Marketplace Inventory Management: Strategies for E-commerce Success

Best Practices to Effectively Manage Inventory and Fulfill Orders on Marketplaces

Whether you’re a small business owner or a seasoned enterprise, marketplace inventory management can make or break your operations. Efficient inventory management not only prevents stockouts and overstocking but also enhances customer satisfaction, minimizes costs, and drives profitability.

This blog dives into the intricacies of marketplace inventory management, providing advanced insights and actionable strategies to help you stay ahead in the competitive e-commerce landscape.

Why Marketplace Inventory Management Matters

Imagine this: a customer is excited to purchase a product listed as “in stock” on your marketplace store, only to discover it’s unavailable after checkout. The result? A lost sale, a disappointed customer, and potential damage to your brand reputation.

Marketplace inventory management ensures:

  1. Accurate Stock Levels: Prevents discrepancies between actual stock and what’s displayed online.
  2. Optimized Storage Costs: Reduces overstocking that ties up capital and storage space.
  3. Enhanced Fulfillment Efficiency: Ensures timely order processing and delivery.
  4. Improved Seller Performance Metrics: Many marketplaces penalize sellers for inventory-related issues like cancellations and delays.

For example, Amazon’s algorithm favours sellers with consistent stock levels, directly impacting their Buy Box eligibility—a critical component for success on the platform.

Key Challenges in Marketplace Inventory Management

Managing inventory across platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, and Shopify introduces complexities that go beyond counting products:

  1. Real-Time Stock Synchronization: Keeping inventory updated across platforms during peak sales can be overwhelming.
  2. Demand Volatility: Predicting sales during flash sales or festive seasons often leads to either stockouts or surplus.
  3. Compliance Complexities: Each marketplace has unique rules for inventory and order processing, making it challenging to align operations.
  4. Ageing Inventory: Dead stock accumulates quickly if left unaddressed, tying up valuable storage and capital.

Addressing these challenges requires advanced tools and intelligent strategies to create an efficient and responsive inventory management system.

Advanced Strategies for Marketplace Inventory Management

1. Centralized Inventory Control

Invest in a centralized system to monitor and manage store inventory management across all marketplaces in real time. Centralization reduces the risk of overselling and ensures consistent product availability.

Example:  Use smart inventory allocation to dynamically distribute stock across marketplaces based on sales velocity. For instance, if a product is trending on Amazon but slow on Flipkart, reallocate inventory to capitalize on the demand.

2. Leverage Analytics for Demand Forecasting

Traditional forecasting methods can’t keep pace with today’s dynamic e-commerce environment. AI-powered analytics tools, like Tensight, can help you analyze historical sales data, seasonal trends, and external factors to accurately predict demand. These insights empower businesses to stock up appropriately and avoid dead stock.

For instance, if analytics predict a surge in demand for winter apparel during October, you can adjust your inventory proactively.

3. Embrace Automation for Marketplace Order Management

Manually managing orders across multiple platforms is prone to errors and delays. Automating marketplace order management streamlines workflows, ensuring orders are processed and fulfilled efficiently. Tools like Tensight enable businesses to track, update, and optimize inventory and orders from a single dashboard.

4. Prioritize Buffer Stock for High-Performing Products

Maintain buffer stock for products with consistent demand or those prone to supply chain disruptions. Buffer stock acts as a safety net, preventing stockouts during unexpected sales spikes.

Example: During a flash sale, your best-selling product unexpectedly sells out within hours. With buffer stock, you can continue fulfilling orders without delay.

5. Integrate Multi-Channel Inventory Management Software

Use software that integrates seamlessly with multiple marketplaces. These tools ensure that every order, return, and stock movement is automatically reflected in your system.

Stat: Businesses using integrated inventory management solutions report a 25% increase in fulfilment accuracy (Source: Gartner).

6. Adopt a Data-Driven Approach

Every piece of inventory carries data that can inform your decisions. Analyzing key metrics like sell-through rates, turnover rates, and ageing stock helps businesses make informed decisions about which products to restock, discount, or discontinue. 

If a batch of sports shoes hasn’t moved in 90 days, use Tensight’s dashboard to identify the issue—be it pricing, product listing, or demand shift—and take corrective action, like bundling slow-movers with high-performing items.

Your Inventory, Your Competitive Advantage

Marketplace inventory management isn’t just a back-office function—it’s a growth enabler. When your inventory works smarter, it creates ripple effects across your business:

  • Reduced Costs: Smarter allocation lowers storage and holding costs.
  • Increased Customer Satisfaction: Stock availability and faster fulfillment build loyalty.
  • Scalable Operations: Automation and analytics prepare your business to handle growth seamlessly.

Conclusion

Mastering marketplace inventory management requires a mix of advanced strategies, robust tools, and a data-driven approach. From centralized control and AI-powered forecasting to seamless integration across platforms, businesses can optimize their operations and ensure a smooth customer experience.

At Tenovia, we empower businesses to navigate the complexities of store inventory management and marketplace order management with tailored e-commerce solutions. Our proprietary tool, Tensight, combines AI-powered analytics and a user-friendly dashboard to give you complete control over your e-commerce business.

Ready to take your e-commerce game to the next level? Let Tenovia help you scale strategically and grow sustainably.

Mastering Multichannel Success: The Expert’s Guide to Optimizing Product Pages

Optimizing product pages is key to driving higher conversion rates in eCommerce. It involves strategically refining your business website and enhancing visibility across diverse channels. By ensuring consistency in product information, businesses can streamline customer interactions and improve satisfaction levels. This not only simplifies the purchasing journey for customers but also boosts profitability through increased sales and reduced bounce rates. Implementing these optimizations fosters a cohesive brand image and strengthens customer loyalty, ultimately driving sustained growth and success in the competitive online marketplace. 

Here are Tenovia’s Top Tips on how you can ace your eCommerce game with some strategic tweaks:

Engaging Visuals: High-Quality Images, Videos, AI features 

First impressions matter. Use high-resolution images to showcase your products and add a “hover-over zoom” feature to allow customers to inspect details closely. This interactive element enhances the shopping experience and builds trust in the product’s quality. Incorporate product videos to provide a comprehensive view of the item, demonstrating its use and highlighting features. Videos have proven to increase engagement and conversions. Additionally, consider using AI tools that allow customers to visualize what the product may look like on them or in their surroundings, offering a personalized and immersive shopping experience.

All in One View: Display Product Variants on a Single Page

Simplify decision-making for your customers by displaying all product variants—such as colors, sizes, and styles—on the same page. This ensures they can easily compare options without navigating away, reducing friction and keeping them engaged. This consistency across your eCommerce site and marketplaces helps maintain a unified shopping experience. Aligning your product presentation with marketplace standards encourages seamless shopping transitions between platforms.

Tell a Story: Craft Compelling Product Descriptions

A well-written product description can make all the difference. Go beyond basic details to tell a story about the product. Highlight its benefits, features, and uses. Use persuasive language that speaks directly to your target audience’s needs and desires. Tailor descriptions to suit the tone and style of each marketplace while keeping key points consistent. You can effectively communicate your brand story, differentiate your offerings, and drive engagement across digital channels that inspire your potential customers. 

Perfect Fit: Shopper-Friendly Size and Need Guides

Help customers find the perfect fit with detailed size guides. Provide clear, easy-to-understand measurements and comparisons. Consider adding need guides for products where customers might be unsure of the best option for their requirements. Ensure these guides are visible and easily accessible across all platforms and marketplaces.

Speak Their Language: Add Specs in Different Languages

India’s diverse linguistic landscape means offering product specifications in multiple languages can greatly enhance user experience. Cater to regional preferences by providing detailed information in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, and more. This localization should be consistent across your website and various marketplaces. By speaking directly to customers in their preferred language, you build a stronger connection and make your products more accessible, increasing the likelihood of conversion and customer satisfaction.

On-the-Go Shopping: Mobile Responsive Design

Ensure your product pages are fully optimized for mobile devices. A mobile-responsive design caters to the increasing number of shoppers using smartphones and tablets. Consistent mobile optimization across marketplaces will help capture a wider range of mobile shoppers effectively. With mobile commerce on the rise, a responsive design ensures that your site loads quickly, is easy to navigate, and offers intuitive functionality on smaller screens. Features like touch-friendly buttons, streamlined checkout processes, and clear, readable text enhance the user experience. Furthermore, search engines favor mobile-optimized sites, potentially boosting your visibility in search results and attracting even more mobile traffic.

Smooth Sailing: Simple and Intuitive Navigation

Streamline your site navigation to help customers find what they need quickly. An intuitive layout and easy access to categories, filters, and search functions keep users engaged and reduce bounce rates. Clear, logical menus and well-organized categories make it easy for shoppers to browse and discover products effortlessly. Effective use of filters and sorting options allows customers to refine their searches based on preferences such as price, size, color, or brand. Incorporate breadcrumb trails to help users keep track of their location within the site and facilitate easy backtracking. By minimizing the number of clicks needed to reach product pages, you enhance user satisfaction and increase the likelihood of conversions. Additionally, maintaining a consistent navigation structure across all digital platforms reinforces brand familiarity and trust, encouraging repeat visits and long-term customer loyalty.

Real-Time Inventory Updates and Scarcity Tactics

Clearly indicate stock levels and provide restocking notifications to let customers know if an item is low in stock or available for pre-order. These nudges create a sense of urgency and encourage immediate purchases. Use scarcity tactics, such as countdown timers for limited-time offers or low stock alerts, to tap into customers’ fear of missing out (FOMO) and drive quicker purchase decisions. Synchronize inventory updates and implement these tactics consistently across all eCommerce platforms and marketplaces to avoid discrepancies and maintain a cohesive shopping experience.

Smart Suggestions: Related Products and Cross-Selling

Enhance your product pages with related product suggestions and cross-selling opportunities. Showing complementary items can increase average order value and provide customers with a fuller shopping experience. Utilize algorithms and data analytics to display the most relevant and popular complementary products, making personalized recommendations that resonate with individual shoppers. This not only boosts sales but also enhances customer satisfaction by helping them discover items they might have missed. Ensure cross-selling strategies are tailored to fit the marketplace environment as well, taking into account the specific layout, audience preferences, and purchasing behaviors of each platform. Highlight bundles or special deals that combine related products for added value, and use clear, persuasive language to explain why these items work well together. By strategically placing related product suggestions throughout the shopping journey, you can create a more engaging and profitable eCommerce experience across all your sales channels.

No Worries: Clear Return and Refund Policies

Outline clear and fair return and refund policies. Customers need reassurance that they can return items if they are not satisfied. This builds confidence and reduces hesitation in making a purchase. Ensure these policies are clearly stated and consistent across all marketplaces. Understand that different platforms may have varying return and refund policies. Tailor your approach to each marketplace’s guidelines while ensuring transparency and customer satisfaction. This adaptability can enhance your reputation and trustworthiness across diverse platforms, attracting more customers willing to shop with confidence.

Transparent Pricing: Display Pricing and Discounts

Be upfront with your pricing and highlight any discounts or promotions. Show savings clearly, and make it easy for customers to understand the value they are getting. This transparency builds trust and can prompt quicker purchasing decisions. Ensure pricing strategies align across all sales channels to avoid confusion. Consistent pricing across various platforms helps prevent customer dissatisfaction and reinforces a trustworthy brand image, encouraging repeat business and customer loyalty. By clearly communicating value, you can differentiate your offerings in a competitive marketplace, making customers more likely to choose your products over others.

Loyal Customers: Announce Membership Benefits

Promote membership or loyalty programs prominently. Highlight exclusive benefits, such as discounts, early access to sales, or special offers, to encourage repeat purchases and customer loyalty. Different platforms may offer varying benefits tailored to their loyal customers, encouraging them to stick to their preferred platform. This diverse marketplace presence can help you reach and retain a wide range of customers effectively.

Act Now: Clear & Responsive Call-to-Actions

Ensure your primary Call-to-Action (CTA) is prominent, clear, and encourages immediate action. Use a secondary CTA for those not ready to purchase, such as “Add to Wishlist” or “Save for Later.” This keeps potential buyers in your sales funnel. Adapt CTAs to fit different marketplace formats and functionalities for maximum impact. For instance, some platforms may prioritize “Buy Now” buttons, while others might highlight “Add to Cart.” Understanding these differences and customizing your CTAs accordingly can enhance user engagement. 

Familiar and Secure: Display Trusted Payment Options

Feature familiar and secure payment options that cater to the diverse preferences of shoppers. Include popular methods such as UPI, digital wallets like Paytm and PhonePe, credit/debit cards, and cash on delivery. Display trust and security seals to assure customers of a safe transaction process. Using well-known payment gateways can reduce checkout friction and increase conversion rates. Ensure consistent payment options across all channels to enhance trust and ease of purchase. 

Hassle-Free Shopping: Detailed Shipping Information

Provide clear and comprehensive shipping details. Inform customers about delivery times, costs, and any available shipping options. Transparency here can prevent cart abandonment due to uncertainties about shipping. Offer tracking information so customers can monitor their orders, adding another layer of reassurance. Additionally, highlight any free shipping thresholds or expedited shipping options to cater to varying customer needs. Clear communication about shipping policies, including potential delays and international shipping rules, builds trust and reduces post-purchase anxiety, leading to higher customer satisfaction and repeat business. Ensure shipping policies are clearly stated and uniform across different marketplaces.

Social Proof: Customer Reviews and Testimonials

Display customer reviews and testimonials prominently. Authentic feedback from other buyers builds credibility and influences potential customers’ purchasing decisions. Encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews and highlight them on your product pages. Utilize reviews from all platforms to build a comprehensive trust signal. Highlighting testimonials from diverse marketplaces demonstrates a consistent track record of customer satisfaction, making new customers more likely to trust and choose your products. Responding to reviews, both positive and negative, shows that you value customer feedback and are committed to continuous improvement, further enhancing your brand’s reputation.

Engage and Retain: Add Prompts on 404 Pages

Don’t lose potential customers to 404 errors. Add helpful prompts or search bars on error pages to guide users back to your site. Suggest popular products or direct them to the homepage. On digital marketplaces, ensure product redirects lead to similar available items to minimize customer frustration and maximize retention.

Always Helpful: Write FAQs, Q&As, and Offer Live Chat

Provide comprehensive FAQs and Q&A sections to address common customer queries. Offering live chat support can also help resolve issues in real-time, enhancing customer satisfaction and boosting conversions. Make sure support options are easily accessible across all platforms.

Conclusion 

By implementing the strategies outlined above, guided by Tenovia’s expertise and powered by Tensight.ai, businesses can significantly enhance their online presence. Our approach focuses on delivering smooth shopping experiences and maximizing customer satisfaction, ultimately leading to higher conversion rates and sustained profitability for businesses. With our dedicated teams and innovative solutions, we ensure your products shine across all platforms, maximizing their visibility and impact.

Maximize Growth: Why Shopify Plus Reigns Supreme for eCommerce Brands

Shopify is a comprehensive commerce platform that enables anyone to start, manage, and grow a business. It has earned its reputation by listening to millions of business owners, supporting both solopreneurs and enterprise brands with features designed to scale, optimize performance, and remain agile. Shopify stands out as a leading platform for brands seeking to enhance their online presence.

Quick Comparison: Shopify vs. Shopify Plus

FeaturesShopify (Basic, Shopify, and Advanced)Shopify Plus
PurposeStarting, growing, and managing businessesHigh-growth enterprises needing advanced capabilities
Launch YearN/A2014
ScalabilityBasic to AdvancedHighly scalable
CustomizationCustomizable online storesScalable, customizable solutions
Support24/7 customer supportAdditional support programs
Management ToolsStandard management toolsAdvanced management tools
AppsAccess to standard appsAccess to exclusive apps
Coding KnowledgeNot requiredNot required
Multi-channel SalesYesYes
ControlStandard controlEnhanced control

Why Shopify Plus is the Best Choice for eCommerce Brands

As a Shopify Plus Partner, Tenovia is uniquely positioned to help brands leverage the full potential of Shopify Plus. In this blog, we will explore why Shopify Plus is the best choice for eCommerce brands at various growth stages, focusing on its scalability, flexibility, support options, and advanced features.

Keeping Pace with Commerce

Shopify Plus: Scaling Your Business for Conversion, Performance, and Agility

Shopify Plus is the enterprise version of Shopify, designed to cater to high-growth businesses. It provides the tools and infrastructure needed to scale efficiently and effectively. Whether your brand is just starting to scale or already experiencing significant growth, Shopify Plus offers the reliability and flexibility required to thrive.

Starting to Scale

For brands beginning to experience growth, Shopify Plus offers a robust platform that can handle increased traffic and sales volumes effortlessly. With a 99.9% uptime guarantee and unlimited transaction limits, businesses can focus on expanding their customer base without worrying about technical limitations.

Already at Scale

Brands already at scale often face challenges with their existing platforms, such as downtime, transaction limits, and insufficient support. Shopify Plus addresses these issues with its high reliability, extensive support options, and enhanced permissions. This makes it an ideal choice for businesses looking to switch to a more dependable and scalable platform.

Focus on Your Business, Not the Store

Advanced Customization Options

One of the standout features of Shopify Plus is its advanced customization capabilities. Brands can create unique, branded experiences without the need for extensive coding knowledge. This allows businesses to stand out in a crowded market by offering personalized experiences to their customers.

Automation and Workflow Optimization

Shopify Plus enables brands to automate manual tasks, turning them into efficient workflows. This automation saves time and reduces the potential for human error, allowing businesses to focus on strategic growth rather than operational details.

Event Scheduling and Planning

With Shopify Plus, brands can plan better by scheduling events and promotions in advance. This feature is particularly useful during peak shopping seasons, ensuring that marketing efforts are executed flawlessly and timely.

Comprehensive Analytics and Insights

Understanding key metrics is crucial for growth. Shopify Plus provides advanced analytics tools that give businesses deep insights into their performance. These insights help in making informed decisions, optimizing strategies, and identifying new opportunities for growth.

Unified Control Over Payments, Taxes, and Cash Flow

Managing finances can be complex, but Shopify Plus simplifies it by providing a centralized platform to control payments, taxes, and cash flow. This centralization helps in maintaining financial health and ensuring compliance with various regulations.

Handling Increased Traffic and Sales Volumes

During peak periods, such as holiday seasons or major sales events, the ability to handle increased traffic is critical. Shopify Plus’s scalable infrastructure ensures a smooth customer experience, even under high demand, without requiring extensive technical adjustments.

Priority 24×7 Support

Having access to reliable support can make a significant difference in the day-to-day operations of an ecommerce business. Shopify Plus offers priority 24×7 support, ensuring that help is always available when needed.

Reasons Why Brands Use Shopify Plus

Security and Reliability

Security and reliability are paramount for any ecommerce business. Shopify Plus takes care of platform security and data protection, allowing brands to focus on growth rather than technical concerns.

  • Robust Security Features: Shopify Plus includes advanced AI-powered fraud detection, multi-factor authentication, and real-time alerts for potential vulnerabilities.
  • Reliable Performance: With a 99.9% uptime guarantee, businesses can rely on Shopify Plus to be available when their customers need it.
  • Scalable Infrastructure: The platform is designed to handle large traffic volumes, ensuring consistent performance even during peak periods.

Lower Cost of Ownership, Higher ROI

Investing in an eCommerce platform should deliver long-term value. Shopify Plus offers a lower total cost of ownership and a higher return on investment (ROI) through several key factors:

  • All-In-One Solution: Shopify Plus provides built-in commerce tools, reducing the need for multiple external applications and integrations.
  • Elimination of Server Hosting Costs: As a hosted solution, Shopify Plus removes the expenses associated with maintaining and managing servers.
  • Reduced IT and Development Costs: The user-friendly interface and extensive features minimize the need for a large in-house tech team.
  • Predictable Pricing: Clear, predictable pricing plans help businesses budget more effectively without unexpected costs.
  • Automated Updates and Maintenance: Regular, automatic updates ensure the platform remains up-to-date and secure.

Agility and Usability

Shopify Plus offers operational leverage and flexibility, allowing both tech teams and business users to focus on business goals and differentiation.

  • User-Friendly Interface: The intuitive design makes it easy for users to manage their stores.
  • Quick Deployment: Seamless integration with existing systems speeds up the deployment process.
  • Customizable Design: Brands can easily customize their storefronts to match their unique vision.
  • Scalable Solutions: Shopify Plus supports multiple stores under a single account, simplifying management.
  • Powerful App Ecosystem: Thousands of apps and plugins enhance the platform’s capabilities.
  • Advanced Automation and Workflows: Automation features streamline operations and improve efficiency.

Extra Advantages 

Shopify Plus offers several exclusive features that enhance its value proposition:

  • Exclusive API Access and Endpoints: Higher API call limits enable seamless integration and scalability.
  • Multipass for Single Sign-On (SSO): Streamline access and enhance user experience with the Multipass API.
  • Extensive Inventory Management: Manage up to 200+ inventory locations, supporting complex logistics.
  • Lower Transaction Fees: Benefit from a lower order commission rate, translating into significant savings.
  • Bot Protection: Advanced bot protection features prevent automated scripts from disrupting the checkout process.
  • Unlimited Staff Accounts: Manage teams effectively with unlimited staff accounts and advanced access controls.
  • Community Engagement and Assistance:  Access to the Shopify Plus Community on Facebook.

Conclusion 

In summary, partnering with Tenovia and Shopify Plus can significantly improve your eCommerce metrics, such as conversion rate and average order value. Our expertise in Shopify Plus allows us to deliver exceptional customer experiences that drive substantial revenue growth. Join forces with us to scale up your direct-to-consumer business and unlock its full potential.

Ayurveda in the E-Commerce Era: Maximizing Amazon’s Listing Content for Industry Growth

Ayurveda is gaining worldwide popularity, it’s no longer related to healthcare but has become  a booming business. With the rise in consumer’s interest in holistic health and well-being, many entreprenuers and business owners are seeking to carve a niche in the market. 

In this rapidly evolving landscape, embracing marketplaces has become paramount for growth and sustainability. However a common question that most retailers ask is – How to organically market Ayurveda business effectively on Marketplaces? 

We take the example of Amazon, as a global e-commerce giant, providing a unique opportunity for Ayurvedic businesses to expand their reach and connect with a wider audience. This blog explores how Ayurveda businesses can leverage Amazon’s listing content to enhance their online presence, educate consumers, and ultimately thrive in the digital marketplace.

1. Crafting Authentic Product Descriptions

Amazon’s product listings are often the first point of contact for potential customers. It includes the title, bullet point and a description. Begin by creating authentic title that highlight the products features, USP and package or grammage details. A structured title looks like this- 

Maharishi Ayurveda Amrit Kalash Immunity Booster | Super Rasayana | Helps Immunity, Daily Wellnes Stress & Anxiety | Improves Heart Health (Ambrosia 60 Tablets & Nectar Paste 600 grams Combo Pack)

In bullet points and descriptions showcase the key features of your Ayurvedic products but also delve into the traditional roots, benefits, usage, consumption and brand story. Don’t forget to plug-in keywords and optimise the content, this will help in improving your product ranking on Amazon. 

2. Utilizing Amazon A+ Pages & Tile

Amazon offers Enhanced Brand Content or more recently knows as Amazon A+ Content, a feature that allows brands to showcase their products through enhanced visuals and multimedia. Ayurveda, deeply rooted in visual symbolism, can benefit significantly from it. Incorporate engaging images, infographics, and videos that explain the Ayurvedic concepts behind your products. This not only educates consumers but also adds a visual appeal to your listings, making them stand out in a crowded marketplace. Check out how Tenovia designed the page of Maharishi Ayurveda’s Blissful Sleep Tablets: https://www.amazon.in/Maharishi-Ayurveda-Blissful-Non-Habit-Ashwagandha/dp/B0B51ZS2SZ/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=3IYVBPNUK0JGT&keywords=blissful+sleep+maharshi+ayurvedic&qid=1702037323&sprefix=Blissful+Sle%2Caps%2C346&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1

3. Highlighting Ayurvedic Ingredients and Formulations

Consumers are increasingly seeking transparency in product ingredients. Take advantage of Amazon’s listing content to highlight the key Ayurvedic ingredients in your products. Explain the significance of each ingredient, its traditional uses, and how it contributes to the overall effectiveness of your offerings. This level of transparency builds trust and positions your brand as an authority in Ayurveda. This information can be easily plugged into the tiles or the A+.

4. Leveraging Customer Reviews and Testimonials

Encourage customers to share their Ayurveda journey with your products through reviews and testimonials. Positive experiences shared by real users can be a powerful tool in influencing potential buyers. Feature these testimonials prominently in your Amazon listings to build credibility and foster a sense of community around your brand.

Conclusion: Bridging Tradition and Technology

In the ever-expanding digital marketplace, Ayurvedic businesses must find innovative ways to blend tradition with technology. By strategically leveraging Amazon’s listing content, Ayurveda brands can not only thrive but also contribute to the global adoption of holistic wellness practices. Embrace the digital era, tell your Ayurveda story authentically, and let Amazon be the bridge connecting ancient wisdom with modern consumers.

A Beginner’s Guide to Amazon Browse Nodes

With a worldwide product range of 12 million items, Amazon holds the title of the biggest online marketplace globally. However, when factoring in the contributions of third-party sellers on the platform, the inventory expands to a staggering 350 million products. Naturally, managing inventory of such a colossal scale demands significant effort.

To make it easier, Amazon makes the use of nodes, which involves a hierarchy or ranking-based system through which users can search for their chosen items. These are called browse nodes. These numerical codes play the role of identifying specific product categories on Amazon, allowing customers to explore various brands and products under the category, such as books, toys, skincare products, snacks, clothing, etc. Today, there are well over 30,000 such categories, each with a unique browse node or node ID. 

Browse nodes use common characteristics to categorize products and simplify a customer’s browsing experience when shopping. For online retailers, it is a must to use browse nodes in order to reach their customers, whereas for shoppers, it is a means to find all the possible options under the product category they’re currently browsing. 

How are browse nodes structured?

Browse nodes are structured in a tree-like hierarchy, i.e., the Browse Tree Guide. The top-level category is the most general node and contains the most number of products – aptly named the root node. Under it are sub-categories such as branch nodes and leaf nodes, which become more and more specific to the product category. 

The following example of our customer Paragon Footwear shows how product categories are displayed through specific paths.

If a customer is looking for footwear, they can use the node ID Footwear to explore Amazon’s inventory. They can also continue to get more specific under this node with Men’s Shoes, Slippers, etc. At the back-end, these nodes are stored as numerical codes. However, customers on Amazon can only see the category path when using the platform. Using the above example, a customer would normally see a browse node path like this: Shoes & Handbags > Shoes > Men’s Shoes > Flipflops & Slippers 

How are browse nodes beneficial to businesses? 

The importance of an accurately detailed product category assignment can seem miniscule at first, but it has many cascading advantages for your online business. 

  • By ensuring detailed browse nodes, you ensure that your products have improved bestseller rankings. With more specific product category nodes, such as kits, gifts, etc., you have greater chances of receiving the bestseller label.  Here’s an example of our client Maharishi Ayurveda that received the Bestseller tag.
  • For customers who aren’t looking for specific brands when browsing for products, you can take advantage of browse nodes to attain more page views and impressions, and boost chances of a sale. 

How can businesses use browse nodes strategically? 

Browse nodes aren’t just for directing your customers the right way. You can use these to your advantage for many other purposes. Here are three main reasons you should optimize your product listings on Amazon browsing nodes.   

  1. Boost your chances of sales 

Owing to Amazon’s hierarchical structure, customers can search for products and fine-tune their search with specific categories or sub-categories. As a seller, it is vital for you to choose the right browsing node to boost your chances of a sale. The more specific and detailed you get, the better your chances of a sale. On the flip side, if any of your products are listed in the wrong category, this can affect your ratings, sales, purchase bounces, and returns. What’s more, your product can become difficult to trace when a customer is browsing, further affecting your visibility and sales.

  1. Determine how many competitors you have 

If the product category you’re leveraging has many other competing products, your chances of standing out can reduce drastically, in turn affecting income and sales. That’s why it’s doubly important to search your competition in the product categories of your choice and develop a sales strategy that gives you the edge. 

  1. Make the best use of bestseller ranks (BSR) 

Just like your business, profit should be the key driving force behind choosing the type of products and product categories you want to sell under. Owing to the constantly changing landscape of your competition, some categories are more rewarding than others. If a certain category has fewer competitors, it means that you’re more likely to succeed as a seller. Tweaking your browsing nodes to give your business the advantage will offer better opportunities for promotions and sales. 

Ready to get started? Get the experts on your side! 

When it comes to ecommerce execution, Tenovia’s Marketplace Support services can change the game. We provide end-to-end support on Amazon, including quick product listings, optimized content and visuals, account management, SEO research for product listings, as well as A+, product, and pricing uploads. Our Amazon marketplace solutions are geared at delivering speedy, revenue-centric solutions that offer you a competitive advantage. So if you’re looking to ace the space of Amazon with browse nodes and more, it’s time to get in touch with the Tenovia team.

An Introduction to Flipkart’s Demand Side Platform

An Introduction to Flipkart’s Demand Side Platform

Over the years, Flipkart has sold to millions of customers and amassed great insights into how they think and purchase. What if brands could now get access to all these years of learning to their advantage? What if they could develop, harness, and deploy these insights at scale? What would brands achieve if they engaged with their consumers in a holistic way? Flipkart’s recent offering answers these questions.

Recently, top ecommerce marketplaces such as Flipkart and Amazon have been going head to head – specifically with respect to their innovation and growth strategies. In a bid to expand its ad tech business, Flipkart, India’s second largest (and the largest homegrown) ecommerce marketplace, launched its demand-side platform (DSP) in early 2021. 

Flipkart launched the demand side platform with aim to “innovate and unlock power of ecommerce in the ecosystem”. This custom-built platform is an attempt to strengthen its advertising as well as monetization portfolio. 

DSP will allow brands across all scales and categories to engage with Flipkart’s ever-expanding customer base. It will also allow them to make data-driven decisions when purchasing online ads and help design effective marketing campaigns. That’s not all, DSP will also allow brands on Flipkart to leverage data and control every aspect of their ad campaigns. 

What makes Flipkart DSP unique? 

There are many factors that make Flipkart’s DSP desirable and essential for brands. The most important factor is their in-depth understanding of the average Indian consumer. Today, Flipkart has a base of at least 300 million registered customers, stocking more than 150 million products in over 80 categories. This enables them to get into the depth and scale of consumer psyche and purchase patterns. 

Flipkart’s DSP is applicable to all of its categories – from banking and education to FMCG. What it can offer is deep consumer intelligence, which includes data that is otherwise inaccessible to brands hoping to make it big on the marketplace. Its toolkit allows brands to execute smart and targeted campaigns across a customer’s shopping journey. This consumer intelligence, paired with several other features on this self-serve model, has the potential to impact your brand’s online engagement and influence buying preferences. 

When it comes to the number of options available for online engagement, marketers today are overloaded. However, they’re in pursuit of engaging a very specific set of consumers to maximize returns and build relevance. A demand side platform can help brands purchase ad inventory, regardless of format or genre. So it only makes sense for advertisers to adopt the data-driven advertising avenue offered by Flipkart. DSP steps in here to offer:

  • Data on online purchase patterns and demographics
  • Meaningful and relevant audience insights 
  • Intelligence of millions of websites 
  • Real-time analysis and management of campaigns across publisher networks 
  • Capabilities to build long-term marketing campaigns 
  • Insights in combination with the scale of open exchange inventory 

Get full-funnel marketing solutions for Flipkart

Interesting in learning how you can best leverage the opportunities presented by Flipkart’s demand side platform? Tenovia can help you discover new growth possibilities with our end-to-end marketing services tailored for Flipkart. Our tailored campaigns are designed to boost engagement, conversions, and brand loyalty – including on Flipkart DSP. 

Since 70% of all ecommerce searches are generic in their content, there is a world of possibilities for your brand to leverage this and become visible to the right shoppers. With Tenovia, you can boost you brand’s visibility across the funnel and take advantage of both paid and organic marketing on Flipkart. 

Get in touch with the marketplace management experts at Tenovia and map your journey forward on Flipkart DSP.

Tenovia’s Six-Point Plan to Simplify Your Ecommerce Journey

What does it take to succeed in the ever-evolving world of ecommerce? As technology advances and competition heats up, you will need to look beyond the tried-and-tested strategies that used to work for ecommerce businesses. What you need today is end-to-end ecommerce marketplace support managed by experienced professionals who can look at the big picture and the finer details to support your ecommerce business. But just because the technology or strategy is complicated, doesn’t mean that the journey has to be. 

Here are six ways Tenovia can help simplify the process for you and become invaluable to your ecommerce business.

Analytics

While data is valuable, the ability to analyze and draw strategies from it is priceless. That’s exactly what analytics can do for your business. With data, you can identify what’s working for you and what’s not, and unlock ways to boost your revenue. Tenovia’s ecommerce analytics services can help your business across various functions including merchandising, supply chain, inventory, technology, marketing, and regional utilization. 

What gives our marketplace management services the edge is the methodology. We track and publish over 180 metrics across all functions, give you a detailed understanding of the various pain points and bottlenecks in your business, and create a plan of action to unblock these revenue streams through actionable insights. We also help you prioritize and monitor the progress of the executed actions. 

Marketing 

Ecommerce marketing has evolved from just branding and performance advertising. Today, you will also have to consider omnichannel cross-platform marketing with accurate targeting. When done right, it can dramatically improve your brand’s awareness, engagement, trials and sales, and customer loyalty. That’s why, we offer full-funnel ecommerce marketplace support through customized marketing campaigns on Amazon, Flipkart, BigBasket, Myntra, Snapdeal, Google, YouTube, Swiggy, Blinkit, and social media platforms. 

What does it exactly entail? Everything from understanding the stock positions and availability of your products, competitor offerings, customer behaviors, product rankings, as well as reviews and ratings of your products. At Tenovia, we make it a point to align to your business’ strategic objectives – be it new product launches, seasonal or special events, or sustainable marketing. 

Marketplace support 

When it comes to effective ecommerce marketplace support, speed of execution is everything. And for ecommerce businesses, creating a talented in-house team can take time and slow down your growth plans. To help mitigate these uncertainties, Tenovia’s experts can step in to help you manage marketplace accounts, list products with optimized content and visuals across channels, and identify actions that boost your revenue. Currently, we offer marketplace support in three main domains – account management, channel strategy, and content creation. 

Digital transformation 

If rapid ecommerce growth is on your priority list, you will need to invest in the right structures – that’s people and processes. Tenovia’s gamut of ecommerce consulting services includes helping businesses with organizational design to track and prioritize key metrics across functions. 

If you’re still new to the ecommerce business transformation process, we will help you find answers to a few all-important questions related to making changes in the organization, necessary investments, technology, marketing, etc. We bring experts from various domains and functions to help you create digital demand and turn it into a revenue opportunity. 

Here’s how our process works:   

  1. We start by understanding your brand, team, processes, and current metrics. 
  2. Next, we initiate education sessions for your teams and functions and highlight how your brand can improve.  
  3. We then guide your team and identify or co-create projects that will boost key metrics and maximize impact. 
  4. We take over project governance and deliver sustainable transformation for your organization.
  5. We also coordinate with you to enable structural changes based on the project’s progress, not shying away from recommending difficult changes. 
  6. Once your team is fully equipped to take it forward, typically within 4-6 months, we transfer IP to your internal teams. 

Platform integration 

If you’re looking to run your ecommerce business on platforms such as Magento or Shopify, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve helped build hundreds of websites for ecommerce clients across industries and platforms, keeping in mind various complexities, current and projected revenue sizes, team sizes, technological capabilities, and many other factors. Our ecommerce marketplace support services include design thinking-led UI/UX experiences, agile practices and methodologies, and setting up key metrics for optimum measurability. 

Technology products 

Tenovia’s marketplace management services also include two in-house technology products to boost your ecommerce presence and revenue. ‘Tensight’ is a central ecommerce dashboard that gives you complete control of your ecommerce business and empowers you to make informed decisions through data-driven analytics. ‘10commerce’, on the other hand, is an automated ecommerce platform for B2B manufacturers and wholesale distributors that enables them to reduce time-to-market and boost ROI with better business discovery. 
Ready to up your ecommerce game? Make Tenovia’s marketplace management services a part of your blueprint and let the results speak for themselves!

Make Your Online Marketplace Listing More Valuable with Market Basket Analysis

Let’s say you’re an FMCG brand and your customer is searching for ingredients on your marketplace listing to make Poha. While they’re adding flattened rice to the cart, they realize they may also need some peanuts, oil, and spices, maybe even some spicy sev. What if you could automatically predict this behavior and suggest additional products as your customer is viewing your online marketplace listing? It would certainly mean more value for your customer and more sales for you.

Say hello to market basket analysis (MBA)

With analytics now playing a bigger role in digital marketing, upselling and cross-selling have become ubiquitous in online marketplace management, and market basket analysis is a must-have tool to derive valuable customer insights.

  • What exactly is it?

To put it technically, market basket analysis is a data-mining technique that can help you understand and predict purchasing patterns in a retail space by showing you how customers connect different items on a marketplace listing.

  • How does it work?

At the heart of market basket analysis is association rule learning, a machine learning technique that creates relationships among variables within a dataset. If your customers are looking for notebooks, they’re also likely to purchase pens. If they’re looking for a smartphone, they’re probably also looking to buy screen guards, earphones, or power banks. If they’re buying a sandwich, they may want a beverage to go with it. Market basket analysis discovers these connections and establishes relationships between products using statistical affinity calculations.

  • How does it help?

Analyzing your customers’ behavior and purchase patterns allows you to make improved product recommendations and promotional campaigns, as well as fine tune product bundles and placements on your online marketplace listing. Ultimately, when done right, market basket analysis can help you improve customer engagement, customer experience, sales, and ROI.

The A to Z of MBA: Basic terminologies to know

Before you jump into finding the right marketplace management services for you, it is important to equip yourself with the right knowledge, or at least the right terminology. Here are the most important ones:

  • Itemset: A collection of products your customer purchases
  • Antecedent: The first product that your customer purchases or places in the checkout cart
  • Consequent: The product purchased as a result of the antecedent item
  • Support: The probability of the antecedent event occurring, or the general popularity of the product
  • Confidence: The measure of the probability that your customer will purchase a ‘consequent’ item after the ‘antecedent’ item
  • Lift: The efficiency of the rule in finding consequences, as compared to a random selection of transactions 

The formula for market basket analysis The most popular algorithm used in market basket analysis is Apriori. It conducts frequent itemset mining as well as association rule learning, which we mentioned above, used with relational databases. Apriori leverages a bottom-up approach by extending frequent items one at a time and testing them against available datasets (explained in the formula below).

Revisiting the example of the delicious Poha, the Apriori algorithm uses this rule of association formula and tells you to promote spices and other items when customers search for ingredients – thereby increasing your average order value. 

Three types of market basket analysis techniques

There are various other algorithms used for market basket analysis, the primary difference being how differently datasets are utilized.

  • Descriptive MBA
    The most commonly used approach, this technique derives customer insights based only on past data. Descriptive market basket analysis uses statistical modeling (unsupervised learning) to rate associations. It does not make any predictions.  
  • Predictive MBA

This technique uses sequential data to identify cross-selling opportunities. Predictive market basket analysis uses supervised learning models such as regression and classification, mimicking the market to analyze cause and effect.  

  • Differential MBA

Ideal for competitor analysis, differential market basket analysis determines interesting customer behavior patterns by comparing purchase histories across stores, seasons, time periods, days of the week, etc. It can help you identify intangible customer preferences – such as why customers choose a specific marketplace, even when the same product is available at the same price on both platforms. The answer could be delivery time, customer experience, warehouse volumes, or another factor that was previously unknown.

Integrate market basket analysis easily with TenSight

Not sure how to begin integrating market basket analysis into your business?

TenSight – Tenovia’s central ecommerce analytics dashboard – allows you to make data-driven business decisions that are better, quicker, and more accurate. The dashboard comprises centralized data from all major ecommerce platforms and offers actionable insights.

With our expertise, we’ve helped a global denim brand achieve a 3x boost in conversion, 3x clickthrough rate, and 15% growth in brand SOV. We’ve helped a national footwear brand achieve a 40% boost in profitability and over 1 Cr in savings. TenSight has also helped increase regional utilization in ecommerce warehouses, and reduce delivery time and cost per shipment. To know more about TenSight and our marketplace management services, talk to us today.

Throwing light on ecommerce Analytics to expand your business.

The centrality of data:

Running an ecommerce business can be a profitable or loss-making venture, depending on how you strategize and handle things. If you want your eCommerce store to generate consistent profits, it is essential to understand, monitor, and analyze critical data from your online store. If you have the required expertise, you can do it yourself or you can contact an agency to get result-oriented digital eCommerce solutions.

Identifying crucial metrics:

Every business has different goals, so you have to set your KPIs/Key Performance Indicators accordingly. But there are certain metrics that are common and important in most eCommerce businesses. To help you get started, we’ve listed out some of the most important metrics that you should be analyzing on a timely basis for the best result. Take a note of all the metrics discussed below, and start using them to make data-backed decisions at the earliest.

  1. Conversion Rate:

One of the most important metrics you cannot afford to ignore is the conversion rate. It lets you know how many visitors turned into paying customers. You can find this metric displayed in your eCommerce platform’s dashboard. Alternatively, you can also calculate it by dividing the number of purchases by the number of total visitors for a set period. You can dive deep into this metric by finding out the conversion rate based on the traffic source, device type, fresh vs. old customer, and more. The insights you’ll get will help you to reassess your strategy for the better. 

  1. Revenue:

The eCommerce analytics list can never be complete without revenue. If you want to maximize your profits, don’t look at the revenue figure as a whole and segregate it to get meaningful data. You can segregate revenue to identify the sources or platforms that bring in the most sales. If you’re using email campaigns, social media platforms, blogs, paid ads, and more ways to generate revenue, it is essential to find out which method brings the most sales. You may want to scale the methods that brought the highest revenue and reassess your plans on the least sale generating method. It requires a lot of logical thinking, prior experience, market knowledge, and more, so it is best to take the help of eCommerce consulting services. 

  1. Product-wise conversion rate:

If your store has various products, it is important to scrutinize the product-wise information. Doing so will let you know about your product-wise inventory status, the best performing products, and the worst-performing products. You can use these insights to make changes to your current inventory plan. Hiring someone with expertise in the eCommerce marketplace can be a huge plus for you and make things a lot easier. You can also check product-wise cart abandonment rates and come up with ways to boost conversions. If your eCommerce platform doesn’t offer in-built responders to get back abandoned carts, it’s time you get it implemented by professionals at the earliest.

  1. Average Order Value:

Knowing the Average Order Value (AOV) is crucial to understand the purchasing capacity of every buyer. You can use this metric to create better strategies for growth and even increase the AOV for higher profits. Let us understand AOV with an example. If your website earned a total revenue of $ 25,000 last month, and the total number of sales was 760, the AOV will be $ 32.89. So on average, every order on your store fetches you revenue worth $ 32. 89, and you should look for ways to increase this figure.

  1. Percentage of repeat customers/ returning buyers:

Repeat customers are a boon to any business; hence, it becomes crucial to keep an eye on any figure related to them. Since these customers have liked your products and made repeated purchases, you can significantly increase your profits by pushing more products to them and offering special discounts exclusive to them. If done correctly, insights gained from this one analytic can help take your business to another level.

Key Factors to Help Brands Decide the Right Discount for Products during a Sale Period

Key Factors to Help Brands Decide the Right Discount for Products during a Sale Period

Starting a business and taking it forward requires a good amount of planning and implementation of novel ideas. Through various advertisements and other promotion techniques, the glory of your brand can be propagated by the word of mouth. Among the many strategies they take up, the most attractive one for the customers is the discount offers for their favorite products.

Nobody likes the idea of losing money even if it’s for the purchase of their favorite products. People always look out for discounts because it provides a feeling of not losing so much money even though it may be only partly true in reality. Since its crucial point in marketing and sales, the company should give proper care while deciding the discount rates for different products.

Providing discounts for materials is a great way of luring customers into your shops and gaining desired profits. But any action done without proper research and calculations can be of fatal impact to you and your brand’s financial structure. Any mistake could result in the deterioration of your name and product.

Therefore it advisable to look out for the necessary details before granting discounts to customers. First of all, align all actions to a fixed list of objectives. The right amount of background work on tentative discount rates and corresponding profit reports can help you taste success. Following are a few steps you should focus on:

The category and quality of your brand 

It is crucial to identify the category of your brand before placing it under any discount rate. For instance, if a particular product of yours falls under the category of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), it is not desirable to fix a high discount rate. It also directly depends on the quality of your product and brand name. If it is not premium, then the rate of discount should solely be focused on the available stock and target income. ‘Buy one get one free’ offers are the best ones to implement in such situations. 

The season of the market 

The requirements by customers vary a lot with corresponding to the seasons or festive occasions. The retailers have to keep these in mind while deciding on the discount price. This has to go in tally with the availability of products. In case you need to empty the old stock of products, then devise a plan including mass discount rates. The sales should be controlled according to the intake and response from buyers. 

The aging of your product 

Since the sales market is a very unpredictable place of action, the businessmen should be alert and vigilant. You have got the responsibility to sell off as many products as possible and also devise a plan for dealing with those which couldn’t get sold. While providing alluring discount rates, no compromise should be made on the quality of the product. This shouldn’t be leading to the dissatisfaction of customers. There should be a proper balance between the two.

In desperate cases where the product is aged a lot, some compromises need to be made while fixing its discount price. The resulting tension can be solved by clubbing them with other products and providing combo offers. If you are planning to get rid of your liquidation stock, the end of season sale (EOSS) is the best way to go about it. Flash sales during festive seasons can also help in increasing customer response.

Keeping up with the annual target 

Before starting on a business venture, the primary work should be done on the paper regarding the flow of income. A record of the total earning, income, and expenditure should be kept up to date. The profit and loss (P&L) statements should be monitored every month. Based on the balance sheet, the discount offers should be implemented to cancel off payment loss. If in any case the revenue target of the previous month is not met then it should be added and compensated in the next month’s sales. The discount rates in flash sales should be fixed accordingly.

Eying on the competition 

Before fixing the price of a particular product of your brand, you should be aware of other rival brands offering competition in the same area. The difference in prices of the two brands can make a huge difference collectively. By understanding and analyzing the trends in the market, you’ll get a clear picture of how to implement the plan. Even the slightest 1% increase in your discount price can result in a massive profit gain for your brand.

By keeping all these points in mind and acting accordingly, you could surely devise a plan and fix the discount rates for the products in a way that ensures final profit.