How an online mall interprets inventory is changing advertising, ordering and product operations strategies. That is because the strategy can determine how quickly cash is recovered and rolled into the next investment. As inventory is treated as an operating metric linking products, ads and purchasing, the speed of turning inventory into growth has emerged as a competitive variable. Cafe24 proposes Inventory Analysis Marketing (AIM), which links inventory and sales data to judge strategy by product.

Cafe24 said on Aug. 3 that inventory turnover improved an average 12 percent at malls using its AIM approach, which uses inventory data to craft sales strategies. It said the results came from interpreting inventory not as something to manage but as a basis for deciding which products to focus advertising and ordering on.

For a long time, inventory at online shopping malls was something to manage. Operators checked how much was left, ordered more if it was short, and cleared stockpiles through discounts or promotions. It was closer to a number to be managed to cut costs.

The problem begins when all inventory is managed by the same standard. Even with the same quantity, each product sits in a different situation. Some products need expanded advertising, while others require stable inventory 확보. For other products, it can be better to sell them off first through promotions or display changes. That is why the question is not how much inventory remains, but what the inventory is saying.

If inventory data used to be a management tool for ordering and replenishment, its use is now expanding to diagnosing a product's current status and suggesting the next sales strategy. Cafe24 says operating results differ depending on whether inventory is seen as a cost to cut or as a basis for deciding sales order.

Cafe24's marketing centre implemented this interpretation as a system. AIM analyses product, order, sales, visits and inventory data generated during mall operations by linking them into a single pipeline. The company said it starts with diagnosing product status by interpreting different data in one flow, rather than just showing outcomes from each dataset.

◆Analysis of 67 shopping malls…turnover up 12 percent, sell-through period down 22 percent

The linked data then goes through a product matrix and leads to sales strategies. AIM cross-analyses a product's revenue contribution and sales stability and classifies it by type. It first distinguishes whether a product is a key item generating steady sales, an item with high sales volatility that could create an inventory burden, or an item that can be expected to grow further with increased exposure.

On that basis, it suggests which products to focus advertising on, which products to secure more inventory for, and which products to sell off first through promotions or display changes. Cafe24 says the difference from existing inventory management systems is that malls can first distinguish priority products and caution products before running ads.

The analysis is not limited to inventory figures. Cafe24 said AIM also analyses purchases, carts and co-purchase data together to suggest which products should be bundled for exposure to raise the likelihood of purchase. It also includes a function that finds products that get good responses but are pushed down in exposure rankings and fail to translate into sales, and provides guidance for display and exposure expansion. Cafe24 said the operational focus is shifting from managing inventory to interpreting inventory data as a sales strategy.

Cafe24 said the change is confirmed in actual operating cases. Womenswear brand Meriet had secured a fandom, but sales repeatedly concentrated only right after new products were launched before revenue slowed. Because manufactured products are hard to forecast in demand, the brand had to accept an inventory burden with each order. Although sales speed and demand patterns differed by product, operating all products by the same standard was a limitation.

After adopting AIM, it applied different operating strategies tailored to each product's sales pattern and inventory flow. As a result, annual inventory turnover rose 2.25 times to 20.7 from 9.2, and the inventory sell-through period fell to 18 days from 40. Average daily shipments increased about 2.9 times to 66 units from 23, but no stockouts occurred.

As inventory turned faster, cash tied up in warehouses was recovered more quickly. The secured funds were put back into advertising, and expanded advertising led to higher sales and improved inventory turnover. Cafe24 said a structure was created in which inventory interpretation informs sales strategy, and the results feed back into growth investment.

This is also where inventory data meshes with ad execution. It is hard to filter out, using ad data alone, situations in which ad spending is put into products with low sales potential or budgets are spent on products already sold out. It said ad execution targets are set only after judging which products actually contribute to revenue based first on inventory and sales data.

Verification beyond individual cases was also made. Cafe24 compared before and after service adoption at 67 malls that adopted AIM and can conduct real-time inventory analysis by linking to a warehouse management system (WMS). An analysis of daily inventory data found average inventory turnover rose 12 percent and the inventory sell-through period was shortened 22 percent.

There is a gap between the improvement in the Meriet case and the average for the 67 malls. That means the effect may vary depending on industry, product mix and prior operating levels. Still, Cafe24 said the comparison with a broader sample also confirmed the direction of improvement, showing that using inventory data could lead to operating efficiency.