Fear Is Costing You More Than Stockouts

The most expensive inventory is the inventory you ordered because you were scared. Let me tell you about the brand I worked with. They stocked out on their best seller. 2 weeks of zero sales on their number 1 product. Traumatizing, I get it. So what did they do? They panicked, reordered 6 months of stock. 6 months, because they never wanted to feel that again. Fast forward 6 months, they're sitting on a mountain of inventory. Out of cash. They can't run ads, can't launch a new product they've been planning, and they can't do anything because every dollar is trapped on the pallet. The original stockout cost them $20K in lost sales. The panic order, $150K trapped inventory they didn't need for months. The stockout hurt. The overreaction nearly killed them. Fear, is the worst inventory planner in the world. It doesn't look at data, it doesn't calculate variability, it just screams more and you listen. Math doesn't have emotions. Use the formulas, trust the numbers. That's the fix.