Selling the same item in different pack sizes can make inventory planning much more complicated.
A business may sell one item as a single unit, 2-pack, 3-pack, or 4-pack. Add Amazon and other marketplaces, and one underlying item can end up being represented by many different SKUs.
For example, Item ABC could be sold as a single unit, a 2-pack, a 3-pack, and a 4-pack. There may also be different SKUs used for different sales channels. In a growing business, that can quickly become 10, 15, or even more SKUs connected to the same underlying inventory.
The challenge is not simply having more SKUs. The challenge is understanding how those SKUs affect the inventory behind them.
One Item Can Be Sold in Many Ways
Consider a product that has 100 individual units in inventory. The business could sell those units as:
- Single units
- 2-packs
- 3-packs
- 4-packs
The same physical stock is being used to fulfill different types of orders.
A sale of one single unit uses one unit.
A sale of one 2-pack uses two.
A sale of one 4-pack uses four.
So if several pack sizes are selling at the same time, the business needs to understand how those sales affect the underlying inventory. This becomes difficult when each pack size has its own SKU and the team is looking at those SKUs separately.
Why Multiple SKUs Make Planning Difficult
Imagine a business has 15 SKUs that represent different ways of selling the same underlying item.
One SKU may represent a single unit.
Another may represent a 2-pack.
Another may represent a 4-pack.
Some may be sold through the company’s website, while others may be used on marketplaces. If the team only looks at the quantity for each individual SKU, it can be difficult to understand the full demand on the underlying item.
The important question becomes:
How much inventory is actually available after considering all the ways that item is being sold?
That is the part that makes shared inventory planning different from simply managing a long list of SKUs.
Multi-Packs Change How Inventory Is Consumed
Pack sizes also change how quickly inventory is used. For example, 10 orders for a 4-pack require 40 individual units. At the same time, another sales channel could be selling the same item as single units.
Both types of orders are affecting the inventory behind the product. This is why businesses need a clear relationship between the product being sold and the inventory used to fulfill it.
The more pack sizes and selling options a business has, the more important that relationship becomes.
Marketplaces and Fulfillment Locations Add Another Layer
The problem can become even more complicated when products are sold through marketplaces and stored in different locations.
A business may have:
- Website orders
- Amazon orders
- Other marketplace orders
- FBA inventory
- Warehouse inventory
- Single-unit SKUs
- Multi-pack SKUs
The sales activity may look different across each channel, but the business still needs to understand the inventory supporting those sales.
This is especially important when deciding whether there is enough stock to support current and expected demand.
Shared Inventory Also Affects Purchasing
The SKU structure does not only affect inventory tracking. It can also affect purchasing. If several SKUs depend on the same underlying item, purchasing decisions need to consider the demand across those different selling options.
The team may need to look at:
- Current inventory
- Sales and expected demand
- Open sales orders
- Open purchase orders
- Pack sizes
- Reorder levels
- Inventory at different facilities
- Supplier lead times
For example, a single-unit SKU might not appear to have enough demand to trigger a purchase on its own.
But when demand from the 2-pack, 3-pack, 4-pack, and marketplace sales is considered together, the underlying item may need to be replenished sooner.
How Versa Cloud ERP Can Help
Versa Cloud ERP gives businesses several ways to manage this type of product structure.
Versa supports an inventoried product with different trading names, which can be useful when one inventoried item is offered in different ways. It also supports measurement units and unit conversions, so businesses can manage cases, packs, or individual units according to how they buy, sell, and stock products.
For products that are sold as Kits or bundles, Versa supports linking the Kit to its component items. This helps represent what makes up the Kit and how the underlying inventory is used.
Versa also supports inventory management across multiple facilities, along with reorder points and purchasing planning tools.
For Amazon sellers, Versa’s own content specifically describes support for bundled and kitted products, component inventory tracking, centralized stock tracking, and multiple fulfillment centers.
Together, these capabilities can help businesses move away from treating every selling option as an isolated inventory problem.
Instead, the business can define how products are sold, how units relate to the inventory being stocked, and where that inventory is held.
A Simple Way to Look at the Problem
The process can be thought about like this:
One underlying item
↓
Different ways to sell it
↓
Different SKUs and pack sizes
↓
Inventory consumed by each sale
↓
Inventory available across locations
↓
Demand and replenishment planning
This is the relationship that matters when one item supports many different SKUs.
The Bottom Line
Selling a product as a single unit, 2-pack, 3-pack, 4-pack, or marketplace bundle gives a business more ways to sell. But it also creates more work when those selling options depend on the same underlying inventory.
The challenge becomes even greater when inventory is spread across a warehouse, FBA, and other fulfillment locations.
The solution is not simply to create more SKU records. Businesses need to understand the relationship between the products they sell and the inventory they actually stock.
Versa Cloud ERP can help manage these relationships through product, unit, Kit, inventory, facility, and purchasing capabilities. This gives businesses a more connected way to manage the inventory behind multiple selling options and make replenishment decisions based on the bigger inventory picture.
Make Multi-SKU Inventory Easier to Manage
Managing single units, multi-packs, and marketplace SKUs can make inventory planning difficult. With Versa Cloud ERP, businesses can bring product and inventory information together to better understand what is being sold and what inventory supports it.
When different pack sizes and sales channels depend on the same underlying items, having the right inventory management system can make it easier to track stock, plan replenishment, and manage purchasing.
Ready to simplify how you manage products, Kits, and inventory? Request a Versa Cloud ERP Demo.
