One stock, two channels: selling in your store and your webshop without double selling
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by Verpakkingdeals.nl
5 min reading time
Sold in store on Saturday, ordered online on Monday: this is how you maintain a single inventory for two channels, with a counting routine, color codes, and a plan for when things go wrong.
On Saturday afternoon, you sell the last item of a product in your store. On Monday morning, an online order comes in for exactly that product. You search, find nothing, and have to email a customer that what they just paid for is no longer available. Once a year, that's annoying. Every week, it's a leak: you lose time, you issue refunds, and you don't get a second order from that same customer.
Double selling doesn't happen because you count poorly. It happens because two channels draw from the same stock, and there's no moment when you update that stock. Below are four ways to solve this, from the simplest to the most rigorous — and what you need to maintain them during busy periods.
Why over-selling happens precisely during busy weeks
In a quiet week, you don't notice it: you sell three things in the store, you see them go by, and you remember. In a busy week — a market, a promotional day, the weeks before the holidays — you sell more in one day than you normally would in a week. The number of times you should adjust stock increases, while the time to do it shrinks. In addition, you often work with extra hands during these weeks: someone helping at the counter doesn't know that an item is also available online.
The question is therefore not whether you can count more accurately, but when you count and who is responsible for it.
Choose one place where the truth resides
The most important decision takes five minutes: determine which administration is leading. In practice, this is almost always your webshop, because stock is automatically deducted there as soon as someone places an order. Store sales are then the manual side: everything that goes over the counter must be removed from that stock on the same day.
If you choose this, agree on one fixed time — for example, when closing the cash register — and keep a note by the cash register where every sale is recorded. A note isn't old-fashioned; it's the only way to prevent you from having to reconstruct what's gone from memory at the end of the day.
Or physically separate your stock
The second approach requires no discipline but space: keep webshop stock separate from store stock. Of an item you have twelve of, eight go on the shelf and four go into a separate box or bin labeled "webshop." What is sold online comes from those four. If the webshop box becomes empty, you replenish it from the store — and only at that moment do you update your stock level.
This approach costs you a little flexibility and gives you peace of mind. A Cardboard Shipping Box 15x15x15 cm - White (€1.99) is large enough to create a bin per product group, and you can simply fold it up when it's quiet.
Even handier for two channels: use color as a code. With Price Stickers for Price Gun - 6 colors - 500 pieces (€2.95), you can, for example, give everything that is also online a yellow sticker. Someone at the counter then immediately sees that that sale needs to be passed on, without you having to explain it.
One round per week sets the rest straight
Schedule one fixed counting moment per week, during a quiet hour. Don't count everything: count the twenty best-selling items, plus anything your system shows only one or two of remaining. These are precisely the items where overselling hurts. You count the rest at the end of the month.
For each item, note three numbers: what the system says, what you count, and the difference. If the same item deviates three weeks in a row, it's not due to counting but to your process — usually a sale that is systematically not reported.
What to do if it still goes wrong
It will go wrong sometimes, even with a tight process. What matters then is speed and tone. Email on the same day, explain what happened, and offer a choice: wait until you reorder, a similar item, or a refund. Immediately include a date if you can reorder. Customers usually accept a mistake easily, provided they don't have to chase the answer themselves.
For an order of multiple items where one is missing, partial shipment is often better than holding everything: the customer then at least has the majority. Neatly close such a shipment with a Security Seal Sticker VOID - 60 pieces (€9.95) and include a note about what's still to come.
Start small: today, choose which administration is leading, put a note by the cash register, and schedule one counting moment in your calendar. The rest will follow naturally. Labels and price guns can be found in Price Guns & Labels and Stickers & Tapes; boxes, tape, and seals in Packaging & Shipping and Letterbox Packaging. Do you want to discuss the quantities that fit your turnover? Email what you send per week to info@verpakkingdeals.nl and we'll calculate it with you.
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