Fulfillment
What is Replenishment?
Sending more stock to a fulfillment location before it runs out, based on how fast it is selling and how long resupply takes. It is a timing decision, not a size decision, and getting the timing wrong is what causes most stockouts.
Why it matters in practice
Replenishment goes wrong in two directions and both cost money. Send too late and you stock out, which loses the sale and, on a marketplace, often costs you ranking that takes weeks to win back. Send too early or too much and you are paying storage on units that will not move for months. The calculation that matters is how many days of stock you have left against how many days it takes to get more in and sellable, including the time freight spends being received and put away, not just the time it spends on a boat. As a worked example in words: if you sell steadily and your resupply takes six weeks door to shelf, a reorder point set at six weeks of cover leaves you no room at all, because any supplier delay lands you at zero. The buffer above that number is safety stock, and it should be sized by how unreliable your lead time actually is, not by a round number that feels comfortable.
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