In short
- Up to 40%: out-of-stock risk on some days in July.
- ~€1.5M: more net revenue through optimised orders in Q3 and Q4.
- ~€1.1M: of Q4 order volume planned cleanly for Black Week.
Essential Bag came to VOIDS through several referrals, very sceptical at first. In 180 days, VOIDS helped the brand to around €1.5 million more net revenue.
Who is Essential Bag?
| Brand | Essential Bag |
|---|---|
| Route to VOIDS | referrals from Iron Media and a VOIDS customer |
| Biggest bottleneck | bestsellers that would not have been available |
| Timeframe | 180 days, first results after 90 days |
| Product | smart accessories, for example the Smart Wallet 3.0 |
| Founder | Marvin Moik |
| Website | essentialbag.de |
Essential Bag, called "Essentialbag" in its shop, sells smart everyday accessories: the Smart Wallet 3.0, tracker cards and key trackers for iOS and Android, belts, sling bags and charging cables. According to its website, the German start-up was founded by Marvin Moik. The range also includes a digital business card with an NFC tag and personalised pendants.
What problem did Essential Bag have?
VOIDS first looked at purchasing and quickly found a point that really hurt: on some days in July, the out-of-stock risk was as high as 40 percent.
On those days, up to 40 percent of potential revenue was at stake. Not because of weak marketing, not for lack of demand, but because the bestsellers would not have been available.
Why do accessory bestsellers run out so fast?
With gadget accessories, demand often concentrates on a few bestsellers. When ads perform well, exactly that item sells faster than planned, and out-of-stock risk jumps on individual days. That is what happened at Essential Bag in July: up to 40 percent on some days.
Then there is the calendar. Accessories are popular gifts, and Q4 with Black Week and Christmas concentrates demand. The stock for it has to be ordered in summer, long before the first Black Week discount goes live.
According to its website, Essentialbag delivers in one to three days. That promise only holds if the item is in stock. A bestseller that first has to be reproduced costs not just the sale, but often the review afterwards too.
What did VOIDS change at Essential Bag?
VOIDS rebuilt the entire ordering process: precise forecasts, clean order quantities and the right safety stock.
On that basis, the Q4 orders were planned, including all Black Week orders.
How does VOIDS plan purchasing for Essential Bag?
According to Jannik Semmelhaack (Commerce Roundtable, October 2026), VOIDS forecasts more than 200,000 SKUs for merchants worldwide. Five things set the forecast apart from an Excel plan: historic stockouts are corrected so demand isn't underestimated. Seasonality and campaigns like Black Week are modelled separately. Every sales channel gets its own forecast. New products with little history are planned with their own launch curve. And cannibalisation between products is taken into account.
According to Semmelhaack, many brands update their plan only every four to twelve weeks. VOIDS recalculates the forecast every week and shows stock, inbound and sell-through per channel for every SKU. Each SKU has a safety period and an order cycle, and the order suggestion follows from them. At HYROX, forecast accuracy was 32 percent higher in a direct comparison with the team's own manual plan.
At the start, VOIDS analyses the last 12 to 24 months for every new customer: how much revenue was lost because stock was missing, and how efficiently is the existing inventory working? That produces the business case the collaboration can later be measured against.
At Essential Bag, VOIDS reset three levers: the SKU-level forecast, the order quantity per delivery and the safety stock per bestseller. On that basis, Q4 order volume of around €1.1 million was in place before Black Week began.
For Black Week, that meant the Q4 orders came from the same forecast as the summer reorders. The bestsellers' safety stock was sized for the peak, not for a normal month. The quantities came from data, not gut feeling.
What results did Essential Bag achieve?
| Metric | Before | With VOIDS |
|---|---|---|
| Out-of-stock risk | up to 40% on some days in July | record month in August |
| Net revenue Q3/Q4 | bestsellers at times unavailable | around +€1.5M in 180 days |
| Q4 planning | open | around €1.1M of order volume planned |
According to VOIDS founder Jannik Semmelhaack (LinkedIn, 2026):
- The company's record month in August, after 90 days
- Around €1.5 million more net revenue through optimised orders in Q3 and Q4
- Around €1.1 million of Q4 order volume planned cleanly for all Black Week orders
Stock management has never run this smoothly.
Operations is not a cost factor. Operations is the revenue you're leaving on the table without noticing.
What can you learn from this?
- Out-of-stock risk is revenue most brands never have on their radar. Reduce stockouts
- Safety stock belongs in the ordering process, not in gut feeling. Replenishment and purchase orders
- The free check shows how much revenue out-of-stocks are costing you right now. Open the OOS tracker
Sources:
- Jannik Semmelhaack on LinkedIn about Essential Bag
- essentialbag.de, homepage and team page (accessed November 2026)
- Jannik Semmelhaack and Jochen Möller at Commerce Roundtable (YouTube, October 2026)
Frequently asked questions
What did VOIDS improve at Essential Bag?
VOIDS rebuilt the entire ordering process: precise forecasts, clean order quantities and the right safety stock. After 90 days came the company's record month in August. Within 180 days, according to VOIDS, that added up to around €1.5 million more net revenue through optimised orders in Q3 and Q4.
How high was the out-of-stock risk before?
On some days in July it was as high as 40 percent. That much of the potential revenue was at stake on those days, not because of weak marketing or missing demand, but because the bestsellers would not have been available. The first VOIDS analysis of purchasing showed this.
How was Black Week planned?
Essential Bag planned around €1.1 million of Q4 order volume with VOIDS, including all Black Week orders. It was based on the same forecasts, order quantities and safety stock that had already led to the record month in August. That way, the stock was ordered before the peak.
How did Essential Bag find VOIDS?
Through several referrals, among them Iron Media and an existing VOIDS customer. At first the scepticism was high, because Essential Bag did not know VOIDS yet. VOIDS started by analysing purchasing and found out-of-stock risk of up to 40 percent on individual days in July.
What does Essential Bag say about the work?
Founder Marvin Moik puts it this way: "Stock management has never run this smoothly." Behind that sentence are a record month in August, around €1.5 million more net revenue in Q3 and Q4 and a planned Black Week with around €1.1 million of order volume.
What does Essential Bag sell?
Essential Bag, called Essentialbag in its shop, sells smart everyday accessories: the Smart Wallet 3.0, tracker cards and key trackers for iOS and Android, belts, sling bags and charging cables. The German start-up was founded by Marvin Moik. The brand now plans its purchasing with VOIDS.
What does out-of-stock risk mean?
Out-of-stock risk shows which share of potential revenue is at stake on a given day because items will soon be unavailable. At Essential Bag, it was up to 40 percent on some days in July. After VOIDS rebuilt the ordering process, the company's record month followed in August.
How quickly did VOIDS show results at Essential Bag?
After 90 days came the company's record month in August. After 180 days, according to VOIDS founder Jannik Semmelhaack, around €1.5 million more net revenue had come from optimised orders in Q3 and Q4. By then, Q4 order volume of around €1.1 million for Black Week was planned as well.
Increase availability. Reduce capital tied up in stock.
Find your biggest procurement lever in an inventory audit.
Jannik Semmelhaack · CEO & Founder, VOIDS
Jannik is founder and CEO of VOIDS. He writes about AI-powered demand forecasting, inventory optimization, and supply-chain strategy for DTC brands.
Reviewed by Jannik Semmelhaack, founder and CEO of VOIDS.
Jannik checks every article for factual accuracy and practical relevance before it is published.