Role Overview
Clients hire Inventory & Supply Chain Assistants to keep their ecommerce operations smooth, stocked, and profitable. This role exists to protect the business from unnecessary risk—overstocks that drain cash, stockouts that kill momentum, delayed shipments that break launch timelines. Your job is to give the client confidence: that product is flowing when and where it should, with numbers and lead times under control. If you do this well, the business grows cleanly. If not, the backend chaos bleeds into sales, strategy, and customer experience.
This is not a data-entry or task-following position. It’s not just “track inventory” or “update spreadsheets.” Clients are counting on judgment—reading signals early, raising flags fast, and making sure the right people have accurate, actionable info before problems turn into losses. Small miss, big impact. The reward for doing this role right is quiet consistency. The cost of getting it wrong is urgent, expensive fixes that shouldn’t have been needed.
Standards You Must Meet
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Inventory reports must always match real-world stock levels — no surprises, no discrepancies, no guesswork.
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You’re expected to flag low-stock SKUs before they risk a stockout, not after momentum is lost.
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Shipping timelines must be tracked and communicated clearly — clients should never have to chase you to know where product is.
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When suppliers slip or lead times shift, clients expect early alerts and options, not late reactions.
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Forecasts should be based on data, trends, and context — not copied from last month or assumed.
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You must keep POs clean, updated, and easy to reconcile — clients should be able to trust the numbers.
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Silence is failure — if something looks off, say it fast, with specifics and a proposed next step.
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Over-ordering or under-ordering by even 10–20% can kill margins — clients expect you to watch the math, not just the motion.
What You’ll Be Doing
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Reconcile inventory reports weekly against actual stock across all warehouses and FBA to ensure zero discrepancies.
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Monitor SKU movement daily and flag low or high inventory coverage before it risks sales or ties up cash.
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Track every purchase order from creation to delivery, updating status and surfacing shipping risks early with clear options.
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Regularly review supplier timelines and flag any lead time shifts that could disrupt replenishment or launch schedules.
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Build and update demand forecasts using real sales data, velocity trends, and promo calendars — not just historical guesswork.
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Validate landed costs, MOQ assumptions, and order quantities before submitting any PO to prevent margin-killing errors.
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Keep PO logs clean and aligned with actual receipts, so every unit ordered, shipped, and received is fully traceable.
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Alert the client quickly when inventory, shipment, or supplier numbers look off — with details and a proposed next step.
What You’ll Hand Over
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A weekly inventory tracker that matches warehouse/FBA stock levels, with flagged SKUs requiring reorder or review.
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A live PO & inbound shipment dashboard showing status, ETAs, and any delays — with clear next steps proposed.
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A monthly forecasting file based on actual trends, seasonal adjustments, and ASIN-level velocity — not recycled numbers.
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A clean purchase order log detailing what’s been ordered, received, and paid — easily audit-ready and supplier-verified.
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A summary alert when lead times shift, supplier behavior changes, or margin-impacting cost issues surface — no guesswork.
Tools You’ll Need to Use
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Amazon Seller Central — Primary platform for managing FBA/FBM inventory, shipment plans, and supply chain performance.
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Google Sheets / Microsoft Excel — Essential for tracking inventory levels, forecasting demand, and organizing supplier data.
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Amazon FBA Calculator — Used to evaluate profitability and optimize replenishment decisions based on real-time costs.
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InventoryLab — Supports detailed tracking of stock flow, cost of goods, and shipment prep inside Amazon logistics.
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Helium 10 (Inventory Management Modules) — Assists in monitoring stock health and reorder alerts across SKUs.
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GS1 (Barcode Generation & Management) — Required for creating valid, compliant product barcodes for new ASINs.
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ShipStation or similar — Manages outbound shipping for FBM or non-Amazon channels, ensuring timely delivery tracking.
Why Work Smarter
If you cannot identify and automate repetitive supply chain or inventory tasks, the client is paying you to do what a machine can now do faster, cheaper, and mistake-free. This doesn’t mean you need to be a developer—but if you’re working without automation awareness, you’re already behind.
While we don’t make automation integration mandatory just yet, the market is moving fast—and silently. Clients are hiring differently now. At OES, we set this as a standard because serious brands already expect it—even if they haven’t said so out loud.
Why Your Work Matters
If inventory is wrong, nothing else works. Profitable SKUs stock out. Ads burn cash driving to empty shelves. Launches miss their window, and customer trust erodes. Every supply gap or delay bleeds margin, kills momentum, or forces expensive fixes that shouldn’t be needed. That’s why clients don’t see this as admin work—they see it as operational control.
Right now, Amazon and private label brands are moving fast, with tighter cash flow, shorter planning cycles, and higher pressure to get every decision right the first time. This role is how they stay confident in that pressure. Clear numbers, clean timing, alerts before problems hit—that’s how growth scales without chaos. If you get this right, the engine runs quietly and profitably. If you miss, the business bleeds in silence until it’s too late to fix without pain.
What We Expect From You
As a Generalist Inventory & Supply Chain Assistant at OES, you are expected to own the foundational operations that keep our clients’ products in stock, compliant, and profitable. This means you don’t just move numbers around—you develop the judgment to flag risk, catch costing issues, and keep purchasing decisions grounded in inventory reality. You are responsible for keeping inventory data clean, inbound plans compliant, and timelines clear across multiple SKUs and suppliers. When plans shift or projections fall short, it’s your job to stay calm, surface the facts, and get decisions moving. You are neither just an order-puncher nor a spreadsheet-builder—you are the first quality control between shipping delays and on-time success.
We’re looking for someone who shows discipline in execution and maturity in decision-making. You should be able to follow rule sets with precision, but also know when to ask up before pushing forward. This role demands consistency, timeliness, and an instinct for where judgment matters—even at the small-ticket level. You don’t need to read the client’s mind, but you do need to understand how your work impacts their margin, forecasting stability, and compliance rating. If you’re not afraid of accountability and understand that operational accuracy drives profitability, then you might be ready for this tier.
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$500 – $1,020
OES salary standards reflect real market benchmarks, tier and experience level, ensuring fair pay for VAs and realistic expectations for clients.
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