Client Success Story

Streamlining Inventory Replenishment, Demand Forecasting, and Freight Operations for a Multi-Marketplace Seller

18%

Lower Freight
Costs

99%

Inventory Record Accuracy

25%

Fewer Stockout Incidents

Service

Marketplaces

  • Amazon
  • Walmart Marketplace
THE CLIENT

A Growing Multi-Marketplace Seller of Premium Office Supplies

The client is an established US-based office supplies retailer that began by offering quality mailing envelopes and stationery at competitive prices. Over time, the company expanded its product portfolio to include notebooks, filing systems, copy paper, and other office essentials. Today, the business primarily sells through Amazon and Walmart Marketplace, managing inventory across its warehouse and Amazon fulfillment centers.

Project Requirements

Establishing an End-to-End Inventory Replenishment Process Across Multiple Sales Channels

The client needed a reliable way to manage inventory & replenishment across Amazon, Walmart, its warehouse, and vendors. Although the business already used dedicated forecasting, inventory, and freight platforms, these systems operated independently.

A complete replenishment cycle required moving between several tools, manually transferring information, and coordinating decisions across purchasing, logistics, and warehouse operations.

To bring greater consistency and accountability, the client engaged SunTec India to manage the replenishment workflow.

Scope of work

  • Demand forecasting: Project weekly demand for every SKU and convert it into optimized restock quantities.
  • Purchase order planning: Split confirmed quantities across vendors and prepare supplier purchase orders.
  • Container planning: Build efficient ocean container loads before releasing purchase orders.
  • Amazon shipment planning: Create inbound shipments to Amazon fulfillment centers from warehouse stock.
  • Freight booking: Source and book a cost-effective transporter for every shipment.
  • Shipment execution: Prepare box labels, pallet labels, and pick lists, and brief the warehouse team.
  • Inventory reconciliation: Keep system inventory aligned with physical stock every week.
PROJECT CHALLENGES

Fragmented Inventory Replenishment Process Split Across Five Disconnected Tools

Despite having multiple specialized platforms, the client lacked a connected operational process for managing replenishment. Each stage relied on manually coordinated activities, leading to delays, overspend, or inaccurate stock.

The setup:

Major challenges:

Fragmented Data Across Five Operational Tools

The replenishment workflow relied on Google Sheets and Excel, Inventory OS, Stockline Portal, freight platforms, and marketplace accounts. Because these tools did not automatically synchronize, the client had to move information between systems manually. This made it difficult to maintain consistent inventory, forecasting, purchasing, and shipment records throughout the replenishment cycle.

Time-Consuming Restocking Decisions

Before initiating replenishment, the team had to gather demand forecasts, review warehouse stock, check marketplace inventory, and verify outstanding purchase orders. Repeated data transfers and verification stretched a single replenishment cycle into several days, delaying purchasing and shipment-planning decisions.

Inconsistent Freight Cost Comparisons

The client worked with multiple freight providers, but it did not consistently compare transportation quotes before booking shipments. Without a structured comparison process, the business risked overlooking more cost-effective transportation options. Partially utilized containers and inefficient pallet configurations further increased freight costs.

Inventory Reconciliation Discrepancies

Warehouse inventory records depended on updating spreadsheets in the correct sequence. Any mismatch between physical counts and system quantities required manual investigation. Without a consistent variance-review process, discrepancies affected subsequent replenishment calculations and inventory planning decisions.

OUR SOLUTION

Managing the Complete Replenishment Lifecycle Through a Structured, Accountable Workflow

To eliminate disconnected workflows, we integrated the client's forecasting, inventory, purchasing, freight, and marketplace systems through APIs, enabling coordinated data exchange and replenishment planning across the entire operational cycle.

1

Demand Forecasting and Inventory Replenishment Planning

Our team established a weekly forecasting routine using SKU-level demand projections from InventoryOS, alongside inventory information from Amazon, the warehouse, and purchase order records.

Before calculating replenishment requirements, we verified that the relevant data sources reflected current inventory and outstanding orders. This helped prevent replenishment decisions based on outdated stock positions.

The forecasting process incorporated three planning parameters:

  • 15% growth buffer: Increased the baseline demand forecast by 15% to account for expected sales growth and ensure sufficient inventory was ordered to meet future demand.
  • 18-week replenishment lead time: Covered supplier production, ocean freight, import clearance, and final delivery.
  • 12-week future demand coverage: Planned inventory requirements beyond the replenishment lead time.

Using these parameters, we calculated restocking requirements and aligned purchase quantities with projected demand and existing inventory commitments.

This provided the client with a more consistent basis for placing supplier orders while accounting for the lengthy international replenishment cycle.

2

Vendor Allocation and Container Space Optimization

Once we finalized replenishment quantities, we allocated purchase orders across the client's suppliers.

Supplier allocations considered established vendor relationships, factory production capacity, import conditions, tariffs, and freight costs. We reviewed these factors during each planning cycle rather than relying on fixed allocation rules.

We evaluated the resulting purchase quantities using a cubic-meter (CBM) calculator to determine how efficiently the products would fit inside shipping containers.

Where necessary, we made small quantity adjustments to improve container utilization without losing sight of the client's replenishment requirements.

This approach helped reduce unused container capacity and supported more economical freight planning.

3

Amazon Restock Planning and Shipment Creation

Our team managed Amazon replenishment planning through Nineyard, using confirmed restock quantities and available warehouse inventory.

The process began by calculating required quantities against demand forecasts, available stock, and inventory already included in planned shipments.

We then adjusted quantities based on warehouse availability and rounded case totals as needed for shipment preparation.

For the documented shipment workflow, our team:

  • Confirmed that the planned replenishment volume exceeded the 120-pallet threshold.
  • Entered the approved SKUs and quantities into Nineyard.
  • Generated a shipment plan to distribute inventory across Amazon fulfillment centers.
  • Reviewed the proposed allocation before finalizing the minimum agreed shipments.

By validating quantities and reviewing fulfillment center distribution before shipment confirmation, we established a consistent execution process for Amazon restocking.

4

Multi-Carrier Freight Sourcing and Cost Comparison

To improve freight cost control, SunTec India established a structured process to collect, compare, and select transportation quotes.

After creating Amazon shipments, our team recorded their shipment IDs in a centralized Google Sheet. We then obtained fulfillment-center-specific freight quotations from contracted transporters, Amazon Freight, and Uber Freight.

We entered each quotation into a comparison matrix, allowing our team to evaluate transportation costs for the same shipment requirements.

We selected the most cost-effective available option based on the quotations received and proceeded with freight booking.

5

Shipment Documentation and Warehouse Coordination

Following freight planning, our team prepared the documentation required for warehouse shipment execution.

Using Nineyard, we processed each of the Amazon shipments individually and generated three essential documents:

  • Box labels organized by SKU.
  • Pallet labels based on confirmed pallet quantities.
  • Pick lists provided in CSV and PDF formats.

We shared the documentation with the designated warehouse point of contact and coordinated shipment readiness dates.

Processing shipments individually allowed the team to complete document preparation and warehouse handoffs systematically before proceeding to the next shipment.

This created a more predictable flow between shipment planning and physical warehouse execution.

6

Weekly Warehouse Inventory Reconciliation

We also established a weekly inventory reconciliation routine to keep physical stock consistent with system records.

Warehouse personnel conducted physical inventory counts, while the warehouse manager updated the designated inventory layout sheet.

The warehouse inventory spreadsheet compared recorded quantities with physical counts and flagged discrepancies for review.

Our team applied a two-step verification approach. We documented and adjusted reasonable variances, while sending unusual discrepancies back to the warehouse manager for a physical recount.

This ensured that inventory adjustments followed a verification process instead of automatically treating spreadsheet quantities as accurate.

PROJECT OUTCOMES

Faster Replenishment, Better Freight Utilization, and More Reliable Inventory Operations

By bringing forecasting, purchasing, shipment execution, and reconciliation into a single managed workflow, SunTec India helped the client move away from fragmented, manually coordinated replenishment activities.

The engagement delivered the following operational improvements.

40% Faster Replenishment Planning

Reduction in turnaround time from demand forecasting to approved replenishment plans.

18% Lower Freight Costs

Savings through carrier rate comparisons, container planning, and pallet optimization.

99% Inventory Record Accuracy

Verified warehouse inventory records matched physical stock counts.

25% Fewer Stockout Incidents

Reduction in stockout frequency through demand forecasting and lead-time planning.

CONTACT US

Reduce Stockouts and Freight Costs With Better Replenishment Management

Keep inventory moving across your marketplaces & sales channels with strategic support for demand forecasting, shipment planning, freight coordination, and warehouse reconciliation.