Case AnalysisIn the past two months, our copper fittings sales have almost doubled due to the increasing market demand and the failure of competitors' sales promotion. However, the problem comes with overwhelming demand. Many backorders are piling up on the warehouse manager's desk and some customers have lost patience with us. What we really need right now is to limit or reduce abnormal customer demand by increasing the price of our products. products, but to gain reputation among our customers, we should consider completing all backorders with original price. In the long term, the solution to solving this inventory shortage still relies on sufficient and timely supply of our supplies. The main reason for this extremely high and unusual customer demand is our competitors' loss of market share. Additionally, some customers may have false expectations about future market prices. They have heard the rumor that the cost of raw copper may increase, so they predict that the price of copper fittings will also increase. Therefore, they start making more purchases and stocking more inventory than usual to save money after the copper price rises. After serious discussion with our marketing and warehouse managers, we came up with a strategy to solve this inventory shortage crisis. We can purchase overstock goods at a very low cost from our competitors because their business is slow and they do not have enough liquidity. Since most of our competitors are local, we can save a lot of money on shipping and handling costs if we purchase their products. But the downside is that it might confuse our customers because the products we buy from other companies have their own logos. This could become an opportunity for our competitors to get free advertising of their products through our marketplace channel. We may also start placing large orders with our supplier to avoid future shortages. However, the downside is the risk of overstocking. The price of copper fittings is very difficult for us to predict. If the price of fittings declines due to a new wave of promotions from other companies or other macroeconomic influences, it will slow down our sales as well as our cash flow..