A stock check list before a big sales promotion

A promotion changes the arithmetic of a small stock error. A mistake of five pieces that never mattered in an ordinary week becomes a string of cancelled orders when demand is several times higher and the listing says "in stock". A day or two spent on the key SKUs beforehand is cheaper than clearing up afterwards.

Choose the SKUs that matter

Do not try to check everything. Three groups are enough:

• Every SKU that is part of the promotion.
• The best sellers of the last eight weeks, which will get extra traffic as well.
• Any SKU with a history of problems: earlier gaps, duplicate codes or returns waiting on the shelf.

For bundles and sets, check the components too: a set sold as one SKU consumes the single items, so overselling the singles oversells the set.

Rank the list by expected orders multiplied by price and start at the top. If time runs out, the unchecked part is the least important.

The check, in order

1. Count the SKU on the shelf, bin by bin, instead of reading the books.
2. Compare the result with the ERP quantity and with the available quantity shown in the marketplace back office.
3. Subtract what cannot be sold: damaged items, returns awaiting inspection, stock reserved for other orders and samples.
4. Check the listing itself. It should carry the right barcode and the right pack size, because a bundle of three is not three single items.
5. Look at inbound goods. Stock in transit counts as available only when it has been received and booked, not when it has been promised.
6. Fix the buffer and the quantity you will show.
7. Freeze changes in the last days: no SKU merges, relabelling or price edits once the check is finished.

Set a buffer

Counts are not perfect, and returns and cancellations will happen. Keep a buffer and show less than you hold. Suppose you count 520 pieces of B-0360. Minus 12 returns awaiting inspection and 8 reserved leaves 500 sellable. A 10 per cent buffer is 50 pieces, so the listing shows 450. If the promotion plan expects 400 orders, you are covered with room to spare. If it expects 600, the shortfall is 150 pieces plus the buffer, and the time to order or transfer them is now, not on the first day of the sale.

A timeline that works

• Seven days before: choose the SKUs and count them.
• Five days before: reconcile with the books and the platform, and correct what does not agree.
• Three days before: move stock between warehouses or reorder, whichever the numbers call for.
• One day before: freeze changes, set the final quantities in the listings and brief the team.
• During the promotion: a short morning review of the top five SKUs, comparing shipped quantities, ERP quantities and the platform.

Agree in advance who may pause a listing and at what remaining quantity. A decision to hide a listing must not wait for the owner to wake up.

After the promotion

A few days after the end, count the promoted SKUs again. The difference between the books and the shelf is what the promotion exposed: items sold but not booked out, returns not yet shelved, transfers not posted. Handle returns with clear statuses such as received, inspected and back on the shelf, and the post-promotion stock will return to normal quickly. The notes from this review are the best starting point for the checklist before the next promotion.

What not to do

Do not run a full count of the whole warehouse a day before a big sale; the disruption costs more than it saves. Do not rely on the platform's displayed quantity as proof of what is on the shelf, since it is only as good as the last update. And do not leave the decision about the buffer to chance: write the percentage down and say who set it. Finally, remember the packing materials; cartons, tape and labels tend to run out in the first days of a sale.

InventoryHub's e-commerce SKU reconciliation puts back-office stock, ERP records and physical stock side by side in one table, to find SKUs with oversell risk, returns not yet shelved and items in the wrong bin.