How to manage size and colour stock in a shoe shop

Why a style count is not enough

A register that says "Style 7712: 18 pairs" hides the problem. Those 18 may all be size 6 and 10 while every customer asks for 8. In footwear, stock-outs happen size by size.

One style in three colours and eight sizes is 24 SKUs. A store with 300 styles can easily carry 5,000 or more, which is why paper and Excel break down.

The method, step by step

• Create the style once: brand, article number, MRP, HSN and category.
• Add its size run and colours. The software creates one SKU per size and colour.
• Print a barcode tag for every box when stock arrives, and stick it on the box end that faces out on the rack.
• Receive stock against the purchase order (maal aaya), so short or wrong-size deliveries show up the same day.
• Bill by scanning the box, or by tapping size and colour on the grid when a tag is missing.
• Once a week, look at the grid for each fast style and find the broken size runs: the sizes that are at zero while others still have stock.
• Reorder those sizes, not the whole style, and send the list to the supplier.

Broken size runs and dead stock

A style with sizes 6, 7 and 10 left but nothing in 8 and 9 will barely sell, however good the design. Either refill the middle sizes or move the remaining pairs to a sale or to another store where those sizes sell.

Sizes that never move are a buying signal for next season: order fewer of them in the size ratio you give the supplier.

How KounterPOS handles it

• A size × colour grid for every style, on the till and in the back office, per store and godown.
• Barcode tags for boxes, and scan-to-bill at the counter.
• Purchase orders, goods receipt, transfers between stores, audited stock adjustments and return-to-vendor.
• Reorder lists by size that can be sent to suppliers on WhatsApp.

Common questions