In the first month after joining the company, I found that millions of dollars worth of inventory were missing when I took over the store! I hope everyone can help analyze it together

I joined a new integrated industrial and trade company in September this year. I just took over the store and looked at the backend advertisements and listings, and I felt that the front-end operations were not very good.

The main thing is that there are three stores in total, and the main store has been open for at least 2 years, but the backend advertising only has SP broad precision phrases and automatic advertising.

The advertising campaigns were organized in a disorganized manner with confusing naming (this is still a matter of personal habit, but I have obsessive-compulsive disorder and I really can’t stand such a mess) . The front-end listing didn’t even have the five points of the SKU and the Search Term.

This is the premise. Although I discovered these problems, I did not immediately report to my boss because I had no experience in operations. After all, I had just joined the company, and I felt that it was not the right time to say these things.

What really strikes me as problematic is another store among the three stores, referred to as Store F.

The former operator reported a woot activity during the operation period, which caused Amazon's inventory to decrease by 400 to 500 pieces ? Our company's products are of high value, with a customer unit price of around US$200-300; when the former operator resigned, he told the boss that he could get the inventory back by complaining about the lost inventory. So the boss asked her to sign a statement of the situation and then let her go.

PS: At first, she didn’t say that the inventory reduction was reported as a woot, it was discovered by the boss himself when checking the case.

But after I checked the inventory ledger, I think the reduced inventory was sold, so now the question is, where did the money go.

So I contacted this former operator, but she refused to add me on WeChat and hung up on me. Finally, I was able to get in touch with her through text messages. Her statement shocked me. I have 4 years of experience in Amazon, and what I heard was beyond my understanding. She said that this batch of inventory was "accidentally" reported to WooT when the backend reported the outlet promotion .

Later, I opened a case to verify with Amazon whether I could report Woot directly through the backend. At the same time, I went to the Woot service provider to learn about the process and fees for reporting Woot. I also searched Google for the Woot promotion link for our product and sent an email to the official Woot team for help. From my point of view, this matter is already obvious.

However, those involved are not sure about the situation, so I still hope everyone can help analyze it together.

Anonymous user

Agree from: wujin1, pop002, Dilidili

Based on your description, even if you don't say it, the boss knows why this operation is unreliable.

You only need to do some irresponsible operations: make a detailed form and submit it to your boss, recording key information such as the remaining inventory quantity, account balance, advertising report data, etc. since you took over the store, and then you can carry out your work with confidence.

Many bosses of integrated industry and trade companies are not very knowledgeable and communication is not smooth. The former operator may not have made mistakes intentionally. The disappearance of inventory may be caused by the following reasons:

1) The former operator moved the warehouse to an overseas warehouse and opened a store to sell the goods. This is indeed against regulations and even illegal. After all, the total value of the goods is several million (not counting the shipping costs). However, the warehouse transfer operation can be checked in the background, and ordinary people would not do such a bold and outrageous behavior.

2) After the goods arrived, Amazon moved them here and there and they were never put on the shelves. The former operations manager may have wanted to resign a long time ago and did not want to dwell on the matter. He thought that explaining to his boss would only lead to scolding, so he lied and said that the inventory was reduced because he reported it to Woot (the boss was not knowledgeable anyway).

3) The former operator did submit the item to Woot (you also searched for the Woot promotion link for the product), and the inventory will be transferred to Woot after the submission is successful. However, due to the unpopularity of the product/the price is too high, the product is unsalable (submission to Outlets means that the product has been unsalable for a long time), and there has been no income from Woot. In this case, you need to find the contact information of the former operator and the Woot administrator/service provider to continue to follow up on the progress of the sale of this batch of goods. If the former operator has been ignoring you, it is not too late to explain this to your boss.

As for the fact that you only opened SP broad precision phrases and automatic ads, it may be because the boss is stingy and has a small budget for search ads. "The front-end listing does not even have the five points of SKU and Search Term", which not only shows that the former operation is indeed a slacker, but also shows the shortcomings of this integrated industry and trade company: the boss is not knowledgeable, does not pay attention to the company's Amazon operations, the company's rules and regulations are not strict, the recruitment is not serious, the company's products are not suitable for Amazon but must be put on , the products are unsalable, etc.

Overall, the former operator was indeed slack in work and irresponsible, but it is unlikely that he has committed serious violations/laws. The flaws in his work just give you the opportunity to optimize/improve.

In comparison, the boss's problem is bigger. You must be mentally prepared when you start your work in the later stage. Employers will definitely like people like you who are rigorous and serious, but if the boss is unreliable, there is no need to continue to stick to it.

Anonymous user

Agree with: Lin Mai Kao Bei La

During the operation period, the former operator reported the WooT activity, which resulted in a reduction of 400 to 500 pieces of Amazon inventory. Our company's products are of high value, with a customer unit price of around US$200-300.

-- --Calculated according to the minimum standard: 200*400=80,000 US dollars

When the former operator resigned, she told her boss that if she complained about the lost inventory, she could get it back. So the boss asked her to sign a statement of circumstances and let her go.

--What is the content of the situation report?

PS: At first she didn’t say that the inventory reduction was caused by woot, it was discovered by the boss himself when he checked the case.

-- Fraudulent behavior

From my perspective, this is obvious.

--You have determined that your former colleague has embezzled based on your own investigation results, right? Since you have already done the investigation and the amount involved is so large that it has already reached the legal limit, then just hand over your investigation results and evidence to your boss. You don't need to tell your boss your judgment because you are an operator, not a lawyer or a judge. You only need to report the truth to the boss. What the other boss does is his business.

Anonymous user

Don't wrongly accuse WOOT. The cooperation process of WOOT is: submit the product for review, WOOT decides whether to promote it, and if it fails the review, it will not be promoted; then sign a cooperation agreement according to the agreed purchase price; then operate and allocate inventory within the Amazon system - and the store will confirm it first, and then it will be promoted, etc. Finally, settle the inventory and return it...

It is impossible to get on WOOT “accidentally”. It takes at least one or two weeks to go through the above process and get on the event. How could you make a mistake so easily?

Four or five hundred pieces, assuming the cost is $100, would amount to hundreds of thousands of RMB. You can call the police now.

Moreover, to find out how much was sold on WOOT, just go to Qiaotuntun (responsible for WOOT business in China) and ask them to provide the data (oh, the premise is that it is through cooperation with Qiaotuntun, not those crooked means).

Anonymous user

Thanks for your reply. Your process is exactly the same as what I know, so I don't think it is a false alarm as she said. I also checked with Qiaotuntun, and they couldn't find our products, so it probably didn't come from them.

Anonymous user

1. The front-end listing even has the five points of the SKU and the Search Term is missing .<br>This point is probably deleted, and the SKU with editing rights is missing.

2. I have some objections to this advertisement. What else does SP advertisement lack besides automatic and manual precise broad phrases? Manual positioning, SB product set, SBV, SD positioning, and SD remarketing.

Logically speaking, apart from SP positioning, the remaining traffic sources are relatively small. Some categories of SB advertising are very poor, and the number of SD orders is indeed small. So it seems that advertising is not that different?

3. The last point is WOOT and Outlets. I am confused by this. What is a false alarm? Can WOOT be falsely reported easily? Doesn't it need a service provider? Reporting WOOT will remove the inventory, which is no problem. Go to the backend to download the money - payment - report library to see if there is any abnormal payment.

Anonymous user

The first point is correct. I later found out that no matter how I updated the five points, the front-end would not show it. It took me a few days to solve it. What I wonder is why it took so long to solve it. The second point is that there is nothing wrong with the ad groups you mentioned, but I believe you can also see the difference between the ad groups opened by an operator with several years of experience and an operator who has just entered the industry through the ad backend. The third point is that as far as I know, the funds after the WooT promotion are over will not go through Amazon. Finally, thank you for your reply.

Anonymous user

@Anonymous user Is the first point easy to solve? Or how to solve it? Find the original SKU number and upload it again? Or is there any other simple method? Please advise

Anonymous user

@Anonymous User: I agree with your second point. Sometimes when I take over the ads that were previously run, I want to quit because they are all mixed up in a mess.

Anonymous user

@Anonymous user, use the form template to upload the product. If it still doesn't work, open a case and contact customer service. If it still can't be solved, delete the sku and upload it again after 24 hours.

Anonymous user

Agree from: Little Chive

The probability is that this operator and the offline overseas warehouse or service provider will work together to transfer the inventory, and then share the profits with the other party.

Because there is no possibility of "false alarm" in Woot. Outlets are created directly in the background, and Woot Deal needs to be applied for separately on the Woot platform. It is impossible to make a mistake when creating the outlet. The creation paths of the two are completely different.

So the explanation of the operation is unreasonable. You can communicate with him by phone or something, and try to deceive him by saying that if he does not explain the actual situation, you will report it to the police with the company. Otherwise, you will still need to clean up the pot of these inventory.

Anonymous user

Yes, I think so too. I am just afraid that there is something I don't know about and I misunderstood her. Now the company is also planning to report it to the police.

Shiyilang and the gangster

The backend should not be able to submit woot directly, because the process of submitting woot is not that simple. It takes a week to provide the purchase price, and it usually takes two weeks to mark the inventory. In this case, if the woot is reported incorrectly, then where is the money for the purchase price of the product?

In addition, no matter it is an outlet or a flash sale, the sold inventory is recorded. If there is no inventory now and it is not at Woot, then check to see if it has been removed.

It's just my personal feeling. You can ask the channel where you reported it before. You are probably worried that he has transferred the inventory. But no matter what is transferred, there will be records and it is easy to check. If it is WooT, you can ask and it will be clear.

Anonymous user

Agree with: hehuahua, Polaroid, Jammy123, 小六六, Oliverak

You are very righteous. You reminded me of when I was in the industry for two or three years, and was promoted to a small leader. I wanted to manage all the big and small things in the company, and I couldn't tolerate any grain of sand in my eyes. I thought I was a shareholder of the company. But I accidentally learned from others at the party that the boss thought what you did was meaningless and immature. As a result, you feel that you have not served the boss well and offended your colleagues by doing everything for the company (such as salary cuts, PUA, etc.). The paranoia has been completely cured. Now it is important to have a balance. Under the premise of not affecting my interests, I have a "bottom line" for each position, and I should not interfere with things that I should not interfere with.

Anonymous user

From your description, it seems that this company is not very professional in Amazon. They can hire such an unprofessional operator to work on Amazon. Even if you find out, what can you do? Can you ask the former operator to compensate the company? If the boss asks, you can tell the truth about what you know (unless the boss authorizes you to investigate it, otherwise you can ignore it, after all, the person has left). For you, the key is to manage these stores well and make money for the boss. For newcomers, creating results as soon as possible is the kingly way.

As long as I am safe, there will be heaven

Isn't it obvious enough? It costs about 700 dollars to ask a middleman to report WooT. Can she report it herself? With this skill, she doesn't need to work. Check the withdrawal records and the third-party payment platform to see if there are any problems. Send a lawyer's letter first to give her a chance. If she still insists, just sue her. With hundreds of pieces in stock, even if the average unit price is 200 dollars, 40% of the WooT purchase price, hundreds of pieces in stock are a lot of money.

Top of the Mountain

In fact, it should be very clear whether it has been sold by checking whether there are these orders. If four or five hundred pieces of inventory are sold, there is no way there is no order record. Finding these order records can calculate where the money has gone. It is always still in the account, it just depends on how it is reflected in the settlement method.

Anonymous user

I don't know if you have heard of woot. According to the information I know, woot is equivalent to transferring the shopping cart authority to him, and there will be no orders from woot in the order records of Amazon backend.

pykeander

The fact has already happened and is in front of you, and your boss also knows that the lack of inventory has nothing to do with you. As for Woot settlement, after the flash sale is over, Woot will transfer the funds to the seller's P card account, which is usually bound in the background.

Anonymous user

Thanks for your reply. Does this background refer to woot's background or Amazon's background? I asked woot's service provider and they said that as long as you have a public US dollar payment account, it will be fine.

The Energetic Girl Li Kui

You can explain the situation to your boss to avoid your boss thinking that you have problems with your ability due to your failure to "successfully claim compensation". Let your boss communicate and investigate other matters as they have nothing to do with you.

Anonymous user

I actually reported this to my boss in the second week after I joined the company. I also communicated with the other party, but they insisted that it was their own mistake. I posted this because I was afraid that I had misunderstood the former operation, and I wanted to see if everyone had different opinions. I also planned to go through legal procedures for the subsequent handling.

kuhai666

You should be the boss, right? Otherwise, why would you do something like this? Investigation is the company's business, and operation is your business. What you should do is to achieve good results and make money.

Anonymous user

You are right. Investigation is the company's business, and operation is my own business. I did not do anything that was beyond my authority. The inventory issue was written in the matters of resignation and handover. The former operation told the boss that I could appeal as long as I opened a case. The boss asked me to appeal, and I just sorted out the matter and reported it to the boss.

189284**

Hello, I suggest you report what you know and the doubts you have to your leader. They will decide what to do. But if you know it and don’t report it, it’s your problem.