- What is OOS?
OOS (Out Of Stock) is the situation where you have no stock to fulfill an order already placed by a customer.
Once a customer orders one of your products on Jumia, you have 24 hours to drop the package to your assigned hub and update the status of the item on Vendor Center. Otherwise, your order will be cancelled as Out of Stock.
- Why is it crucial?
– Business success on Jumia is highly dependent on stock management. Customers don’t want to order an item which is not currently available in your stock.
– The impact of avoiding OOS is two-fold:
1. Customers will buy a similar product from another seller and might not buy again from your shop.
2. In the case of overselling, you will be required to cancel the orders and consequently pay a penalty fee to Jumia (see more here).
TIP 1: Connect to your Seller Center once a day.
Get into the habit of connecting to your Vendor Center once a day to check that you don’t have any new orders. If you have some, fulfil them as soon as possible (click here to get help on how you can fulfil your orders).
Follow these instructions to see if you have new orders: Orders -> Manage Orders -> Pending
TIP 2: Check if the ordered items are available in your Jumia inventory.
Get into the habit of scheduling inventory count and updating your Vendor Center at least once a day.
Here are a few tips to be sure you will avoid OOS by managing well your inventory:
– Never overstate your stock quantity in Vendor Center.
– Do not wait for new stock to arrive to fulfil the order, unless the stock will arrive within 24 hours.
Below are some instructions on how to update your inventory in Vendor Center:
A) On your Vendor Center account, click on Products → Manage products
B) On the “Available” column, click on the pen. In the field “Allocated stock”, write the stock currently available.
TIP 3: Always process orders from oldest to most recent.
This aims to fix FIFO (First In, First Out) issue, by processing your orders.
– Sort pending orders by aging before processing them.
– Ensure orders are printed, picked and packed from oldest to new.
– Ensure the oldest orders are dropped on time.
TIP 4: Follow a schedule for order processing. Start the day by taking care of Jumia’s orders.
Here is what to do to avoid missing out fulfilling orders issue:
– Know the Drop-Off location opening hours (click here to get information about the VDO locations)
– Always ensure you have sufficient resources to process all orders.
– Monitor email and SMS regularly for new orders alert.
TIP 5: Be sure that your online shop is offline when you are not able to fulfill orders.
– Always schedule Holiday Mode 2 working days before your shop closure.
– Process all pending orders before your shop closure.
Click here to know more about Holiday mode.
