BACKGROUND

Many merchants conduct transactions with buyers for various types of goods and services. These merchants often attempt to maintain certain levels of inventory so that the merchants may provide an item to a buyer when purchased. For example, a merchant may order additional inventory for an item when the merchant notices that the inventory is getting relatively low. However, such merchants often receive shipments of additional inventory after the additional inventory is needed. In order to avoid this problem, some merchants maintain a relatively large inventory of an item. However, maintaining a large inventory is expensive and may prevent the merchant from making other business purchases, such as new equipment, marketing materials, rental space and so on.

