Retail Stock Management: A Practical Guide for Shop Owners
Stock stays under control when the same few routines happen on the same days. Here is a working routine for receiving, shelves, transfers, returns, shrinkage, counts and reorders.
Blog · 5 articles
Retail operations
Retail runs on small routines done every day: receiving a delivery, labelling it, selling it, counting it and closing the day. When the routines are clear, the numbers agree.
These guides cover the routines of a retail shop, from naming products and handling sizes and colours to counting stock and reading the reports that matter.
Articles on retail operations
How to Do a Stock Count and Reconcile Inventory: A Step-by-Step Method
A stock count is only useful if every difference is explained. This method keeps counts short and honest, and turns the differences into decisions.
How to Name SKUs: Rules, Patterns and Examples for Retail Shops
An SKU is your own name for one exact item you stock. A good pattern makes billing, counting and reordering easier for years; a bad one causes confusion from the first week.
Size and Colour Variants: How to Manage Them in a Clothing or Footwear Store
In a clothing or footwear store one style can mean twenty different items on the shelf. Unless each size and colour is tracked on its own, stock reports will say you have something the customer cannot buy.
The Retail Reports That Matter: What to Check Daily, Weekly and Monthly
Software can produce dozens of reports. A handful, read at the right time and turned into a decision, do most of the work of running a shop.
Free calculators
Work it out.
- Free calculatorMargin and markup calculatorWork out profit, margin and markup from cost and selling price, and the selling price you need for a target margin. Free, runs in your browser.
- Free calculatorReorder point calculatorWork out when to reorder an item from daily sales, supplier lead time and the safety stock you want to keep. Free, runs in your browser.