Ecommerce replenishment planning

When Your Best Sellers Keep Sneaking Out the Back Door

Ecommerce replenishment planning becomes essential the moment your top sellers begin disappearing faster than your purchasing team can react. At first, inventory feels abundant. Then a promotion lands harder than expected, or a new influencer posts your product, and suddenly your best mover sits at zero while customers line up for back-in-stock notifications. Without structured replenishment, the warehouse becomes a revolving door of guesses instead of a stable system that keeps product available and orders flowing without drama.

Search interest around replenishment planning has grown as ecommerce brands expand SKU counts and channels. When you go from 10 SKUs to 200, instinct stops working. Forecasting cannot be improvised. Replenishment schedules cannot live inside one person's memory. Inventory accuracy, seasonality, supplier timelines, and fulfillment velocity all collide inside a single process. If any piece falls out of alignment, the entire chain feels it.

Why Replenishment Breaks More Often Than Teams Expect

Most brands underestimate replenishment complexity. They assume suppliers will deliver quickly, demand will behave neatly, and returns will not distort available stock. Reality suggests otherwise. Supplier timelines fluctuate. Trending SKUs spike unpredictably. Returns reenter inventory with delays. Stock counts drift when warehouses rely on paper or tribal knowledge rather than scan-based truth.

Maureen Milligan, Director of Operations and Projects at G10, sees these patterns clearly. She explains that "most of the customers who come to us from another 3PL, their challenges have always been access to their data, order accuracy and efficiency, and meeting the committed requirements." Replenishment depends on all three.

Accurate Inventory as the First Non-Negotiable

Replenishment begins with honest inventory. If available stock reflects outdated guesses instead of real counts, every decision downstream becomes compromised. Forecasts overshoot. Purchase orders arrive too late. Safety stock shrinks without warning. To replenish with confidence, brands need scan accuracy, cycle counting, and clean intake of returns.

Connor Perkins, Director of Fulfillment at G10, puts it simply. "You want everything to be scanned in the warehouse, nothing done on paper." Scan discipline keeps replenishment anchored in reality, not estimates.

Understanding True Demand Beyond the Raw Numbers

Not all demand signals reflect actual consumer appetite. Promotional spikes distort short-term patterns. Backorders inflate perceived demand. Preorders shift timelines. Returns complicate sell-through math. Replenishment planning must account for each of these so that buy plans do not chase noise.

G10’s ChannelPoint system evaluates clean sell-through rates at the SKU level, separating signal from distortion so forecasting models do not misinterpret unusual events as normal behavior.

Seasonality and the Unpleasant Surprise Effect

Some SKUs behave steadily year-round. Others surge during holidays, drops, or themed promotions. Without seasonality adjustments, replenishment models treat spikes as anomalies or treat anomalies as trends. Either misread leads to stockouts or bloated inventory.

ChannelPoint tracks seasonal curves so brands can order early, stage inventory appropriately, and distribute stock across the network as seasonal patterns shift.

Supplier Timelines: The Variable Most Teams Ignore

Suppliers rarely operate at the speed brands hope for. Lead times change due to raw materials, production cycles, and transit delays. A 30-day lead time one month may become 45 days the next. Replenishment planning that assumes stable timelines sets itself up for stockouts.

G10 incorporates supplier data into replenishment models so order timing aligns with real-world production cycles instead of optimistic assumptions.

Safety Stock as a Strategic Buffer

Safety stock is not guesswork. It is calculated risk protection. Fast movers deserve more buffer. Slow movers deserve less. SKUs with long supplier lead times require more safety. SKUs with local or flexible suppliers may require less. When safety stock is calculated correctly, stockouts drop dramatically without turning your warehouse into a museum of dusty cartons.

G10 advises brands on balancing safety stock with storage constraints so the warehouse remains efficient without risking availability.

Multi-Node Replenishment for Faster Delivery

Ecommerce replenishment planning becomes more complex in a multi-warehouse environment. A central warehouse may serve as the primary replenishment hub, while regional nodes hold fast-moving SKUs. Each node requires its own replenishment cycle, safety stock model, and transfer cadence to keep all regions stocked without unnecessary redundancy.

G10’s network across South Carolina, Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona, and Texas supports regional demand patterns and inventory balancing so SKUs sit closer to the customers who order them most.

Automation and Replenishment Stability

Automation does not place purchase orders, but it dramatically improves the data that informs them. Zebra autonomous robots inside G10 facilities reduce fatigue, stabilize pick paths, and lower error rates. That consistency improves SKU velocity measurements, which flow directly into replenishment logic.

Holly Woods, Director of Operations at G10, highlights their role. "The Zebra robots are allowing efficiency with pick paths. They are lowering fatigue on employees." Better data equals better replenishment.

Integrating Replenishment Across Channels

DTC, marketplace, and B2B channels all draw from the same inventory. If replenishment planning focuses only on one channel, the others suffer. A sudden wholesale PO can wipe out safety stock for ecommerce. Marketplace spikes can starve retail programs. Replenishment must consider the entire demand ecosystem.

G10 uses unified data from ChannelPoint to evaluate true cross-channel demand rather than planning in channel-specific silos.

Returns and the Mirage of False Inventory

Returned items may appear available but require inspection before reentering sellable stock. If replenishment models assume immediate availability, inventory will appear healthier than it is. That false confidence creates delayed stockouts and disrupted buying cycles.

Joel Malmquist, VP of Customer Experience at G10, emphasizes classification. "It looks good, we are going to restock this, or it looks damaged, we are going to either dispose of it or put it in a quarantine area." Clean classification protects replenishment from false signals.

Predictive Alerts Instead of Last-Minute Panic

Replenishment planning should generate alerts early enough to prevent crisis mode. When reorder points are connected to real-time inventory, rising velocity, and supplier lead times, the system can alert buyers before a SKU becomes dangerously low.

ChannelPoint provides KPI visibility so operators can see dips in inventory velocity and adjust replenishment plans calmly instead of reacting after the fact.

Building a Replenishment Rhythm

The most effective replenishment strategies develop a predictable cadence. Weekly, biweekly, or monthly buying cycles keep operations smooth and prevent emergency orders. Over time, that rhythm supports better supplier pricing, more efficient freight, and clearer forecasting.

G10 helps brands build this discipline by pairing SKU velocity patterns with consistent purchasing intervals.

When Replenishment Supports Growth Instead of Hindering It

A well-built replenishment program keeps fast movers in stock, protects seasonal inventory, reduces stockouts, and stabilizes fulfillment. Customers stop experiencing random outages. Support teams stop apologizing. Operations stop playing catch-up.

Mark Becker, CEO and founder of G10, reflects this mindset clearly. "We are going to grow with them." Replenishment planning is one of the quiet foundations that makes that growth possible.

When You Are Ready for Inventory That Behaves Predictably

If your staff spends too much time chasing stockouts, expediting purchase orders, or guessing lead times, replenishment planning may be the most transformative upgrade you can make. With structured forecasting, accurate inventory, and supplier-aware logic, your ecommerce operation becomes stable instead of fragile.

When your brand is ready to treat replenishment as a strategy instead of an emergency response, G10 can help you design a planning system that keeps your shelves stocked and your customers satisfied.