Being a bookseller means wearing a number of different hats. One of the roles you have to play, a role that you might not have considered when you got into the business, is that of a warehouse coordinator. After deciding on a shelving option, you need to decide how you are going to organize your growing inventory.
The most basic system is to simply use the SKU (stock keeping unit) that you use in your Amazon listings. Of course, if you don’t have a Pro Merchant account, you don’t even get a SKU field. In that case you should just include it in the description.
The other system is to use both the SKU & location. This is a much better option, in my opinion.
Number your rows, starting with zero, and use that numeral to indicate the location of the book.
You can make the location as elaborate and detailed as you want, having numbers to indicate the room, section, shelf, bin, even a particular position in a bin.
This is just a quick post. After all, creating a system to organize and quickly locate your books may seem like a simple and common-sense part of online bookselling. However, it’s worth mentioning because it’s so important.
I know of a bookseller, an engineer by trade, who is supremely disorganized. He can never find the books he needs. He always gets poor ratings. Despite all the trouble it causes him, he hasn’t changed his ways. Learn from his mistakes. Take the time to set up a good organizational system. It will save you countless hours of headaches and stress.
Do you have a organizational system that works great for you? I’d love to hear about it.
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