A shelf that lies
A member asks for a men's large cadet glove, left hand. The till says there are four. The drawer has none. There are two medium-large in a box in the back, and a line of gloves from three seasons ago that nobody wants.
The same thing happens with shoes in half sizes, with balls in different packs, with waterproofs in colours, and most expensively with clubs: a driver in regular and stiff, right and left, with two lofts. Often the till has one item called 'Driver X' with a single price, and the variant sits in the pro's head.
Stock checks are done at the end of the financial year, usually in the quiet months, by counting everything onto a clipboard and comparing it to a spreadsheet.
Why pro shop stock drifts
The till is set up for speed at the counter, not for accuracy. When a queue forms on a Saturday, the assistant rings through 'glove' rather than finding the exact size, and the stock record drifts from that moment.
Deliveries come from several suppliers, some on account with the manufacturer, some from distributors, some custom-fit orders for members. Paperwork is checked against the box when there is time, and entered into the till later, sometimes much later.
Custom-fit clubs complicate things. A member orders a set built to their spec, pays a deposit, and the order sits with the manufacturer. Tracking those orders often lives on paper, separate from the stock that is on display.
What drifting stock costs
| Symptom | Effect on the shop |
|---|---|
| Till says in stock, shelf is empty | Lost sales and awkward conversations |
| Wrong sizes reordered | Money tied up in the sizes that do not sell |
| Old stock unnoticed | Discounting too late to recover much |
| Custom orders on paper | Members chasing, deposits hard to reconcile |
| Annual count only | Discrepancies found months after they started |
For many club pros the shop is their own business, and the stock is their own money. Knowing which variants actually sell is the difference between a sensible order in the autumn and a garage full of unsold waterproofs.
How we get stock and the till to agree
- We restructure the product list so each item has proper variants: size, hand, flex, loft, colour, with a barcode for each where the supplier provides one.
- The till, whether it is the club's EPOS or a shop system such as Lightspeed or Square, sells the variant by scanning or by a quick picker designed for the counter.
- Deliveries are booked in by scanning boxes against the supplier's delivery note or order, so stock arrives in the system on the day it arrives in the shop.
- Custom-fit orders are tracked from order to delivery with the member's deposit, the manufacturer's order number and the expected date, and the member gets a text when it arrives.
- Short, regular counts replace the single annual one: a few product groups a week, counted on a phone, with any difference shown straight away.
- A reorder view shows what is selling by variant against what is in stock, and an ageing view shows what has not moved in the season.
If your till already handles variants properly and the problem is how it is used on a busy day, we fix the process rather than build a system.
What the shop looks like afterwards
The member asks for the left-hand cadet glove. The assistant scans the shelf label, sees there are none on the shelf but two in the back, and says so. The pro places the next order from a screen that shows which sizes actually sold last month and last season. Old stock shows up while there is still time to do something about it.
- Stock by variant that matches the shelf
- Deliveries in on the day they arrive
- Custom orders tracked with deposits
- Reorders based on what sells
Does your pro shop need this?
- Your till shows stock the shelf does not have.
- Variants such as hand and flex are not separate in the system.
- Deliveries are entered days or weeks after arrival.
- Custom-fit orders are tracked on paper.
- You find slow sellers only at the annual stock take.