How a Stock and Sales Review Can Help You Improve Profit and Cash Flow

Shopify has some brilliant reports, but sometimes you need a bit of tweaking or extra spreadsheet magic to turn that data into real insight. And if you’re a creative small business owner, numbers might not be your happy place, which is where I come in.

I’m Katie, an ex-corporate merchandiser turned Stock and Profit Specialist for small businesses who loves playing with data and Excel (I know, wild!) I turn your numbers into something meaningful, visual, and easy to understand, so you can make smarter decisions that boost your profit and free up cash flow.

I also run my own small product business, so I get it: the juggle, the late nights, the uncertainty. I’ve been there too, which means there’s absolutely no judgment here, just calm, practical support to help you feel more confident about your numbers.

If you’ve ever wondered what’s actually involved in a sales and stock review and whether it's something you need for your small business, here’s how I approach it for my clients.

1. Get the Full Picture of Your Performance

I start by taking an overall view of your sales, profit, stock, and website metrics. The aim is to spot patterns, understand what’s working, what’s slowing you down, and where opportunities might be hiding.

I’ll often dig a little deeper into your traffic sources and conversion rates to see if there are any gaps or missed opportunities worth exploring to help increase your sales.

2. Clean and Code Your Data for Deeper Insights

Shopify’s reports are great, but they don’t always show every detail that matters. And if you’re using another ecommerce platform, reporting can be even more limited.

So the first step is to export and clean your data, then code your products by things like category, colour, season, or size, whatever’s most relevant to your business. This helps uncover the bigger story your sales data is telling.

You don’t need to worry about this part; it’s where I get nerdy with spreadsheets. But it’s helpful to know how deep we can go. If there’s something specific you’d love to understand, like which size drives most of your sales or which ones you could phase out, just let me know before the review so I can tailor the data to answer those questions.

3. Compare Your Sales and Stock Mix

Once the data is ready, I compare your sales mix with your stock mix to highlight what’s selling, what’s stuck, and where you might have too much stock tying up cash. This helps you see exactly where to focus next and which areas might need a little more attention.

It also shows me where we may need to dig deeper to uncover what’s really going on behind the numbers.

4. Review Your Overall Stock Levels

I’ll also review your overall stock levels to see how many weeks of sales you have left, and whether that’s too much or not enough for your goals.

I then categorise your stock so you can clearly see how much you have in each group and how hard it’s working for your business:

• A products: roughly 80% of your revenue (your top sellers)
• B products: around 15% of your revenue (steady sellers)
• C products: about 5% of your revenue (slow movers)

This breakdown helps you understand where your money is tied up and how to get your stock working harder for you.

5. Identify Your Top and Slow Selling Products

I’ll pull out your best and slowest movers by product so you can double down on what’s working and make clear, confident decisions about what to mark down, phase out, restock, or give a little more attention to. Sometimes a product just needs a small tweak or a better spotlight before it starts performing.

If you’d like to understand why certain products aren’t performing, my Product Audit service can show you whether there’s potential to revive them before discontinuing or discounting.

6. Sense Check Your Product Range

I’ll help you understand whether you have the right number of products in your range, for your sales, identify any gaps or overlaps, and suggest a healthy target count to work towards.

It’s all about balance: keeping enough variety to inspire customers without stretching your cash or resources too thin.

7. Turn Insights Into Clear Next Steps and Targets

Finally, I turn all those numbers into three to five practical actions tailored to your goals, helping you improve profit, grow sustainably, and feel more in control of your business.

If you’re happy to share your overheads and costs with me too, I can help you set realistic targets to cover your bills, pay yourself properly, and understand what that means for growing key areas like sessions, conversion, and pricing.

Ready to Understand Your Numbers and Grow Your Sales & Profit?

If you’re ready to understand what your sales and stock numbers are really telling you and finally feel clear on where to focus, I’d love to help.

Think of me as your spreadsheet sidekick. I’ll do the data digging, translate it into plain English, and give you simple, practical actions to move your business forward.

You can book a Stock and Sales Review or drop me a message to chat about what you need. No jargon, no judgment, just calm, fact-based insight to help you grow with confidence.