Did you start planning for the upcoming Black Friday and Cyber Monday season? This year, Black Friday starts on November 29, leading to Cyber Monday on December 2. 🗓️ Considering last year's Black Friday sales in the US reached $9.5 billion 🤯,  the better you prepare to take advantage of this high sales potential, the more successful your eCommerce store will be!

Planning your inventory is critical because it's the key to running sales smoothly. But that only happens if you choose an efficient solution for inventory planning. So, can Excel be that solution? 🤔 Considering its error-prone, time-consuming nature, lack of automation, and limited capabilities, it doesn’t seem so. In this blog, we'll dive into details of why Excel might not be the ideal inventory solution while BFCM is around the corner and explore better alternatives for your eCommerce store. Let's get started!

The Limitations of Excel for BFCM Inventory Planning 🚧

You may find Excel sufficient for your inventory planning needs if you have few products and a small customer base. However, it's a different story for growing eCommerce stores with an increasing number and variety of products. Excel falls short as a planning tool for such eCommerce stores due to its limitations: it’s prone to human error, lacks real-time data and automation, and has limited forecasting capabilities and stability issues. Especially during high-demand periods like BFCM, these shortcomings can negatively impact your eCommerce store’s success.

⚠️ Prone to Human Error in Inventory Management

Did you know nearly 9 out of 10 spreadsheets contain errors? One of the biggest challenges of using Excel for inventory planning is the risk of human error. 🤦‍♂️ This issue becomes especially problematic when managing large volumes of data or complex calculations during busy seasons like BFCM. The more products and SKUs you have, the more difficult it becomes to ensure accuracy in your spreadsheets.

Excel relies heavily on manual data entry, which means a minor mistake can have significant consequences. 📉 Imagine entering a product number with an extra zero. This simple mistake could result in ordering ten times the amount of stock you actually need, leading to significant overstock during BFCM and unnecessary costs. On the other hand, a different data entry error could cause you to order fewer products than needed, leading to out-of-stock issues. This could result in missed sales opportunities during the high-demand BFCM period.

• Do you want to learn how to eliminate overstock during peak seasons? You can read Advent Calendars with Preorder Strategy.

🔮 Inadequate Demand Forecasting Capabilities

Wouldn't the best way to make a good plan for BFCM be to accurately predict future demand? You need more than just basic calculations and trend analysis from Excel to achieve this. You must benefit from seasonality and conduct a comprehensive sales data analysis.

You can significantly understand the fluctuations of the upcoming BFCM season by examining the trends from the previous season. That's exactly what advanced inventory planning software, like Fabrikatör, aims to do. With Fabrikatör, you can analyze the previous peak season’s sales data, understand how the demand changes throughout this process, set realistic goals for upcoming BFCM, and make this peak season much more profitable. 💸

You can try to do this with Excel, but your historical data might not be 100% accurate, negatively impacting your plans' quality. Additionally, analyzing specific periods in Excel can be very time-consuming. Instead of spending so much time preparing for a busy season like BFCM, you can use an advanced inventory planning tool. This way, you'll create more realistic plans, prevent potential inventory issues, and potentially earn more than the previous season.

📌 Are you unsure what to do before, during, and after the next BFCM season? Don’t worry! Check out our Inventory Planning Playbook for practical strategies for efficient inventory management and handling the busy season like a pro.

📉 Limited Real-Time Data When Planning Stock

Real-time data is important for planning and managing inventory before and even after the BFCM season.

🗓️ Before peak season, it directly affects the quality of the forecasts you make during the planning stage. Using real-time data helps you create more effective plans with more accurate information.

🗓️ During BFCM, demand can suddenly and significantly increase, making it essential to track your inventory data in real-time and quickly make necessary adjustments. For example, if one of your products starts selling faster due to an unexpected trend, you should detect the issue quickly and focus on replenishing stock or accept backorders for this temporary stock out.

🗓️ After BFCM, real-time data provides valuable insights for evaluating performance and identifying areas for improvement, enabling you to refine your strategy for future seasons.

Unfortunately, Excel falls short of these tasks as it lacks real-time data. This means you could make decisions based on outdated data when planning inventory for BFCM and struggle to take necessary action on time during this season.

For example, if a particular product starts selling faster and more than expected, you need to know immediately to create a purchase order for more products and avoid being out of stock. When you realize a product is selling faster than anticipated with Excel, it might already be too late to restock. The result? Lost sales and frustrated customers, both of which can have long-term consequences for your business.

Without real-time updates and the need for manual data entry, Excel makes it hard to react quickly to sudden spikes or drops in demand during BFCM. Similarly, you cannot evaluate your store’s performance after the high season ends due to a lack of real-time inventory information.

🤖 Lack of Automation in Inventory Planning

With automation technologies advancing quickly, are you still relying on Excel for inventory planning? 🫢 Especially during a busy period like BFCM, trying to manually track every inventory planning and management process step can lead to missing critical details.

The lack of automation in Excel means you must constantly monitor inventory levels and manually reorder stock as needed. Additionally, you’ll have to manually compile and analyze data, increasing the chances of mistakes and slowing down decision-making during critical times. However, with an advanced inventory planning tool, you can automatically see the results of your analyses, make quick decisions, and efficiently adjust your inventory during BFCM.

🔄 Inventory Scalability Issues

As your eCommerce business grows, the number of product SKUs you manage in Excel spreadsheets also increases, making the system more cumbersome and less efficient. Managing a few SKUs in Excel might be manageable, but dealing with hundreds or thousands of products might be challenging. Consequently, tracking all the inventory data and detecting mistakes becomes more difficult. As a result, you end up wasting valuable time that could be spent developing strategies to boost sales before BFCM due to Excel's inefficiency. 📉

So, as you prepare for the upcoming BFCM, ask yourself: Can your business afford the risks of using Excel? If the answer is no, it might be time to explore more robust solutions that can help you meet the demands of this critical sales period.

📌 For a successful BFCM season, you need more than inventory planning; you need tools to support your operations, including marketing, finance, fulfillment, and more. Check out our blog, where we've compiled the best apps to help you through it all: 10 Top Shopify Apps for Successful BFCM.

So, what can you use instead of Excel to manage the BFCM process efficiently and smoothly? Of course, it is a reliable advanced inventory tool. 🛠️📊

Why is Inventory Planning Software Better Than Excel When Planning Inventory for BFCM?

The answer is simple: Excel wasn’t designed for inventory planning, but inventory management software was.💡That’s why inventory planning software is:

🔹 Automatized and fast inventory management:

Inventory management software automates many tasks, such as replenishment, that would take hours in Excel. With features like real-time updates and automated restocking, you can manage inventory much faster and more accurately.

🔹 Better at forecasting and planning inventory for peak seasons:

Advanced software provides accurate forecasts for your eCommerce store using historical data, market trends, and seasonality. Unlike Excel, which relies on manual updates and can be prone to errors, these tools offer powerful algorithms for predicting demand.

📌 Would you like to prepare your eCommerce store efficiently and ensure you cover every operational task before, during, and after BFCM? You can use our Operational Checklist for BFCM 2024.

🔹 Equipped with essential stock management features & integrations:

Inventory software provides features like backorders and preorders to make your eCommerce store more flexible and strong to manage customer expectations effectively. However, Excel lacks these capabilities.

By offering preorders before BFCM, you can predict demand, test new products before they officially launch, understand customer preferences, and adjust your inventory plans. 🛍️ Additionally, early sales can provide you with crucial cash flow to support your business operations. 💸 On the other hand, by accepting backorders, you can continue selling and generating revenue even when you're out of stock, keeping your store profitable and ensuring that customers can keep shopping, which helps maintain their satisfaction. During peak seasons like BFCM, these tools help overcome possible inventory challenges by managing stockout and generating cash flow even when temporarily out of stock. 📦

📌 Would you like to learn the most efficient way of using preorders and backorders for BFCM? Read How to Use Preorders & Backorders for BFCM.

Long story short, migrating from Excel to a dedicated inventory management software like Fabrikatör can help you overcome the limitations of spreadsheets during high-demand seasons like BFCM. Unlike Excel, Fabrikatör offers seamless automation, up-to-date insights, and essential features like preorders and backorders. This transition helps you to manage inventory efficiently and stay ahead during peak seasons like BFCM. If you’re looking for a comprehensive solution that does it all, Fabrikatör is your answer.✨

Fabrikatör: Your Ultimate Inventory Planning Assistant for BFCM

By quickly switching from Excel to Fabrikatör, you can prepare your eCommerce store efficiently for the upcoming BFCM season! You can regain control over your inventory that you lost with Excel.

With [Fabrikatör](https://apps.shopify.com/fabrikator?), you'll navigate the BFCM season with fewer inventory headaches and greater profits this year. 👍

• You can be more proactive when planning inventory: make more realistic plans 📈 with Fabrikatör’s advanced inventory planning, avoid last-minute POs and stock issues during BFCM,
• With backorders and preorders, you can enhance your eCommerce store’s profitability, resilience, and forecasting capabilities,
• You don’t need to stress about when to restock anymore 🔄; Fabrikatör handles it automatically.
• Enhance your operations with essential integrations like 📧 Klaviyo, 📦 ShipHero, QuickBooks, and more to streamline your BFCM management.
• Have better control over past data with 📊 powerful analytics to be better prepared for the upcoming peak season,
• Choose the most 💸 cost-efficient purchasing routes to decrease your costs with freight planning,

…and more! With limited time left before BFCM, you don’t have to get lost in Excel data.

Would you like to learn why Fabrikatör is a better inventory planning solution than Excel, especially for peak seasons like BFCM? You can learn in only 30 minutes.

👉 Click here to see Fabrikatör in action.