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Implement a Purchasing Strategy

Learn how to implement a custom purchasing strategy in Optiply. Discover how to balance your inventory, configure ABC categories, and set optimal service levels to maximise your ROI.

Written by Ricardo Guerreiro

♟️ Implement a Purchasing Strategy

Optiply is built to do the heavy lifting of your daily purchasing, but it needs a roadmap first. By entering the correct parameters, you can mould the algorithm to perfectly execute your company's unique financial and logistical goals.

Because we want you to get the absolute best results out of the software, we have broken down how to align and optimise your purchasing strategy into four actionable steps.

Note: We have also mapped out two specific, highly effective purchasing strategies that you can apply to your business. You can read more about them in our dedicated Purchasing Strategy guide!

🧠 Step 1: Define Your Core Goals

Optiply’s settings are designed to make you think critically about your capital. Before you touch any settings in the app, you need to determine your high-level strategy by answering three questions:

  1. Service Levels: How reliable do you want your stock availability to be for your customers?

  2. Maximum Spend: What are your cash flow limits for the upcoming quarter?

  3. Inventory Weight: Do you want to run a "lean" warehouse (a little stock, ordered frequently) or a "bulk" warehouse (a lot of stock, ordered rarely to save on shipping)?

📦 Step 2: Invest in the Right Products (Categorisation)

Choosing the right purchasing strategy starts with categorising your entire assortment. Not all products deserve the same amount of your capital!

Optiply classifies your items into categories (A, B, and C) based on their sales volume or profit margin:

  • The 'A' Category: These are your best-sellers and MVPs. They drive your business.

  • The 'B' Category: These are your consistent, mid-tier performers.

  • The 'C' Category: This is your "longtail" assortment. They sell rarely, but you keep them in the catalogue for variety.

🎯 Step 3: Set Your Delivery Reliability

Once your products are categorised, you must treat them differently when purchasing. You do this by assigning a Desired Service Level (delivery reliability) to each category.

  • High Priority (A-Category): You want to be able to deliver an 'A' product from stock 98% or 99% of the time. If you run out of these products, it immediately leads to severe lost sales and unhappy customers.

  • Low Priority (C-Category): For a 'C' product, a 90% service level is usually more than sufficient. Because the chance of receiving an order is much smaller, the financial risk of being left with deadstock is far greater than the risk of a temporary stockout.

Ultimately, this tiered approach ensures your capital is tied up in the products that actually make you money, resulting in a perfectly balanced warehouse.

⚙️ Step 4: Configure Your Baseline Settings

To bring this strategy to life, you need to input your parameters into Optiply. If you are unsure where to start, Optiply provides a highly optimised set of default settings:

  • Category A: 70% of Assortment | Delivery reliability: 98%

  • Category B: 25% of Assortment | Delivery reliability: 95%

  • Category C: 05% of Assortment | Delivery reliability: 90%

  • Inventory Keeping Cost: 20%

You can adjust all of these parameters to fit your custom strategy by navigating to Settings > ABC Classification and Settings > General in your Optiply dashboard!

❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What happens if I set all my categories to a 99% Service Level?

While it sounds great to never run out of anything, setting a 99% service level for your C-category products will force Optiply to order massive amounts of buffer stock for items that rarely sell. This will quickly drain your cash flow and fill your warehouse with deadstock. A tiered strategy is always recommended!

Can I categorise my products by Revenue instead of Sales Volume?

Yes! When setting up your ABC categories in the Settings menu, you can use the dropdown to choose whether the algorithm evaluates your products based on the number of sell order lines, total revenue, or gross margin.

Where do my Inventory Keeping Costs fit into this strategy?

Your Inventory Keeping Cost (set in the General Settings) tells the algorithm how expensive it is to store products on your shelves. Optiply uses this percentage to calculate the perfect balance between ordering in bulk (saving on shipping) versus ordering lean (saving on warehouse space).


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