Archit walks through how a brand found $150,000 stuck in dead stock during a two-week audit. They killed slow SKUs, bundled inventory to move it, and set up aging reports and open-to-buy controls to stop it from happening again.
What if 150k of your cash was locked in dead stock? The same cash you needed for your BFCM purchase order and you had no idea? That's exactly what happened to this aciral brand. With over 12 months of slow moving inventory piled up, bleeding cash and holding back lows until we uncovered what was really sitting in a warehouse that they didn't even know existed. In just two weeks we uncovered over 150k and he hidden overstock and helped this brand turn it into working capital just in time to fund their BFCM purchase owners. And here's exactly how we did it. Step one, we audited their inventory and found the problem hiding in plain sight. This brand wasn't even tracking SKU age or sell through. They kept warehousing and reordering without knowing what was actually moving. So we pulled three very important reports. First is the inventory aging report. Second sell through rate report. And three a dead stop snapshot. And together these three reports painted a clearer picture. And over 150k worth of SKUs were sitting idle for 365 plus days. Then moving to the step two, we flagged the worst offenders and stop the bleeding. A surprising number of SKUs were still being reordered even though they had not sold in months. And to uncover this we use forecast versus actual sales. It reports to spot demand gaps and then purchase order history which reports to find repeat orders. And then lastly cross check it these two reports with a dead stock report to catch zero movement skill ski still sitting replenish. These were the worst offenders. SKUs that had not moved in 6 to 12 months but had fresh inventory arriving just because the tool projected it. And we blocked these reorders. We flagged excess and we directed focus to fast movers. Moving to step three we gave them visibility so they could recover the value, not just write it off. Once the dead stock was clearly identified, we did not push for discounts. Instead we handed the founder and the marketing team a clear SKU Breakdown sales so they knew exactly what's needed action. With that clarity, they did bundle aged products with top sellers. They run targeted campaigns for niche buyers and they even helped launch paid ads to move the right spe. All without writing off inventory or slashing prices. And our job inmong supply chains giving them the supply chain clarity that paved the way to these actions. Step four, we help them understand the real cost then build a system to prevent it. When we showed them the numbers, their first reaction was I thought it was just unsold stock. I didn't realize we were bleeding this much. That's the real cost of overstock. Not just space but cash loss, margin erosion and missed growth, especially during the high stakes seasons like dfcf. So we put a long term system in place. We did monthly aging reports, template forecast versus actual dashboards open to buy controls and SKU segmentation by performance and seasonality. Now let's make sure this doesn't happen to you. Even if you clear out your current overstock without the right systems, it's only a matter of time before it creeps back in. And the worst part? You might not catch it until you're scrambling for cash exactly when you need it the most. If you want to make sure your inventory is always working for you and not against you, click the link below and book a free strategy call with Archit will help you uncover what's hiding in your inventory and what to do about it. After you book that call, check out our other related case Study how at LA based jewelry brand unlock 100k in hidden demand with a smart inventory. It's in www. Movesupplychain.com this is a tool that you don't want to miss out.
