No matter what size your business is, inventory is one of your most important assets. It makes up such a large portion of the balance sheet that it cannot be ignored. In fact, it should receive a major portion of your attention. A solid inventory management program can not only save your company thousands of dollars yearly it can attribute to its long term success.Inventory is defined as assets that are stored for sale on your retail floor, stockroom, warehouse or off-site storage facility. Even raw materials and packaging that are components of a unit or sale are part of your inventory.
Here is a standard formula for calculating inventory holding costs:

Beginning Inventory + New Inventory (Purchases) – Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) = Ending Inventory

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Contributed by Todd Shapiro http://www.coresense.com
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This suggestion actually comes from one of our customers who said every month he reviews what he and his team are spending the most time on. Then he looks for ways to get rid of that work. This tip, which I love and find applicable to any business, has several advantages. First, it keeps your team from getting bored with busywork and leaving your employment. Second, it forces you to keep an eye on operational costs. Third, it opens the door to new technologies or processes which can increase the longevity and pleasure of operating your business - and isn’t that what running your own businesses is all about?

Contributed by Allison Hartsoe, Internet Business Skills http://www.internetbusinessskills.com
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From our work with advanced eBay sellers, we’ve found there are a number of strategies they use to maximize revenue and decrease costs. Sometimes that means looking beyond eBay.

Selling products in another location like eBay is generally more expensive than selling on your own website. The benefit is new customer acquisition and incremental sales. One of the ways to mitigate the cost of selling on eBay is to spread it across multiple locations. For example, Amazon plus eBay plus your website may give you a lower blended cost than selling on eBay alone.

Contributed by Allison Hartsoe, Internet Business Skills http://www.internetbusinessskills.com
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I am always interested in the results of the eROI study regarding email open and click-through rates. As a marketer, I’m trying to find the best times to reach out to prospective customers. This study breaks down results that are optimal for b2c and b2b.

Overall, they reported email open and click-through rates averaged 38.3 percent and 5.4 percent, respectively, on Saturdays. Sundays had high open rates (37.1 percent) and click-through rates of 5.2 percent (same clickrates as Mondays and Thursdays). Friday was the worst day of the week for both open and click-through rates.

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Contributed by Lisa Andrews http://www.coresense.com
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One of the most cost-effective uses of a platform like eBay is to use the massive traffic to acquire new customers then sell them more stuff from your WEBSITE. Now, to be clear, some buyers only like to purchase on eBay, but others will happily move over to your website if you take the time to remind them where it is. Use your website URL everywhere you can including the eBay About Me page, packing slips, and email signature files.

Contributed by Allison Hartsoe, Internet Business Skills http://www.internetbusinessskills.com
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More and more of our customers have been creating multiple ecommerce sites. With our system the inventory, orders, etc. are still processed from a single repository, so the biggest challenge is choosing how to niche product mix in a way that would be most appealling to the broadest range of customers.

Many are as straight-forward as new url destinations and different homepages targeted at a different market segment, with the same product mix offered. Others go further and have segmented the sites to focus on a very specific niche of their products, say patio furniture for one site and barbecues for another. Why? The more targeted you can focus your message, the better across the board - its creates closer alignment with advertising and speaks directly to a specific need someone may have. The easier you can make it for a buyer to find and purchase what they want, the greater the chance that they will buy.

Contributed by Lisa Andrews http://www.coresense.com
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