Special Report: 7 Operations and Fulfillment Tips to Boost Efficiency

3. Profile your products and adjust your target inventory levels by product to account for the timing differences of demand and return curves. If an item is only sold in one season, it's mathematically impossible to fulfill every customer order unless you purposely buy too much inventory and accept the resulting overstock. Profile your products into those that you aim to fulfill 100 percent of demand — essentially buying overstock to cover returns — and those where you're willing to purchase below demand forecast and accept a degree of lost sales to avoid the resulting overstock.