From “oops” to opportunity: How the post-purchase experience can slash excess inventory 

Written by Mariah Parsons on June 28th, 2023

This is an excerpt from Ryder E-commerce by Whiplash’s latest ebook “How to turn surplus into success: Navigating the excess inventory dilemma” by Malomo, order tracking and delivery experience management for high-growth merchants

“Flash Sale”

“Oops, We Made Too Much”

“Warehouse Blowout”

Since the pandemic, e-commerce brands have faced more excess inventory dilemmas. Can brands reduce excess inventory and increase revenue? Yes – and it starts with a strong post-purchase experience.

First things first: You need to establish a foundation

Before you can focus on handling excess inventory, you need to have a strong foundation of loyal customers and repeat purchasers. The building blocks to that foundation? A robust post-purchase experience.

The post-purchase experience is everything that happens after the ‘buy now’ button. Emails, personalized tracking pages, product recommendations, and loyalty and rewards programs are all pivotal moments in the post-purchase experience because they build trust.

Everything brands do post-purchase builds a relationship with their customers. It shows that you really care about them. Checking in on how a product is working for them or sharing new information about products they may be interested in all build a foundation for future purchases.

All customers want is to feel appreciated, and having a solid post-purchase strategy is the key step to getting there. 

My post-purchase experience is solid, what do I do about excess inventory?

A post-purchase experience should do two things really well: advanced order tracking and proactive shipping updates. It’s not enough just to have a generic tracking page and email template—to increase revenue, you must make the most of these tools.

There’s so much more to an order tracking page and email than the order status and updates. They can be excellent tools for reducing excess inventory. Brands can:

• Upsell: Upsells encourage customers to purchase an additional “premium” item after purchasing. But you can’t just try to sell them anything—it needs to be relevant and truly valuable to the customer. 
• Cross-sell: Cross-selling encourages a customer to purchase additional items related to their purchase. So if your customer purchased a matcha tea mix, promoting your limited edition whisk set—that you have way too much of—would be a match(a) made in heaven.
• Gift: Who doesn’t love a freebie? Offering free gifts with purchase is a tried and true way to both get rid of excess inventory and promote customer loyalty. And customers tend to purchase more products to hit a free gift minimum. 

The most critical factor here is relevance. To reduce inventory, brands may try to upsell and cross-sell anything, but it ends up being more work internally with little reward. These promotions should be unique and personalized to the customer’s purchases.

Customer retention remains king

Brands have up to a 70% success rate of selling to an existing customer. So if you’re not focusing on retention, now is the time to switch gears.

To boost customer retention, brands need to focus on three things: personalization, efficiency, and communication. All of these are carried out post-purchase.

Branded order tracking pages offer a unique experience that generic carrier pages can’t match. Aside from order status, tracking pages can be used to promote your products, showcase your social media channels, or provide educational opportunities to your customers. And like email notifications, they keep your customers informed every step of the way. 

So the key to reducing your excess inventory problems and increasing customer retention? It’s all found in the post-purchase experience. 

Want to learn more? Check out the rest of our ebook on how brands can effectively tackle excess inventory and create more opportunities to engage customers: