Optimize Inventory Allocation Across Vendor Central & Seller Central

Struggling to balance inventory between Vendor Central (1P) and Seller Central (3P)? Poor inventory allocation creates costly problems: stockouts on one channel while excess inventory ties up cash on the other, missed sales opportunities, increased storage fees—all while Amazon's algorithms punish inconsistent availability with ranking drops.

Our Hybrid Inventory Management & Forecasting service solves these challenges with sophisticated demand planning and strategic allocation. We implement unified forecasting, optimize inventory positioning, and coordinate replenishment to prevent stockouts while minimizing carrying costs.

Key Takeaways

Unified Demand Forecasting: Single demand model accounting for both channels, preventing double-counting and allocation errors that plague separate forecasting.

Strategic Channel Allocation: Optimal inventory distribution based on demand patterns, profitability, and operational efficiency.

Stockout Prevention: Proactive management and safety stock optimization prevents lost sales and ranking damage.

Cash Flow Optimization: Reduce excess inventory and carrying costs through precise forecasting, improving working capital efficiency.

Coordinated Replenishment: Synchronized planning for vendor POs (1P) and FBA shipments (3P) prevents allocation conflicts.

The Problem: Hybrid Inventory Management Fails

Demand Forecasting Confusion

Separating 1P and 3P demand creates double-counting risks, making accurate total demand forecasting nearly impossible—leading to systematic over-ordering or under-ordering.

Allocation Guesswork

Without data-driven methodology, brands rely on intuition to split inventory between channels—often creating stockouts on one while excess sits unused on the other.

Vendor PO Unpredictability

Amazon's vendor purchase orders can be erratic—sometimes ordering more than expected, sometimes stopping entirely—making 3P allocation nearly impossible to plan.

Our Strategic Inventory Process

1. Unified Demand Analysis

We create single source of truth: historical sales aggregating both channels, seasonality modeling, growth trend analysis, promotional impact quantification, and statistical demand modeling.

2. Channel-Specific Strategy

We develop optimal allocation rules:

- Profitability-optimized: prioritize higher-margin channel

- Service-level optimized: ensure availability across both

- Working capital optimized: minimize total inventory while preventing stockouts

3. Vendor PO Management

We implement sophisticated 1P planning: PO forecasting based on historical patterns, vendor inventory recommendations, strategic stockout management, and vendor manager communication strategy.

4. FBA Inventory Optimization

We optimize 3P fulfillment: shipment planning synchronized with 1P allocation, IPI optimization to avoid storage limitations, and seasonal positioning for peak periods.

5. Continuous Monitoring

We provide ongoing oversight: weekly inventory positioning review, forecast accuracy tracking and refinement, allocation strategy adjustment, and monthly reporting with recommendations.

Why Choose RT7 Digital for Inventory Management?

Our proprietary forecasting models are specifically designed for hybrid sellers, accurately predicting total demand while accounting for channel-specific variability and Amazon's unpredictable vendor ordering. We've helped clients achieve 67% fewer stockout days, 35% total inventory reduction while improving availability, and 41% reduction in FBA long-term storage fees.