How Inventory Quietly Kills Your Profit (Even When Sales Look Great)

Hey PH ... writing about something we don't talk about enough in ecommerce.

"How Inventory Quietly Kills Your Profit (Even When Sales Look Great)"

We focus on revenue, ROAS, conversion rate. We rarely talk about what's sitting in the warehouse eating 20-30% of its value per year ... whether it sells or not.

The article covers:

- Carrying costs broken down across 6 components (capital, storage, insurance, shrinkage, obsolescence, handling)

- Dead stock reality: 15-25% of ecommerce inventory sits 90+ days unsold

- The MOQ trap and why bulk buying often costs more than it saves

- A monthly audit framework: velocity tiers A-D, ROII per SKU, markdown triggers

The most useful number from the piece: if your ROII (Return on Inventory Investment) is below 100% annually, your money works harder in a savings account than in that inventory.

This came from building Okiela ... the more I looked at real merchant data, the clearer the picture got. High sales, growing revenue... but the profit was being eaten while no one was watching.

Read it here: https://okiela.io/blog/how-inventory-quietly-kills-profit

Would love hear from merchants and DTC founders... have you audited your inventory recently? Any surprises?

#inventory #ecommerce #profitability #dtc #supplychain #data