avoid sounding as if you’re desperately trying to sell something, even if you are.

 
Here is a sample effective template idea that can be used for different situations:

1.  Order Confirmation
You want to reassure them that the product they ordered has been safely dispatched.
 
Subject: Hey there, Regarding your Amazon Order [[ORDER_ID]]
 
Thank you so much for your purchase of [product name]. We go to great lengths to ensure our product meets the highest standards. We hope you enjoy it. If you do have any questions, you can contact us at [customer services email].
 
In the meantime, you can track the progress of your product here [link to tracking page]
 
2.  Purchase follow up
 
This could go out to the customer in the days or weeks following purchase. This is a good time to try and get a buyer to leave a product review because the product is still fresh in their mind.
 
Subject: Re:  Amazon [[ORDER_ID]] Tell us how we did!
 
Hello,
 
We hope you’re enjoying [order ID]
 
We do our best to ensure all our products meet and exceed your expectations. As you know, Amazon depends on people like you for feedback on their products to help other customers. If you can spare a few minutes to leave feedback, it will help us to continue improving our service.
 
Many sellers will stop there, which is fine, but it may be useful to send a third and final email. You can use this final email as an opportunity to include additional information, like a user guide or e-book, to help the buyer get the most from your product. Customers love to receive this sort of information and it shows them that you are willing to do a little more than others to keep them happy. 
 
Send this a little while after the product has been delivered. This gives the buyer a chance to use the product for a longer period and meaning they may be able to give a more thoughtful, detailed, product review. Remember, some products require time to take effect (think beauty supplies or supplements). First impressions any not be the most accurate so waiting can be to your advantage.
 
Try something like this:
 
Subject: Regarding your Amazon Product [Product Title]
 
Hi,
 
Our records show it has been a few weeks since you received [our product]. We hope you’re continuing to enjoy using it, but if you do have any questions don’t hesitate to contact [customer services] for support.
 
There are many different ways for you to enjoy [our product]. We’ve put together this handy guide to show you some of the fantastic things you can do with it.
 
We are always striving to get better and rely on feedback to help us improve. A little of your time and a few words would go a long way to ensure this while helping other buyers make an informed decision. If you have not already left a product review, it would help us and our buyers tremendously if you can do so.”

​In designing emails, simplicity is almost always the best option, but this does not mean that you can ignore details. Intelligent use of color can increase sales.
 
Red, for example, is often thought of as the best color for encouraging purchases. It excites us and represents desire or anger. It can prompt us to action.
 
Green, on the other hand, as a milder effect and is often used in products that seek to summon up an image of nature.
 
Yellow is the first color on the spectrum that the eye sees. It is a great attention grabber.
 
Carefully consider the message and brand image you are trying to convey and use your colors accordingly. If it is not pleasing to the eye or sends the wrong message to your buyers, it will not be effective.
 
Images and gifs can also make the emails stand out. High-quality images of the product being used help the buyer envisage the different ways they can use it.

​Finally, tracking your metrics will help you understand what does and does not work in your email templates. There is no one, clear, recipe for success with automated email templates so you need to pay close attention to your own results and make adjustments where necessary.
 
Using a software tool like FeedbackWhiz can help you not only design eye-catching templates as shown in the example earlier, but it can also help you accurately target the audience and timing using different triggers.  Other features include: Tracking open rates, A/B testing subject lines, and monitoring any reviews that you receive.  The more information you can gather about your sent emails, the finer tuning you can do and the more effective your email campaigns will be. 

In our last article, we described the data that’s available in the Amazon Advertising API to give you a sense for what to expect when you first connect. The obvious next question is, “Now that I have the data, what do I do with it?”
​
As an agency that manages multiple brands or a brand that operates on the Amazon platform, you are painfully aware of the ongoing requirements to inform and direct your clients or stakeholders through the Amazon abyss. We collectively refer to this process as ‘reporting’ as a means to communicate the state of a brand’s Amazon presence and performance. Agencies and brand owners know that reporting can be both a best friend and a worst enemy. Below we explain limitations on ‘Operations’ data, advantages of Amazon Advertising API data for reporting, and three ways to report on Amazon Advertising API data designed to avoid common issues. We are not endorsing any one tool in particular that we mention by name, and you should do proper due diligence of each solution to ensure that it will work for your agency’s or brand’s use case.