How to order less often without running out

Separate the two decisions

When to order and how much to order are two different numbers. The reorder point tells you when stock is low enough to trigger an order, based on daily sales times lead time plus safety days. The order quantity tells you how much to buy, based on daily sales times your chosen days of cover. If you want to order less often, raise the days of cover. Do not touch the reorder point, or you risk running out before the next delivery arrives.

Watch what longer cover costs you

Ordering less often means holding more stock at once. That ties up more cash, needs more storage space, and raises the risk that slow-moving variants sit too long. Before you stretch cover from, say, 30 days to 60 days, check that the product sells steadily and will not go stale, get discontinued by the supplier, or change season on you.

Use case packs and minimums to your advantage

If your supplier has case packs or minimum order quantities, build your days of cover around those instead of fighting them. If a case pack covers nine weeks of normal sales, ordering once per case pack cycle is often more efficient than ordering smaller amounts more frequently and rounding up each time anyway.

Combine SKUs into fewer, bigger orders

Ordering less often per supplier usually works best when you group every SKU from that supplier into one order instead of ordering each variant on its own schedule. This also helps you hit minimum order values and reduces the number of separate shipments and invoices you handle.

Step by step

1. List your SKUs by supplier and note each supplier's lead time and case pack size.
2. Keep your safety days the same; this covers delays, do not extend it just to order less often.
3. Decide a new days-of-cover target per supplier, for example moving from 30 to 45 days.
4. Recalculate order quantity as daily sales times (lead time plus new days of cover) minus stock on hand and on order.
5. Check the new order size against storage space and cash available before committing.
6. Place one combined order per supplier instead of several small ones.
7. Review sales speed after two or three cycles and adjust days of cover if a SKU is slower or faster than expected.

Worked example

A store sells a candle at 6 units a day. Lead time is 10 days and safety days are 4, so the reorder point stays at 6 x (10 + 4) = 84 units. Currently they order with 20 days of cover, roughly every 3 weeks. They switch to 40 days of cover to cut ordering frequency in half. New order quantity, assuming 80 on hand and none on order, is 6 x (10 + 40) - 80 = 220 units, placed roughly every 6 to 7 weeks instead of every 3.

How SteadyShelf helps

SteadyShelf calculates the reorder point and suggested order quantity per SKU automatically, rounds to case packs and minimums, and can group suggestions by supplier so you place one larger order instead of several small ones. It does not decide the right days-of-cover target for your cash flow or storage space; that judgment call is still yours.

$29/month flat, unlimited products and suppliers, 30-day free trial. Run the numbers now with the free reorder point calculator.

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Related guides

• How to order to case packs without overbuying
• How to organize a small stockroom
• How to organize variants for easier reordering
• How to number purchase orders

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