What is Case pack?

Case packs decide how much you actually have to order, not how much you want to order. If your supplier sells candles in cases of 18, you cannot order 50. You order 36 or 54 and live with whatever extra stock that creates.

Knowing your case pack sizes ahead of time stops awkward back-and-forth with suppliers and stops you from rounding badly at the last minute. It also helps you judge if a supplier's minimum order is realistic for how fast you sell that item.

Formula

Example

A candle store needs 50 units of a jar candle to cover the next month. The supplier ships in cases of 18. Fifty divided by 18 is 2.78, so the store rounds up to 3 cases, which is 54 units. The store orders 54 units, 4 more than it needed.

Common mistakes

• Ordering a round number like 100 units without checking it divides evenly into the case pack size.
• Forgetting that different suppliers may pack the same type of product in different case sizes.
• Treating case pack as the same thing as minimum order quantity, when a supplier can require several cases as a minimum.

Case pack and SteadyShelf

SteadyShelf rounds its suggested order quantities up to the nearest full case pack for each SKU before drafting the purchase order.

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

Related terms

Minimum order quantity · Purchase order · Reorder quantity · Supplier · Economic order quantity

Full inventory glossary

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