Why is our stock count wrong even though we have a system?
Almost always because more than one system believes it owns the stock number. The till decrements it, the website reserves it, the warehouse adjusts it, and a marketplace pushes its own figure, each writing an absolute quantity rather than recording a movement. The fix is architectural rather than procedural: one authoritative stock ledger that every channel writes movements into, with reservations held explicitly, so the current position is always derivable and every change is attributable. Discipline alone will not repair a design where ownership is ambiguous.
What is the difference between available, on hand, and sellable stock?
On hand is what is physically present. Available is on hand minus what is already committed to picked orders, click-and-collect holds, and transfers in progress. Sellable is available minus whatever buffer you deliberately withhold from a channel to protect service levels. Overselling happens when a channel is shown on hand instead of sellable. Getting these three definitions explicit, agreed, and implemented consistently removes a large share of oversell incidents on its own.
Can you connect the inventory system to our tills and our website?
Yes, and that is usually the point of the project. The till writes sale, return, and adjustment movements. The website and marketplaces read the sellable position and place reservations at checkout. The warehouse writes receipts, picks, and transfers. Each connection is designed for the failure case as well as the happy path, because a channel that cannot reach the ledger must still trade and then reconcile rather than silently drift.
How do you handle stock across multiple locations?
Every location, whether a store, warehouse, dark store, or supplier-held position, is a distinct stock location in the ledger with its own position. That is what makes cross-store visibility, ship-from-store, transfer suggestion, and allocation decisions possible. Group-level totals are then a rollup rather than a separate number that has to be kept in step, which is where single-total designs eventually fail.
Can the system suggest what to reorder?
Yes. Reorder points and safety stock derived from sales velocity and supplier lead time, coverage targets by category, minimum order quantities and case sizes, and suggested purchase orders a buyer approves rather than executes blindly. We keep the suggestion transparent, showing why a quantity was proposed, because buyers reject recommendations they cannot interrogate and then the feature quietly goes unused.
Do we need barcodes, RFID, or serial number tracking?
Barcodes are the practical baseline and cover most retail cases. Serial or batch tracking is necessary for warranty, recall, expiry, or high-value goods, and it changes the data model because you are then tracking individual units rather than counts. RFID improves count speed and accuracy at scale but carries tagging cost and infrastructure. We size this to your goods and your loss profile rather than defaulting to the most sophisticated option.
How do you manage stocktaking and cycle counting?
Continuous cycle counting rather than one annual shutdown: count schedules weighted by value and movement, mobile counting on a handheld or phone, blind counts so the expected figure does not bias the counter, variance review with approval thresholds, and adjustments recorded as attributable movements. Accuracy is then a measurable trend by location and category rather than an annual surprise.
Does this replace our ERP?
No, and we will say so plainly if you are describing an ERP project. If your requirement spans finance, procurement, and production alongside stock, that is ERP territory and we have a dedicated ERP practice. A retail inventory system is worth building or extending when the ERP's stock module cannot keep pace with real-time multichannel selling, which is a common and legitimate reason to put a purpose-built stock layer in front of it.
How do you prevent overselling during a sale or peak period?
Reservations at the point of commitment rather than at fulfilment, short expiry on abandoned baskets so held stock returns to the pool, per-channel sellable buffers on high-risk lines, and write paths that queue rather than fail under load so no movement is lost. We then load test against a realistic peak, since overselling is a concurrency problem and concurrency problems only appear at volume.
How long does an inventory project take?
A focused stock ledger with till and ecommerce integration typically reaches a production-ready first release in three to five months. Adding replenishment, transfers, multi-location allocation, and counting workflows extends that. We sequence it so the ledger and its integrations go live and prove accurate first, because every later capability depends on that foundation being trusted.
What engagement models are available?
We offer a Dedicated Development Team for continuous product work and Staff Augmentation to extend your in-house team. AgileTech Vietnam brings 10+ years of experience and 200+ developers, with quality management certified to ISO 9001:2015 and information security to ISO 27001:2013. Share your requirements and we prepare a tailored proposal within 48 hours covering team composition, timeline, and cost.
