For UK multi-store retailers with 50 to 500 staff
Stock-gap alerts and replenishment for multi-store retailers
Every morning your buyer gets a short list: which stores will run out of what, which stores hold spare stock of the same line, and the transfers and supplier orders that close each gap. The buyer changes what they disagree with and approves the rest, and we report your out-of-stock rate and stock days every month.
If we don't find anything worth doing, we'll tell you and leave.
The problem
One store sold out on Saturday. Another has four months of the same line.
In a growing chain, store replenishment often runs on a weekly spreadsheet, the buyer's memory and calls from store managers. A line sells out in one store while two others sit on months of cover. By the time anyone notices, the van has gone.
Moving stock between stores is often the cheapest fix: the stock is already paid for, and a van may already run between the two. Two numbers show how well it works today: the out-of-stock rate in stores that sell the line, and stock days across the chain.
How it works
Last night's figures in. A short list for the buyer in the morning.
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Overnight
Sales and stock come in
Yesterday's sales and this morning's stock for every line in every store, from your EPOS or stock system.
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Overnight
Cover is worked out
Days of cover for each line in each store at its recent selling rate, against the supplier's lead time and your next delivery.
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Overnight
Gaps are matched
A store about to run short is matched to a store with spare stock on a route your vans already run. What a transfer can't cover becomes a suggested supplier order.
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Morning
Your buyer approves
The buyer changes what they disagree with and approves the rest. Nothing moves and nothing is ordered until they do.
Example
Nine stores' figures in. Today's transfers and orders, waiting for the buyer.
Comes in
Store 03 · bird seed 20kg · 4 on hand · sells 2.1 a day
Store 08 · bird seed 20kg · 37 on hand · sells 0.4 a day
Store 05 · hose reel 30m · 0 on hand · sells 0.5 a day
Checked
- Store 03 runs out of bird seed in about 2 days
- Store 08 has about 3 months of cover on the same line
- Move 12 bags from store 08 to store 03 on the next van
- Store 05 out of hose reels since Saturday; no store has spare
- Order 12 hose reels now: 2 packs of 6, supplier lead time 7 days
Waits for your approval
Today · 4 transfers · 2 orders
Your buyer changes what they disagree with and approves the rest.
Illustration with invented data.
Your rules
The list follows rules you set.
- Shelf minimum
- The least you want on display in each store, so a line doesn't look empty before it is.
- When a transfer is worth it
- Only between stores on the same van route, or only above a set value, so the list never suggests a trip for three items.
- Lines to leave alone
- Seasonal, clearance and made-to-order lines that should run down without a reorder.
- Pack sizes and minimums
- Supplier orders rounded to the supplier's pack sizes and order minimums.
- Who approves
- The buyer, or one buyer per category. Nothing moves until they approve it.
What it connects to
Your EPOS, your product list and your van routes.
We work from daily sales and stock by store and line, your product list with supplier, pack size and lead time, and which stores your vans connect on which days. We connect through what your systems already offer: a nightly export, or an API where there is one. We don't ask you to change systems.
If you also sell to trade customers, the same approach reads their orders as they arrive: see AI order entry and AI for wholesale distributors.
What it costs you today
Sales lost to empty shelves, and cash sitting on full ones.
A rough first sum for lost sales: for one line, take the days it was out of stock in stores that sell it, times what it sells a day, times your margin. Do it for your top 20 lines and you have a floor. For cash, add up at cost the stock in stores holding more than, say, three months of cover.
The order desk calculator does the same kind of sum for keying trade orders and pricing quotes. For distributors and manufacturers we build the order and quote side of this idea; our research note on how 209 UK suppliers take orders and quotes shows where that work piles up.
What you get from us
A verdict, a working system and a number every month.
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30 minutes
Call with you
How stock moves between your stores today, and which number it holds back.
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1 hour
Session with your buyers
We see the work first hand. The same day you get a one-page verdict: the workflow, the KPI it moves, today's baseline and a fixed price, or a written no.
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A fixed number of weeks
Build
We build it ourselves; nothing is subcontracted. The timeline and fee are on the verdict before you commit.
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Every month
Run and report
We run the system and report out-of-stock rate and stock days against the baseline. Stop at any report.
Questions
Replenishment alerts: common questions.
- We already have reorder points. What does this add?
- A reorder point says a store is low. This list also says where spare stock of the same line sits, and suggests a transfer before a supplier order. It works from recent selling rates, so a line that has gone quiet stops being reordered.
- Does it move stock or place orders by itself?
- No. Your buyer approves every transfer and every order. Nothing moves until they do.
- What data do you need?
- Daily sales and stock by store and line, your product list with supplier, pack size and lead time, and which stores your vans connect on which days. A few months of sales history helps set the selling rates.
- Will it work with our EPOS or stock system?
- If it can give us daily sales and stock by store, as a file or through an API, we can work from it. We check this on the first call.
- How do you measure it?
- Out-of-stock rate and stock days, by store, against a baseline we measure before we build. We report both every month, and you can stop at any report.
Next step
Thirty minutes on how stock moves between your stores.
Tell us how many stores you run and how replenishment works today, and we'll come back with a time.
Also take trade orders? Send us one order and see the draft it becomes.