**Sellers** Inventory and Storage?

[kmmcrafts]

Since we've been having a lot of discussions of selling lately and there seems to be quite a few here that do craft shows etc.. I thought I'd ask.. How do you all keep track of and store your inventory? 

Selling online gives me the opportunity to showcase many different items.. to showcase all my stuff would possibly take several booths at a show.. But having such a large array of items poses a inventory and storage need that should be simple..

I've been using plastic storage bins since the beginning of my business.. worked awesome until I started building some inventory of over 300 items.. and would like to push that up to around 600+ items.... That creates a lot of different bins.. LOL  Back when I got up to around 50-70 different Christmas ornaments I got to a point where I was spending 15-30 minutes looking for the sold item.. so I started a number system and started putting the number at the bottom of my listing so when the item sold I could look at the listing and see what box I needed to go to to find it.. ( saves me from searching box after box, LOL.. But now this system is running into a different problem... Lot's and Lot's of storage boxes... and every time I sell an item it seems to be in the box on the bottom of a big stack of boxes, LOL so now I am constantly moving these storage bins..  I am actually in the process of switching from storage bins to the stack-able plastic storage drawers.. This will save me from having to move bins around all the time.. While I don't think the drawers is a very good idea for those that sell at craft shows because you just unpack them to display and pack back up at the end of the show.. For those that sell both online and shows.. with the kind of inventory I have you'd need to be careful to note what box the items go in so when you sell in online you'll find it quickly..

Anyway, was just wondering what you all do... Maybe you don't have the kind of inventory I do so it's not an issue for you.. or maybe this post will help someone that is starting out selling online.. because trust me.. I did a lot of trial and error to get to the point I'm at.. if you'er  just starting out.. it would be easier to start a inventory system when you don't have much inventory than to go through it a few times and move it from one system to another etc etc.. and in my case.. I intend to get a lot more inventory... and thought I would ask here as maybe someone has a better system idea than my drawers.. that I should consider before I get waist deep into this system and find another issue.. LOL

 

Kevin 

    

[Iguanadon]

Hey Kevin, it's great the you're having this problem due to being successful.  I suggest you contact Amazon.com and ask them for their inventory methodology.  LOL

I don't have any answers for you unfortunately and my problem isn't nearly what yours is, but in stockpiling for a big show coming up I'm having to think about how I'm going to organize things and be prepared at the event to find a specific animal/dog among the 120 unique ones in which I'll have 350-400 duplicates laying around.  At least I can lay them out alphabetically to shorten the hunting and finding time for my assistant.  Hopefully I have an assistant... It may be too hot for Mrs. Ig to be there with me so I'll have to hope a friend or two will be willing to come out and give me a hand.

Good luck, I look forward to reading what others suggest and discuss.

[kmmcrafts]

22 minutes ago, Iguanadon said:

Hey Kevin, it's great the you're having this problem due to being successful.  I suggest you contact Amazon.com and ask them for their inventory methodology.  LOL

I don't have any answers for you unfortunately and my problem isn't nearly what yours is, but in stockpiling for a big show coming up I'm having to think about how I'm going to organize things and be prepared at the event to find a specific animal/dog among the 120 unique ones in which I'll have 350-400 duplicates laying around.  At least I can lay them out alphabetically to shorten the hunting and finding time for my assistant.  Hopefully I have an assistant... It may be too hot for Mrs. Ig to be there with me so I'll have to hope a friend or two will be willing to come out and give me a hand.

Good luck, I look forward to reading what others suggest and discuss.

I don't know if it's success.. probably more like a scroll sawing fool that just gets lucky now and then, LOL

This show sounds like it's going to be a lot of work trying to display all you have to offer.. I'm hoping it's a huge success for you.. At some point I would like to do some shows.. just for me it's hard to commit to shows with all the kids school activities etc.. 

Kevin

[WayneMahler]

This is something I have been thinking about asking here at the village. So thanks for bringing this up Kevin. Creating an inventory system is that is functional and efficient seems to be a lot of work. As we sell a piece we write on the back of the tag what the piece was so I know I have to cut another one. This has been working so far, but I don't sell online either. You had mentioned a series of sliding plastic shelves for online and easy access. That sounds like a good idea as long as you have to room and it is expandable. Labels on the front of the bins would help keep thing more organised. For Christmas ornaments I use old flat boxes from a shipping service. I label them as to the ornaments that are inside on the top and the side. Makes finding them easy and quick. The ornaments themselves are held inside zip-lock bags and that keeps things orderly inside the box. For shows I use  large plastic totes that are approximately 6" x 16 x 24' and they are labeled as to the contents inside by group. Ex. Crosses, Plaques, etc. 

[amazingkevin]

13 hours ago, kmmcrafts said:

Since we've been having a lot of discussions of selling lately and there seems to be quite a few here that do craft shows etc.. I thought I'd ask.. How do you all keep track of and store your inventory? 

Selling online gives me the opportunity to showcase many different items.. to showcase all my stuff would possibly take several booths at a show.. But having such a large array of items poses a inventory and storage need that should be simple..

I've been using plastic storage bins since the beginning of my business.. worked awesome until I started building some inventory of over 300 items.. and would like to push that up to around 600+ items.... That creates a lot of different bins.. LOL  Back when I got up to around 50-70 different Christmas ornaments I got to a point where I was spending 15-30 minutes looking for the sold item.. so I started a number system and started putting the number at the bottom of my listing so when the item sold I could look at the listing and see what box I needed to go to to find it.. ( saves me from searching box after box, LOL.. But now this system is running into a different problem... Lot's and Lot's of storage boxes... and every time I sell an item it seems to be in the box on the bottom of a big stack of boxes, LOL so now I am constantly moving these storage bins..  I am actually in the process of switching from storage bins to the stack-able plastic storage drawers.. This will save me from having to move bins around all the time.. While I don't think the drawers is a very good idea for those that sell at craft shows because you just unpack them to display and pack back up at the end of the show.. For those that sell both online and shows.. with the kind of inventory I have you'd need to be careful to note what box the items go in so when you sell in online you'll find it quickly..

Anyway, was just wondering what you all do... Maybe you don't have the kind of inventory I do so it's not an issue for you.. or maybe this post will help someone that is starting out selling online.. because trust me.. I did a lot of trial and error to get to the point I'm at.. if you'er  just starting out.. it would be easier to start a inventory system when you don't have much inventory than to go through it a few times and move it from one system to another etc etc.. and in my case.. I intend to get a lot more inventory... and thought I would ask here as maybe someone has a better system idea than my drawers.. that I should consider before I get waist deep into this system and find another issue.. LOL

 

Kevin 

    

With 26 letters it sounds like a serious problem to keep things alphabetized

[kmmcrafts]

23 hours ago, WayneMahler said:

This is something I have been thinking about asking here at the village. So thanks for bringing this up Kevin. Creating an inventory system is that is functional and efficient seems to be a lot of work. As we sell a piece we write on the back of the tag what the piece was so I know I have to cut another one. This has been working so far, but I don't sell online either. You had mentioned a series of sliding plastic shelves for online and easy access. That sounds like a good idea as long as you have to room and it is expandable. Labels on the front of the bins would help keep thing more organised. For Christmas ornaments I use old flat boxes from a shipping service. I label them as to the ornaments that are inside on the top and the side. Makes finding them easy and quick. The ornaments themselves are held inside zip-lock bags and that keeps things orderly inside the box. For shows I use  large plastic totes that are approximately 6" x 16 x 24' and they are labeled as to the contents inside by group. Ex. Crosses, Plaques, etc. 

Storage room at this time shouldn't be an issue unless I start making furniture or other large things.. as my storage building is actually the upstairs loft of my shop.. Shop is 24 x 32 and the loft is 14 x 32.. but so far everything is behind the main wall of the loft ( in between the trusses ) as I put flooring down all the way across so I could have extra storage in behind the main walls.. 

[Jim Finn]

I have in stock about two hundred items, plus toys.  I have a problem, with the heat, here in west Texas.  The finish on my boxes sticks to the cardboard boxes in which I store them.  To overcome this I now store them in an air conditioned and insulated shed attached to my garage. This is a photo of one of three walls in that shed.

I store them in their cardboard boxes on these shelves in alphabetical order.  I just load one of each into larger boxes to transport to the twenty, or so, sales that I do each summer.  After the sale I list all my empty boxes, of items sold, in order to make more if necessary for the next sale.  Pretty simple inventory control system and I do not have to mark or list any of my sales during my busy time at these sales.  I am doing this all alone so it is necessary for me to use the KISS system.  (Keep It Simple Stupid).  I sometimes sell over $500 worth of product in three hours long farmers market.  A busy time.

[rjweb]

Jim, 

nice setup, now do one more post for 1000, RJ

[JimErn]

Ideally an inventory system should be set up, conceived, before you have inventory - but that rarely happens.  Once you have inventory that is becoming unmanageable, setting one up is time consuming to say the least.

Standard bins is one key, even if there are several different size bins, there should be a commonality of sizes.  ie bin 9x12 to hold 8x10 fret work, 6x9 to hold puzzles, etc etc

So an inventory system has two sides to it, storage / retrieval, and indexing.

The greater majority of people tend to think of things like a ladder, one step above the other.  And that invites Murphy into your environment, as Kevin said, what you want always seems to be in the box on the bottom.

Jim's shelving and standard box sizes are beautiful, but the boxes are still stacked.  I would consider putting the box on its long edge, like books in a book shelf.  And adding shelves where necessary leaving about an inch above the box size.

Think trash can, or a similar stand alone tall box for the toy guns on the bottom shelf.  Right now a gun is taking up 4 boxes of shelf space, even more if the boxes are on edge as I suggest.

Shelving, for something like this project, is best done with those pre-fab metal runners and shelf supports.  The ones with a series of slots vertically that the shelf support fits in, allowing for easy shelf spacing.  My opinion anyway.

Indexing should be an alphanumeric system.  ie
23-fishing
24- fishing
24A-fishing
25-cars
25-cars
26-deer
etc

The A after number 24 indicates to me that another box with the same subject matter was needed to store additional items in that genre.

Every tablet or laptop comes with a simple spreadsheet, and that is all you need for indexing.  Column titles like this

index..........Description..... Qty
and some simple spreadsheets allow for a pic too - but that does make the rows for each item rather large vertically IMO.  I would make an additional worksheet and show pics in a table-like display with the index number below each pic for reference.

Kevin again suggest putting the bin location number on the web site listing for a reference, great idea.  Carry it one step further and include that bin location on the item sales tag too.

YMMV

Jim

 

 

[kmmcrafts]

1 hour ago, JimErn said:

Ideally an inventory system should be set up, conceived, before you have inventory - but that rarely happens.  Once you have inventory that is becoming unmanageable, setting one up is time consuming to say the least.

Standard bins is one key, even if there are several different size bins, there should be a commonality of sizes.  ie bin 9x12 to hold 8x10 fret work, 6x9 to hold puzzles, etc etc

So an inventory system has two sides to it, storage / retrieval, and indexing.

The greater majority of people tend to think of things like a ladder, one step above the other.  And that invites Murphy into your environment, as Kevin said, what you want always seems to be in the box on the bottom.

Jim's shelving and standard box sizes are beautiful, but the boxes are still stacked.  I would consider putting the box on its long edge, like books in a book shelf.  And adding shelves where necessary leaving about an inch above the box size.

Think trash can, or a similar stand alone tall box for the toy guns on the bottom shelf.  Right now a gun is taking up 4 boxes of shelf space, even more if the boxes are on edge as I suggest.

Shelving, for something like this project, is best done with those pre-fab metal runners and shelf supports.  The ones with a series of slots vertically that the shelf support fits in, allowing for easy shelf spacing.  My opinion anyway.

Indexing should be an alphanumeric system.  ie
23-fishing
24- fishing
24A-fishing
25-cars
25-cars
26-deer
etc

The A after number 24 indicates to me that another box with the same subject matter was needed to store additional items in that genre.

Every tablet or laptop comes with a simple spreadsheet, and that is all you need for indexing.  Column titles like this

index..........Description..... Qty
and some simple spreadsheets allow for a pic too - but that does make the rows for each item rather large vertically IMO.  I would make an additional worksheet and show pics in a table-like display with the index number below each pic for reference.

Kevin again suggest putting the bin location number on the web site listing for a reference, great idea.  Carry it one step further and include that bin location on the item sales tag too.

YMMV

Jim

 

 

Very similar to what I want to do with my inventory.. I had hoped to have something done by now with it but.. this whole year for me has been too many iron in the fire at a time LOL.. still have quite a list to do before winter sets in so I believe my inventory will be a frustrating mess until after the new year.. One of the web sites I sell on gives each item a unique part #.. I had thought about just using this # that it creates for each item across all of the sites and mark my boxes etc. with this same number..  I'd make up my own numbers but the site doesn't allow me to use my own system.. so I guess I might just use theirs. and run the same number across all the sites I sell on..  

[JimErn]

Since, at least I expect, there is more than one item per bin, I would do it this way.

Box #........ Item #........Description............qty
24              2345
24              3625
etc

[blights69]

On 19/10/2017 at 10:38 PM, Jim Finn said:

I have in stock about two hundred items, plus toys.  I have a problem, with the heat, here in west Texas.  The finish on my boxes sticks to the cardboard boxes in which I store them.  To overcome this I now store them in an air conditioned and insulated shed attached to my garage. This is a photo of one of three walls in that shed.

I store them in their cardboard boxes on these shelves in alphabetical order.  I just load one of each into larger boxes to transport to the twenty, or so, sales that I do each summer.  After the sale I list all my empty boxes, of items sold, in order to make more if necessary for the next sale.  Pretty simple inventory control system and I do not have to mark or list any of my sales during my busy time at these sales.  I am doing this all alone so it is necessary for me to use the KISS system.  (Keep It Simple Stupid).  I sometimes sell over $500 worth of product in three hours long farmers market.  A busy time.

Nice set up is that rifles I see on the bottom shelf that`s a cool idea how wide are they would a pallet strip be wide enough my little neighbour would love one of them to run around the garden with . 

[Jim Finn]

3 hours ago, blights69 said:

Nice set up is that rifles I see on the bottom shelf that`s a cool idea how wide are they would a pallet strip be wide enough my little neighbour would love one of them to run around the garden with . 

I make them from 1"x4"s (or 2"x4"s resawn to 3/4")

[blights69]

12 hours ago, Jim Finn said:

I make them from 1"x4"s (or 2"x4"s resawn to 3/4")

Thanks