Deciding when to reorder boutique stock starts with the exact colour and size your customers bought, not the overall popularity of a style. This wholesale clothing stock-review checklist helps UK boutique buyers turn a sales record into a clear decision: replenish, investigate or leave the remaining stock to sell.
Use it for repeat purchases after an initial order. It is a working method for your own shop, not a promise of future demand or a rule that every garment needs the same stock cover. For the wider balance between newness and replenishment, see the boutique buying strategy guide; the worksheet here focuses on the repeat-order decision.
Start with a stock position you can trust
Choose a review date and count the saleable units for each style, colour and size. Keep damaged or queried goods, customer reservations and confirmed incoming orders separate. Do not subtract reservations twice if your inventory system already excludes them from available stock.
Record the unit consistently. One saleable co-ord set is not interchangeable with one garment, and a wholesale pack is not necessarily the unit shown in your sales report. Compare units with units before making a buying decision.
Separate sales evidence from a temporary burst
Choose a recent period that is meaningful for your shop and record its start and end dates. Note completed unit sales, returns and the price actually achieved. Keep cancelled orders out of completed sales. If you calculate retained sales after returns, state that definition and use it consistently; late returns can change an earlier period.
Alongside the figures, record when the option was actually available, visible and correctly listed. A slow week during which the item was sold out cannot be read as a week of weak demand. Equally, do not automatically project sales from a launch event or discount across an ordinary trading month.
Customer requests are useful context, but a request, a social-media reaction and a completed purchase are different evidence. Keep separate columns rather than combining them into an inflated demand total.
Estimate stock cover without treating it as a forecast
A simple starting calculation is available saleable units divided by your observed weekly unit-sales rate. Use the same colour, size and selling unit on both sides. If the rate is zero, very irregular or based on a short launch period, do not manufacture a precise number of weeks: mark the estimate as unreliable and review the underlying records.
Illustrative example, not Catwalk sales data: an option has six available units and has sold four units over two comparable in-stock weeks, with no returns recorded. That is an observed rate of two units per week and three weeks of stock cover. It does not mean the next three weeks will repeat that pattern.
Keep confirmed incoming units visible on a separate line, with their expected arrival and any uncertainty. Stock arriving after the relevant selling window cannot solve an earlier shortage. Avoid counting an unaccepted order or a hoped-for supplier restock as stock already secured.
Check the replenishment window and the full purchase
Compare your estimated cover with the time needed to decide, order, receive and check the goods before sale. Use current supplier information rather than assuming the previous delivery time will repeat. Catwalk’s shipping information describes delivery times as estimates, not guarantees; build your own decision around that uncertainty.
Check the exact replacement option and its current specification. A familiar product name does not prove that the colour, measurements, composition or pack arrangement is unchanged. A different colour is a fresh buying decision, not an automatic substitute for the one that sold.
Read the actual purchasing unit before rounding your requirement into an order. Catwalk’s current terms allow individual pieces or the pack or size ratio shown on the product page. If the required option is part of a mixed pack, assess the additional units too. Buying surplus sizes merely to obtain one missing size can change the economics of the repeat order.
Check the total cash commitment, applicable tax and delivery, existing orders and other bills. Revisit the achievable selling price rather than relying on the original ticket price. The wholesale markup and margin guide covers the cost distinctions; no stock-cover figure overrides an unaffordable order.
Choose reorder, investigate or hold
- Reorder: the exact option has credible repeat demand, the purchase fits your cash plan and the expected arrival still serves the selling window. Record the proposed quantity and why it is appropriate.
- Investigate: sales are difficult to interpret, a stock count is uncertain, product information differs or the supplier has not confirmed something important. Name the unanswered question and the person checking it.
- Hold: existing or incoming stock is sufficient, the remaining selling window is too uncertain, or the full purchase does not fit your budget. Record a review date rather than leaving the decision open indefinitely.
Holding a repeat order is not automatically a reason to discount the remaining pieces. First check presentation, option accuracy and whether the customer can understand the garment. Keep any pricing decision separate and deliberate.
Copy this boutique stock-review checklist
- Identity: supplier reference, your reference, exact colour, size and selling unit.
- Position: review date, available saleable units, reservations, held goods and confirmed incoming units.
- Evidence: review period, units sold, returns, actual selling prices and periods unavailable.
- Context: promotions, events, display changes and customer requests recorded separately.
- Cover: observed rate, calculated cover where meaningful, and reasons the estimate may not hold.
- Purchase: exact supplier option, current pack contents, full cost and expected arrival uncertainty.
- Decision: reorder, investigate or hold; proposed quantity, reason, owner and next review date.
Keep the original review when the next delivery arrives. Compare the decision with what happened rather than rewriting the earlier assumptions to fit the result. A short record of why you reordered is more useful than an automatic rule to buy again whenever a style looks low.