Problems & Opportunities to Improve Order Management

Publishers and retailers connect at many levels, perhaps none as important as an order for books. In a perfect world, publishers would always know stock on hand, inventory in the sales pipeline, and the likelihood of what stock might be returned. In that same perfect world, retailers would always have access to accurate information about stock on hand, anticipated dates of delivery, and changes in product availability. In that world, both publishers and retailers would be ideally positioned to make well-informed decisions about what to order, when to order it, and whether and when to return stock.

In this Lunch & Learn event, Ted Hill of MVB U.S., which owns and operates Pubeasy and Pubnet, the electronic ordering services for booksellers and publishers, and Dan Lubart of iobyte Solutions, a data analytics firm that works with publishers to interpret what’s happening in the retail marketplace, will join forces to talk about the current state of order management in the U.S. marketplace. They’ll spend the first 20 minutes of the session talking about opportunities and pain points, discussing as well the problems that can realistically be solved. After that, we’ll open the conversation up to comments, questions, and potential next steps toward improved order management.

Have a question you'd like Ted or Dan to address? Feel free to send it in advance to info@bisg.org. The lunch & learn will be highly interactive, so you'll have a chance to contribute at the session even if you don't send a question in advance. After a 20 minute presentation, there will be an open forum. To allow participants to speak—and not just type questions—these sessions are conducted in a Zoom meeting (rather than webinar) format. Please ensure that your microphone is muted unless you'd like to contribute.