The same SKU. Two stores.
The money isn't lost. It's in the wrong store.
Every store manager overstocks to protect their own target. Nobody did anything wrong. By mid season, part of your buying budget sits where it won't sell while the stores that would have sold it are empty.
Same SKU, mid season
Wrong placeon hand, sells 1 a month
on hand, sold out in a week
Both managers hit their process. The network still lost the sale.
How the split stopped matching the demand.
The allocation was right on paper. The season had other plans.
Store B's manager keeps asking for more. The answer is "the buy is done."
Store A's twelve units will meet the markdown gun in eight weeks.
Meanwhile the transfer that would fix it is nobody's job to spot.
Overstock here is a stockout there.
The cost is double. Store B loses full price sales it would have made this week. Store A turns buying budget into markdown stock. Same units, wrong map. No new buying fixes it, because the problem is location, not quantity.
It doesn't ask you to buy. It proposes the move.
Each store's own potential
Works out each store's ideal stock from what that store actually sells (its own daily selling rhythm per SKU, never a company average).
The excess, priced
Flags stock sitting above that store's own sales potential and prices the excess.
The transfer, proposed
Proposes the transfer: pull the overstocked store down to its own potential, lift the store that's selling out.
What the transfer proposal looks like.
Transfer proposal
Sample| SKU | Store holding it | Store selling it | Units to move | Value released |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core denim 32/32 | Store A | Store B | 9 | 1,240 |
| White tee, M | Store D | Store C | 14 | 860 |
| Rain jacket, L | Store B | Store E | 6 | 1,050 |
| Wool scarf, one size | Store C | Store A | 11 | 540 |
Illustrative sample, not a client result. Values are shown in your own currency.
What you are thinking
“We're not overstocked. We bought to plan.”
What the shelves say
The buy was probably right. The split isn't anymore. Demand moved after allocation day, and every store protecting its own number locks the imbalance in.
The plan was a forecast. The shelves are the result.
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).
2,000+ stores
Where the method was built. StokSmart teams have counted stock in more than 2,000 stores worldwide.
Works with the ERP you already run.
Next
The stock is in the wrong place. The next question is what the empty shelf costs: put a number on the sales you never made
Want to see which of your stores are carrying each other's stock?
Fifteen minutes, your questions, no deck. We'll show you how the transfer proposal works on real screens.
Would you rather start with your own numbers? Get the free inventory accuracy audit