Stop Buying Dead Stock

The Daily Nightmare: “Buying on Hype”

It’s Tuesday morning. Your buyer, Sarah, is staring at a spreadsheet with 12,000 SKUs. She has 4 hours to place orders for the next quarter.

She sorts by “Sales Velocity.” At the top is the Blue Velvet Sofa. It’s flying off the shelves. She hits reorder for 500 more units.

What the spreadsheet didn’t tell her:

Returns are 40%: The velvet rips easily. Customers hate it.
Storage is Expensive: It’s a bulky item taking up prime rack space.
Supplier Hiked Cost: The factory raised prices 15% last week.

Sarah just spent $200,000 of your capital to buy an item that loses $12 on every sale. She didn’t do it on purpose. She did it because she was buying blind.

The Volume Trap

Retail moves fast. When you optimize for “Sales,” you ignore “Profit.” You fill your warehouse with items that move fast but bleed cash.

flowchart TD
    Sales["Sales Report: 'High Volume'"] -->| Buyer Excitement | PO["Generate PO"]
    PO -->| Restock 500 Units | Warehouse["Stocks Shelves"]
    Warehouse -->| 40% Return Rate | Returns["Returns Pile Up"]
    Returns -->| Storage Fees | Loss["Net Loss: -$12.00/unit"]
    Loss -->| Dead Stock | Liquidate["Fire Sale @ 80% Off"]
    
    style Loss fill:#f9f,stroke:#333
    style Liquidate fill:#ff9999,stroke:#333

The Solution: Buying for Profit, Not Volume

The Runink Procurement Agent audits the financial health of a SKU before it allows a reorder. It doesn’t care about hype. It cares about one thing: Net Profit.

It sits between your buyer and your ERP. When a PO is drafted, the Agent wakes up and runs a forensic audit on every line item.

How It Works: The “CFO” Logic

The agent doesn’t just look at sales history. It builds a “Profit Profile” for every SKU in real-time.

1. It Sees The Hidden Costs

It connects to your disparate systems to gather the truth.

WMS Connection: “This item has a 42% return rate over the last 90 days.”
Logistics Feed: “This item is oversized. Storage cost is $14/month per pallet.”
Supplier Portal: “The ‘Landed Cost’ just went up by $5 due to tariffs.”

2. It Calculates True Margin

It does the math your spreadsheet can’t handle.

Formula: (Sales Price - COGS - Shipping - Returns Processing - Storage) = True Margin
Result: “The Spreadsheet says Margin is $50. The Truth is Margin is -$12.”

3. It Blocks The Bad Decisions

The agent acts as a financial guardrail.

Blocks the PO: It literally prevents the purchase order from being sent.
Alerts the Buyer: “I blocked this reorder. Returns are too high. We are losing money on this SKU. See the report.”
Suggests a Fix: “Demand is cooling. I adjusted the order from 500 to 100 units to avoid dead stock.”

flowchart LR
    Signal["Buyer Drafts PO"] --> Check{"Agent Audit"}
    Check -->|Profit > 15%| Approve["Approve PO"]
    Check -->|Profit < 0%| Block["BLOCK PO"]
    Check -->|Demand Falling| Adjust["Reduce Qty"]
    
    Block -->|Alert| Human["Buyer Review"]
    Adjust -->|Update| ERP["Update NetSuite"]
    
    style Block fill:#ff9999,stroke:#333
    style Approve fill:#99ff99,stroke:#333

“Oh, I Haven’t Thought of That…”

“Will this slow down my buying team?” No. For healthy items (good margin, low returns), the agent auto-approves the PO instantly. Sarah won’t even know it’s there. It only stops her when she is about to burn cash.

“What if I want to sell at a loss?” Sometimes you need a “Loss Leader” to get customers in the door. You can override the agent. But now, you do it with your eyes open, knowing exactly how much it will cost you.

“Does it work with seasonal items?” Yes. The agent sees seasonality curves. If you try to order 10,000 swimsuits in September, it will flag it: “Trend Alert: Season Ending. Recommended Order: 0.”

The Bottom Line

This isn’t just about saving a few dollars. It’s about fundamental capital efficiency.

Cash Flow: Stop tying up $200k in inventory that will sit for 12 months.
Warehouse Health: Free up 15% of your rack space for “Winners.”
Net Profit: Increase bottom-line margin by cutting the “silent losers” from your catalog.