Most ecommerce purchasing problems start small. A reorder lives in a spreadsheet, a supplier's reply sits in one person's inbox, a delivery arrives short. At fifty orders a week, the owner holds it all together. Somewhere between a few hundred products, a second sales channel and a fifth supplier, that stops working.
This guide covers the six places online shops get stuck, what each one costs and four steps to fix it, starting with one supplier. It is the article version of our free guide, Where online shops get stuck, which adds a printable self-check and the full source list.
Industry figures below describe the wider retail market, not LineNow customer results. The short scenarios are composites, not specific customers.
Why purchasing falls behind selling
Selling online has never been easier. U.S. ecommerce sales grew 12.2% year over year in the second quarter of 2026, nearly double the 6.7% growth of total retail, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Storefronts, payments, ads and shipping labels are all a few clicks away.
Buying hasn't kept pace. Out-of-stocks and overstocks cost retailers about $1.7 trillion a year worldwide, or 6.2% of global retail sales, according to IHL Group. Costs are rising at the same time: 69% of small U.S. retail employers named tariff-related costs as a financial challenge in the Federal Reserve's 2026 Small Business Credit Survey.
Every sale starts a buying loop: decide what to reorder, commit the cash, wait for the supplier, confirm the price, receive the stock, then repeat across every channel. Here is where that loop breaks.
1. The reorder lives in someone's head
"Every Monday I scroll the inventory report, guess what will sell and email four suppliers. If I'm out sick, nobody orders."
Sales and stock live in the store platform. Supplier pack sizes, minimums and lead times live in emails and spreadsheets. Nobody sees both at once, so reorders run on memory.
Empty shelves are the bigger leak. IHL Group estimates that out-of-stocks account for 65.6% of retail's inventory distortion losses, with overstock making up the rest (IHL Group, 2026). Shoppers don't wait: in an AlixPartners study, two-thirds of consumers said they would buy from another retailer when an item was out of stock.
Signs you're here: bestsellers sell out while slow movers pile up, one person "just knows" what to order, and reorder day takes a whole morning.
The way out: put sales, stock on hand and stock already on order in one reorder list, with each supplier's pack size and minimum attached. For the arithmetic, see reorder points and safety stock.
2. Cash sits on the wrong shelf
"We had a full stockroom and still couldn't ship the one hoodie everyone wanted."
Without a clear view of what's already on order, buyers double up to be safe. Slow sellers get the same reorder as fast ones, and cash ends up in boxes nobody is asking for. U.S. retailers held $882.2 billion of inventory at the end of August 2026, about 1.36 months of sales (U.S. Census Bureau).
Signs you're here: you reorder items that are already on the way, clearance sales exist mostly to free up cash, and no one can say what's on order across all suppliers.
The way out: check open purchase orders before every buy, and reorder by what is actually selling rather than by habit. Carrying cost shows what idle stock really costs.
3. The supplier's answer is buried in an inbox
"A customer asks where their order is. I search three inboxes to find the supplier's tracking number."
Confirmations, delays, substitutions and tracking numbers arrive as emails, PDFs and texts. They rarely make it back to the purchase order, so the order says one thing and the supplier says another. IHL Group estimates supplier missteps cost retailers more than $300 billion in 2025 (IHL Group).
Signs you're here: you learn about a backorder when the box doesn't come, tracking numbers live in personal inboxes, and dropship customers ask before you know.
The way out: keep every supplier reply with the order it belongs to, and turn changes into order updates that someone reviews. How AI reads supplier emails explains how that review works.
4. The price changed and nobody noticed
"The bill came in higher than the order. By the time we caught it, we'd sold the whole batch at the old margin."
Price changes arrive in a reply, a new price list or on the bill itself. If no one compares them with the order, they slip straight into the cost of every unit sold. Tariffs have made this sharper: the average tariff rate paid by affected small and mid-sized firms rose from 6.5% in January 2025 to 11.4% in July (Federal Reserve Bank of Boston).
Signs you're here: margins drift and nobody can say why, freight and surcharges show up only on the bill, and bills are paid without being checked against the order.
The way out: keep the agreed price on the order, and flag differences before the stock is received and the bill is approved. Landed cost covers what belongs in the unit cost.
5. Half the delivery arrived
"The order said twelve cases. Nine showed up. Three weeks later, nobody remembers which three we're still owed."
Receiving happens in the stockroom while the order lives on a laptop. A partial delivery gets marked "received" and the missing balance quietly disappears. In a 2025 Linnworks survey, only 36% of online retailers said they had full visibility of their inventory.
Signs you're here: you pay for goods that never arrived, stock counts don't match the store platform, and customers find the shortage before you do.
The way out: record what actually arrived against the order, keep the balance open and attach the delivery evidence for the bill. The supplier receiving process walks through each step.
6. Every new channel doubles the work
"We added Amazon and a second warehouse. Now ordering takes two people."
Each new channel, location and supplier adds another spreadsheet tab and another inbox. In the same Linnworks survey, 60% of online retailers sold on four or more marketplaces. When purchasing is manual, it grows with headcount, not with sales.
Signs you're here: you hire to keep up with purchase orders, every system shows a different stock number, and you avoid new suppliers because of the admin.
The way out: run purchasing from one record that connects to every channel and location, so the tenth supplier takes no more effort than the first.
Where is your shop stuck? A quick self-check
Score each statement 0 (rarely), 1 (sometimes) or 2 (often):
- Reorders depend on one person's memory or spreadsheet.
- A bestseller has sold out in the last month.
- We've reordered something that was already on the way.
- We search email to find a supplier's latest answer.
- Customers ask about delays before we know about them.
- A bill has come in higher than the purchase order.
- We've paid for something that never arrived.
- Stock in our store platform doesn't match the shelf.
- Adding a supplier or channel means more admin hours.
- Nobody can say what's on order across all suppliers.
0–5, running fine: your buying works, so keep it that way as you add channels. 6–12, slowing down: start with step 1 below, using your busiest supplier. 13–20, stuck: buying is now holding your shop back, so fix stuck points 1 and 3 first.
Four steps to fix it
Don't rebuild purchasing in one go. Fix one loop, prove it, then widen it.
| Step | Typical timing | Goal | Done when |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Start with one supplier | Weeks 1–2 | Run one real reorder from list to delivery in one place. | Anyone can find that supplier's latest answer without digging through email. |
| 2. Let sales drive the list | Weeks 2–4 | Your reorder list builds itself from sales and stock. | Reorder day starts from a list, not a blank spreadsheet. |
| 3. Get the whole team on one order | Month 2 | Whoever buys, unpacks and pays works from the same order. | Any difference on a bill can be explained from the order. |
| 4. Grow without hiring for it | Month 3 onward | More suppliers and channels, same team. | A new supplier is a setup task, not a new job. |
Step 1: pick your highest-volume supplier, send the purchase order from one place and keep the supplier's replies with that order.
Step 2: connect your store platform, match each product to its supplier item and pack size, and review open orders before every buy.
Step 3: receive against the order, including partial deliveries. Review price changes before the bill is approved, and hand a clean record to your bookkeeper.
Step 4: add the rest of your suppliers and locations, set sending rules for routine orders, and route dropship orders by supplier so the team only reviews exceptions.
How LineNow fits
LineNow is purchasing software for online and omnichannel stores. It connects to Shopify, Lightspeed, Square and Amazon, builds reorders from sales and stock, and sends purchase orders by email or a live order link. AI reads supplier replies into order updates for you to approve. Partial deliveries stay open until they arrive, and agreed prices stay with the order for bill review and QuickBooks handoff. Selling through suppliers? Dropship routing splits customer orders into supplier purchase orders.
It isn't an ERP or accounting system; it works beside the ones you already have. Setup timing depends on your catalog and connections, and our team helps with the mapping. Pricing is $100 a month per business unit after a 90-day free trial, with no credit card required.
Download the free guide for the printable self-check and all sources, or book a demo and bring one real order.
