Notes on retail planning, from both sides of the software.
Short pieces on the mechanisms that quietly cost retailers money. Each one describes something you can check in your own data this week.
The history you haven't written yet
A new retailer's demand history has not been written yet. What to instrument before the first store opens, and what it changes about choosing a planning platform.
The blind window
Fresh waste is committed days before anyone can see it. The gap between the moment an order becomes irreversible and the moment demand becomes knowable is where the money goes.
Your sales report is lying to you
Sales recorded during a stockout aren't demand. How forecasts learn from shortages they caused, and why the availability report never notices.
The system says eight. The shelf has none.
Phantom inventory quietly switches off reordering. Why it happens, why almost no software catches it, and how to find it in your own data.
Fresh isn't a harder version of dry grocery
Over-order something shelf-stable and you tie up cash. Over-order something with four days of life and you write it off. Why fresh ordering needs a different question.