The till says twelve, the shelf says three
Your front of shop carries toiletries, baby products, vitamins, pain relief and seasonal lines. The EPOS till has a stock figure for each. When you try to use those figures to reorder, they are wrong. Some items show plenty when the shelf is empty. Others show negative stock.
So ordering falls back on someone walking the shelves with a notepad. The till's stock feature is ignored, and the figures get worse because nobody corrects them.
Where the numbers leak
Retail stock in a pharmacy has a handful of predictable leaks. Deliveries from a retail wholesaler or a direct rep are put on the shelf without being booked in. A promotion is rung through on a generic button because the barcode will not scan. Multi-packs are split and sold singly. Damaged and expired items are binned without being recorded. And some counter medicines are sold through a different route than the retail lines.
Each leak is small. Together they mean the system figure drifts a little further from reality every week.
Pharmacy retail has its own quirks that make this worse. Seasonal lines such as hay fever and cold remedies swing hard, so a wrong figure in March becomes empty shelves in May. Sales reps often top up displays directly, bypassing goods-in altogether. And the same brand arrives in several pack sizes that look alike, so the wrong one gets booked or sold.
What bad stock figures cost
| Symptom | Business effect |
|---|---|
| Empty shelves on popular lines | Sales go to the supermarket down the road |
| Overstock on slow lines | Cash sits on the shelf and goes out of date |
| Manual ordering | Staff time walking shelves with a notepad |
| Useless reports | You cannot trust margin or sales figures by line |
How we fix the stock figures
We start with a short investigation, then build only what is needed.
- A leak review: we compare the till's sales and stock history with a few spot counts to see which leaks are biggest in your shop.
- Goods-in that is quick enough to be used, such as reading the retail supplier's electronic invoice into the EPOS where it supports import, or a handheld scan at unpacking.
- Barcode fixes: missing and duplicate barcodes cleaned up so products scan properly, and promotions set up so the correct line is sold.
- Rolling cycle counts. A short list of lines to count each day, chosen by value and by how often they go wrong, entered on a phone or handheld. The whole shop is covered over a few weeks without a full stock take.
- A waste button for damaged and expired stock, so write-offs are recorded.
- Reorder suggestions from the corrected figures, based on sales rate and a minimum you set per line.
Whether we build on your existing EPOS or suggest a different one depends on what it allows. We check its import, export and API options before recommending anything.
A shop you can reorder from a screen
Once the leaks are closed and cycle counts are running, the system figures become believable. Reordering moves from a walk with a notepad to a reviewed list. Gaps on popular lines get noticed before the shelf is empty. And the sales reports tell you which lines earn their space.
Front-of-shop space in a pharmacy is limited and often fought over between seasonal stock, services promotion and everyday lines. Believable figures let you make that call on evidence: which lines sell, which sit, and which only look popular because they are always in the way. The counter team spends less time answering "do you have any more of these?" with a trip to the stockroom.
Are your till figures like this?
- The EPOS stock figure is ignored because it is wrong
- Some lines show negative stock
- Deliveries go on the shelf without being booked in
- Promotions are sold through a generic button
- Ordering relies on someone walking the shelves