The monthly review
Every metric has a number. Except the one you argue about.
Someone says the best sellers weren't on the shelf. There's no figure attached, so it becomes you, procurement and the warehouse, each fairly sure it was one of the others. Nobody can prove it either way. It goes round again next month.
On the review screen
OpinionWhatever has no number loses the argument.
The same agenda item, every month.
Minute 40 of the review. Sales are short. Traffic takes the blame, because traffic has a chart.
The store swears the stock never arrived. The warehouse swears it shipped.
Procurement pulls up the buy. The buy looks fine.
Nobody is being difficult. Nobody has evidence. Same agenda item next month.
Blame is what organizations do when measurement is missing.
The argument itself costs you: every month the gap goes unmeasured, the same shelves go empty the same way, and the fix keeps belonging to nobody. The wrong lever gets budget because the right one has no figure.
It gives that agenda item a number too.
The missing SKUs, named
Which SKUs were missing, in which shops, on which days, and what the sales came to at that store's own selling rate.
Split by accountability
System said stock but nothing sold (store checks it), zero in the system (procurement's), stock above the store's own potential (rebalance it).
Next to the metrics you trust
On screen next to footfall and conversion, per store, updated continuously.
The same review screen, with the gap filled in.
Monthly review
Sample| Metric | This month | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Footfall | +3.1% | Store ops |
| Conversion | 22.4% | Store ops |
| Basket | +1.2% | Commercial |
| Lost sales from gaps | 412 units | Store and procurement |
Illustrative sample, not a client result.
What you are thinking
“We covered it in the review. It was traffic.”
What the shelves say
Traffic had a number, so traffic took the blame. Some of those weeks the product simply wasn't available where the demand was standing.
Once it sits on the screen next to footfall, it stops being an opinion.
Where these numbers come from.
4 to 8%
Sales uplift measured when retailers fix inventory accuracy. ECR Retail Loss study across seven European retailers (Glock, Rekik and Syntetos, 2019).
65%
Of retail inventory records do not match the shelf, across 370,000 records (DeHoratius and Raman, 2008).
Works with the ERP you already run.
Next
Once the gap has a number, the next question is where to point the team on Monday: what to check first, store by store
Worth fifteen minutes before the next review?
Bring the metric you argue about. We'll show you what the same screen looks like with the number filled in.
Or measure your own gap first: Get the free inventory accuracy audit