Growing web shop? Keep it under control with these five practical tips.

1. Overview

   Keeping an overview is one of the biggest challenges of a growing webshop. When you start, you can do it by feel, but as soon as the number of (different) products increases, it becomes increasingly difficult. Which products are in stock where? How many? What should I order? Is my Excel sheet still correct? The faster the growth, the more complicated it becomes. Are you running behind? Then try to automate certain operations. There are various software solutions that can take a lot of work off your hands. That's how you gain speed and reduce errors. The less manual work you have to do, the more time you have left to set up various processes properly.

2. Purchasing

   The more (different) products you sell, the more complicated your inventory becomes. After all, selling "no" is disastrous. Especially within e-commerce, customers immediately click through to a competitor if products are not available. But this does not mean that your inventory needs to grow proportionally with sales. In fact, the larger you are, the more flexible you are to buy in more often and thus respond to trends in the market. A lot of inventory comes at the expense of your working capital, money you could also spend on SEO optimization or marketing. That doesn't mean, by the way, that buying big is out of the question. For some products, such as phone cases with a low purchase price, it can even be smart to buy larger quantities in one go. Keeping them in stock costs almost nothing. As a webshop owner, it is up to you to come up with an efficient strategy. As a rule, webshop owners who buy by feel can save an average of 30% on their stock and 10% fewer no-sales. Our tip: do not be tempted by quantity discounts, but buy for a maximum of a few months.

3. Dead stock

   Dead stock is usually the result of overstocking. Nothing more annoying than stuff in warehouse that you no longer sell. Dead stock is part of the game. After all, you are an ambitious entrepreneur and you have to dare to take calculated risks. After all, you don't want to sell too much 'out of stock' to your customers. Unfortunately, not every purchased product is a success. Reducing dead stock? Then think carefully about your purchases. Monitor how your products are performing, know what runners are and keep track of which products are selling poorly. Look at competitors and consider trends in the market and seasons of certain products. In short: avoid being stuck with half a rack full of products that you never sell again and have to write off. You can monitor this in an Excel sheet. As you get bigger, special software can help.

4. Space

   Recognizable for many webshop owners: the point where the garage or attic room no longer suffices. But what are you going to rent? How much space do you need? At which location? Ideally, as a webshop owner, you should choose a flexible building in which you rent more or less space, depending on your stock. Preferably also with a short rental period. Renting a box can be a solution in some cases. Do you want to open a store or pickup point in the future? Then it may be advisable to start thinking about the location. A building on an abandoned industrial estate may be a smart move for cost reasons, but is not an interesting location for a pickup point or store. To illustrate: in the regions of Friesland and Twente you rent much more cheaply (on average about 30 euros per square meter per year) than in the regions of The Hague and Gooi and Eemland (on average more than 45 euros per square meter per year). Being completely flexible? Then you can also choose to outsource the entire logistics process with fulfillment. There are dozens of players in this market and they often offer comprehensive solutions at competitive rates.

5. Time

   The bigger you get, the more time you need to handle all orders properly. And then you also have to keep your inventory up to date and make sure everything gets to the right place. As orders increase, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep all the processes running smoothly. Want to avoid chaos? Then bring structure to your processes. For example, in a different rack each week, count how many products you still have in stock. Prevent it from escalating.