Cash tied up in inventory? How to order less without running out

Where the cash is hiding

• Slow sellers reordered on autopilot. They're often 20% of revenue and 50% of inventory value.
• Orders sized for the price break, not for sales.
• The same buffer on everything. A best-seller and a slow product don't need the same safety stock.
• Long gaps between orders. Ordering every 90 days means holding 90 days of stock.

Step 1: Rank products by cash, not units

Multiply units on hand by cost for each product and sort. Then add days of stock (units ÷ daily sales). Products with lots of cash and lots of days are where the money is. Shopify's ABC analysis report helps you see which ones actually earn it back.

Step 2: Size orders from the formula, not the gut

Shrinking "days of cover" from 90 to 45 on steady sellers roughly halves the cash in each order. You place orders twice as often, so check shipping and minimums. The EOQ calculator shows where the balance is.

Step 3: Protect the best-sellers

Cut stock on slow products first. On your A products, keep safety stock and order on time, because a stockout there costs more than the cash you'd save. See the stockout cost calculator.

Step 4: Stop the slow ones

If sell-through has been low for a few months, don't reorder. Clear what's left (see dead stock).

Doing this for every product

Doing it by hand works for 20 SKUs. For more than that, SteadyShelf calculates the order-by date and quantity for every product from your Shopify sales and each supplier's lead time, so each order covers what you'll sell and no more.

SteadyShelf is launching on the Shopify App Store. Join early access to get the install link first.

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