The eCommerce merchants dealt with some shortages in 2022 and some of them are forecasted to be last until the end of 2023. Therefore, to help them plan for the stock, materials, products as well as avoid disrupting their selling and losing revenues; our article today will list 5 possible kinds of shortage that can affect your eCommerce business this year.
You May Deal With These 5 Shortage In 2023
Semiconductor Shortage
In recent years, semiconductor has been in high demand; due to the rapid development of technology, electrical equipment, smart devices and so on. While the semiconductor inventory in 2019 can last for 40 days, that inventory status becomes empty after only 5 days in this year. The conversion between high demand and low supply of chip production has put a lot of pressure on the eCommerce merchants. Moreover, semiconductors manufacturing has less connection with the end-users so it is really hard to estimate the accurate needs. Therefore, the eCommerce businesses who sell products related to this industry, need to find some approaches to avoid overselling as well as strengthen inventory management.
Aluminum Shortage
Another kind of shortage which can cause a negative impact on your eCommerce selling activities is an aluminum shortage. Aluminum is the primary source of material to make various types of products; such as aluminum cans for the beverage market, aluminum accessories for equipment and so on. Therefore, the aluminum shortage does not only negatively affect the manufacturers but also affects the end-users. Besides the high need of this material, the considerably cutting down on aluminum production in some countries to reduce carbon emissions can cause the shortage. The aluminum overselling is predicted to last till the end of 2022; so the eCommerce merchants, who sell and distribute related kinds of products will need to pay special attention to the sky-high demand and ventilate the good flows.
Plastics Shortage
The next shortage is no longer strange with the eCommerce merchants in recent years. Due to the destruction of some factories in Texas last year and continuous increasing demands for plastics packaging, the plastics shortage is becoming more severe. The Institute for Supply Management has reported that plastics prices rapidly jumped to 1,5 times. While there are some efforts to reduce the prices and increase supply, the significant demand and increasing tax on imported resins will support this shortage to last in the near future.
Lumber Shortage
Lumber, which is one of the main materials for construction, is also on the verge of shortage. In fact, the lumber prices have increased by more than 20% compared with last-year prices; which boosted the price of related construction materials by more than 20%. The eCommerce merchants may need to find solutions to tackle this problem; to ensure consistent stock flows as well as enhance customer retention.
Some Kinds Of Food
The Covid-19 has negatively affected the workers’ health and production productivity so the food industry has been procrastinated. Moreover, the shortages of fertilizer and pesticides also put heavy pressure on the available food ingredients. Therefore, both the food ingredients and final products will be in short supply although the demand will still increase. If you are running an online grocery store this year, the food shortage may bring you a headache.
Conclusion
Those 2022 shortages really need you to deal with the low-stock with appropriate approaches. If you are running an online business on BigCommerce platform, utilizing the BackOrder app will allow customers to buy out-of-stock items and receive the shipment at a later date. All you need to do is pre-setting the items as a backorder; and the order processing will be conducted as normal when the stock is filled.
