Demand forecasting, inventory planning, and the operational math behind knowing what to buy and when.
Every inventory risk is the same risk arriving at a different time: you committed cash to a forecast and the forecast was wrong. The six ways that bill lands, which one to accept on purpose, and how to size the rest.
· 7 min read
A new flavour rarely creates demand. It moves it. How to forecast a launch that takes sales from a product you already sell, how to measure how much it took, and what to do about the buy on both sides.
· 7 min read
Demand planning asks what will sell. Supply planning asks what that costs in cash, capacity and lead time. How to build the second one, step by step, and what it catches that a forecast alone never will.
· 7 min read
MOQ is the smallest quantity a supplier will produce or sell in one order. It is their constraint, not yours — so the real skill is deciding when to accept a buy larger than your forecast justifies, and pricing that decision in carrying cost rather than unit cost.
· 7 min read
A backorder is an order you have already accepted for stock you do not have. The useful question is not what it means but whether to keep taking it — which turns on your real lead time, what the customer does while waiting, and the channel you sold through.
· 6 min read
Stocky stops working after August 31, 2026. Purchase orders, stocktake history and cost data export cleanly. Suppliers do not export at all. Here is the order to do it in.
· 4 min read
Stocky stopped working on August 31, 2026. Shopify Admin took the purchase orders and transfers, and Sidekick now suggests reorders. What it still does not do, which tools remain, and when Admin alone is enough.
· 7 min read
Inventory turnover measures how many times you sell and replace your inventory during a period—a key indicator of how efficiently your inventory investment generates sales.
· 4 min read
A purchase order records what you agreed to buy, from whom, in what quantity and by when. Eight steps to create one, only two of which are decisions — and the reason an open order belongs in your plan, not only in your accounting system.
· 8 min read
Fill rate is the share of ordered demand you ship from stock on the first attempt. It is calculated on units, cases, order lines or whole orders, and the version a retail scorecard uses is in-full delivery against the purchase order.
· 7 min read
Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) is a business process that aligns sales forecasts with supply capabilities and financial goals into a single, agreed-upon plan.
· 4 min read
Lead time is the total duration between placing an order and having that inventory available to sell—not just shipping time, but every step from order to shelf.
· 5 min read