How it started
In the late 90s, Todd Ryan began selling online. It wasn’t until 2012 that he, along with his wife and son, began selling with a competitive edge using learned business savvy and ecommerce apps.
Rather than creating a new store, hosted on an eCommerce platform, The Ryan Family went right to Amazon. Finding opportunity in verticals like board games, health and beauty, food, apparel, and toys, a diverse product offering was the best strategy for the eCommerce giant. Momentum soon followed.
Despite having a wide breadth of products, you won’t find any private label items within their inventory. Ryan has focused on creating Amazon exclusive relationships with manufacturers to cut out competition and maintain market share.
Why FBA forecasting is important to Amazon sellers
Among Amazon sellers, it is understood that your ranking score is determined by the amount of revenue you generate in a time period. Any traction gained in the marketplace can quickly be undone through mismanagement of inventory and the dreaded occurrence of a stock out.
To ensure his products appear at the top of search results, Ryan sought out apps to help identify which products are likely to sell out quickly. Having been through some of these learning experiences himself, Ryan acknowledges that stock outs can be crippling to success on the platform. This is where business intelligence automation became critical to keep him ahead of the curve. You won’t find any complacency in Ryan’s operation. He re-evaluates his app arsenal up to three times annually to ensure he is still employing the best solutions on the market.
Inventory Planner has aided Ryan in understanding his own product pricing structure. Ryan says he found “the deepest analytics, especially with Google Analytics being factored in.” The IP product price recommendations, based on Ryan’s own past sales, have shined a spotlight on the optimal retail price. These insights reduce the potential of warehousing slow-moving products, while maintaining profitability.
Sweet spot between stock inventory and cashflow for FBA
As data-driven decisions have moved Ryan’s business forward to the best extent that they could, one constant has been optimized out of necessity…time. With over 800 SKUs, Ryan had to find the sweet spot between inventory and cash flow. Vigilantly monitoring which products are flying off the shelves and which products have become stagnant, Ryan admits this is where his passion and excitement for ecommerce lies.
As the family business continues to scale, repricing and inventory movement have become increasingly important. Ryan’s “Fulfilled By Amazon” agreement allows him and his family to travel freely. Before outsourcing fulfillment, shipping orders were a major paint point in the business and affected his overall quality of life.
Selling on Amazon can have steep learning curves. Ryan says, “The best way to begin on Amazon is with a small investment and without automation.” When asked about applications, he goes on say “The only way to understand the value of what an application can do for you is to first do the task manually.
”The future is bright for Ryan and his family. Their collective wisdom and thirst for Amazon seller rank put them ahead of the competition. As technology and apps improve, so will their business model.
The IP product price recommendations, based on Ryan’s own past sales, have shined a spotlight on the optimal retail price. These insights reduce the potential of warehousing slow-moving products, while maintaining profitability.
With over 800 SKUs, Ryan had to find the sweet spot between inventory and cash flow. Vigilantly monitoring which products are flying off the shelves and which products have become stagnant, Ryan admits this is where his passion and excitement for ecommerce lies.