After the school rush: what to reorder, and what to quietly stop

After a busy season it is tempting to stop thinking about stock until the next one. That wastes the one period in the year when you have evidence rather than opinion.

Sort your shelf into three piles

Walk the shop with a notebook and put every design into one of three groups.

Designs that sold out, or nearly, earned their place. Reorder them in more depth than last time. A design that cleared in three weeks would have cleared twice the quantity.

Designs that sold steadily but did not sell out are your workhorses. Keep them, but do not expand them.

Designs that barely moved are the pile that costs money, so be honest about them. Ask one question: was it the design, or the placement? A good design on a high shelf behind the counter never had a chance. If it had a fair position and still did not move, stop reordering it.

A common mistake

Many shops reorder the same spread again because the season sold well overall. But a season is twenty designs, and perhaps five of them did most of the work. Repeat the whole spread and you repeat the fifteen that did not.

In this category, a few designs bought in depth beat many designs bought thinly.

Use the quiet weeks properly

• Tidy the pegs: face them, refill them, and leave nothing hanging by one hook.
• Move the impulse range back to the counter if it drifted during the rush.
• Write down what you learned while you still remember it. By next season you will have forgotten.

What to have on the shelf now

Demand does not stop after the session starts. It changes shape. Replacements sell steadily: erasers, sharpeners, refills, mechanical pencils, and the pens children lose. Keep those in depth and carry less of the seasonal stock.

If a gifting festival is coming, plan for it next. It needs different stock: sets, boxes, anything that looks like a present.

Browse the catalogue. Every product shows its case size, so you can plan depth before you commit.