A premium sportswear brand ships 200 units of a new running shoe to their concession in a prestigious London department store. The warehouse shows them as delivered. The POS system eventually records sales. But what happens in between? Where exactly are those shoes right now - in the stockroom, on the shop floor, in the window display? When did they actually hit the floor? How are they performing compared to their placement?

For most brands operating retail concessions, this middle ground is a black hole. Products enter, sales emerge, but the journey between remains invisible. And that invisibility costs money in ways that are surprisingly difficult to measure - precisely because you can't see what you're losing.

We built a stockroom intelligence system for a global sportswear brand operating within one of the world's most famous department stores to solve exactly this problem. What we learned applies to any brand operating concessions, shop-in-shops, or managed retail spaces.

The Visibility Gap

Brands have excellent visibility at two points: when products leave their warehouse (sell-in) and when they're purchased by customers (sell-out). The space between - the retail location itself - is largely invisible.

We call this the Retail Middle Mile™ - the operational space where products exist but aren't tracked with any precision.

3-14 days
Typical delay between delivery and floor placement
23%
Products still in stockroom after 30 days (industry average)
±18%
Sell-through calculation error when using ship date vs floor date
40%
Placement decisions made without performance data

Why This Matters

The Retail Middle Mile™ creates problems that compound across the business:

Sell-through rate - units sold divided by units available - is a critical metric for inventory decisions. But if you're calculating from ship date rather than floor date, your numbers are wrong. A product that "underperformed" in its first two weeks might actually have spent ten of those days in a stockroom. Decisions made on flawed data lead to flawed outcomes: markdowns on products that needed more floor time, reorders cancelled on items that were actually selling well.

Without visibility into what's actually on the floor versus in storage, stockrooms accumulate. New deliveries arrive, get processed "when there's time," and gradually build up. We've seen concessions where 30%+ of available inventory was sitting in back rooms - invisible to customers, not earning revenue, but still counting against sell-through calculations. The brand sees poor performance; the reality is poor floor management.

Visual merchandising in concessions typically happens by experience, instinct, and whatever's easiest. Does front-of-store placement actually drive sales? Does the window display perform better than the back wall? Without tracking where products are placed and correlating that with sales, these questions remain unanswered. Merchandising becomes superstition rather than strategy.

When a product sells out on the floor, how long until it's replaced from stockroom inventory? In manual environments, this depends on staff attention and priorities. High-performing products can sit in the back while empty fixtures face customers. Every hour of empty shelf is lost revenue - and without tracking, you don't know it's happening.

What We Built

Our stockroom intelligence system for this global sportswear brand addressed each of these problems through three connected capabilities: stockroom tracking, floor plan management, and performance correlation.

Barcode Scanning Interface

Simple, fast scanning for receiving deliveries, moving products to floor, and tracking returns to stockroom. Designed for retail staff, not warehouse professionals.

Floor Plan Mapping

Digital representation of the retail space with defined zones, fixtures, and display areas. Products are assigned to specific locations, not just "on floor."

True Floor Date Tracking

Automatic capture of when products actually hit the selling floor - enabling accurate sell-through calculations from first day of availability.

Location Performance

Sales data correlated with placement. Understand which zones, fixtures, and positions drive performance - and which don't.

Stockroom Visibility

Real-time view of what's in the back room, how long it's been there, and what should be prioritised for floor placement.

Replenishment Alerts

Automatic notifications when floor stock depletes and stockroom inventory is available. Eliminates the "didn't know we had more" problem.

The Scanning Interface

The entire system depends on staff actually using it. We learned quickly that retail staff aren't warehouse workers - they're selling, styling, and managing customer relationships. Any tracking system that feels like additional admin work will be abandoned.

Design for Reality

We designed the scanning interface for speed and simplicity. Receive a delivery: scan each item once. Move to floor: scan and tap the zone. Return to stockroom: scan. No forms, no fields, no typing. A 50-unit delivery can be processed in under five minutes. If it took longer than that, staff wouldn't do it consistently - and inconsistent data is worse than no data.

Action Traditional Process Our Scanning System
Receive delivery Check against paper manifest, sign, file Scan each item - auto-validates against expected delivery
Move to floor Not tracked Scan item, tap zone on floor plan - 2 seconds
Return to stockroom Not tracked Scan item - automatically removes from floor inventory
Find product Physical search, ask colleagues Search system, see exact location
Check stockroom age Impossible without physical audit Dashboard shows items by days-in-stockroom

Floor Plan Management

Knowing something is "on the floor" isn't enough. For placement intelligence to work, you need to know exactly where - which zone, which fixture, which position.

We built a floor plan layer that represents the actual retail space:

The floor is divided into logical zones: entrance area, window display, feature wall, back section, fitting room area. Each zone has different characteristics - foot traffic, visibility, purpose. Products assigned to zones can be analysed by zone performance, revealing patterns invisible in aggregate sales data.

Within zones, individual fixtures are mapped: specific rails, shelving units, display tables, mannequin positions. This granularity enables true placement analysis. Does the centre table outperform the side rails? Does the eye-level shelf beat the floor display? Data answers questions that experience can only guess at.

Retail layouts change. Campaign launches, seasonal refreshes, and visual merchandising updates reorganise the floor. Our system supports floor plan versions - draft layouts for upcoming changes, historical versions for analysis, and the ability to see how layout changes affected performance over time.

The Intelligence Layer

Tracking is valuable. Intelligence is transformative. The system generates insights that change how concession teams operate.

Sell-Through Accuracy

With true floor dates captured, sell-through calculations become accurate. This single change often reveals that product performance assumptions were wrong.

Real Example

A running shoe style showed 12% sell-through after four weeks using ship-date calculation - below target, flagged for markdown consideration. Recalculated using actual floor date (the product sat in stockroom for 11 days), sell-through was 19% - above target, continuing at full price. That recalculation protected margin on 340 units. Multiply across a season's assortment, and the impact is substantial.

Stockroom Ageing Reports

A daily view of everything in the stockroom, sorted by how long it's been there. Products sitting for 7+ days get flagged. Products at 14+ days require explanation. This simple visibility changes behaviour - staff prioritise getting inventory to floor because they know it's being measured.

Stockroom Age Before System After Implementation
Same-day to floor ~35% of deliveries ~72% of deliveries
1-3 days in stockroom ~40% ~24%
4-7 days in stockroom ~15% ~3%
7+ days in stockroom ~10% <1%

Location Heat Mapping

When you know where products are placed and how they sell, patterns emerge. Zone A consistently outperforms Zone C. The feature table drives 3x the sales per unit of the back rail. Window placement matters for some categories but not others.

This intelligence informs placement strategy:

High-Performance Zones

Identify locations that consistently drive above-average sell-through. Reserve these for key products and new launches.

Underperforming Areas

Discover zones that drag down product performance. Consider fixture changes, signage improvements, or product mix adjustments.

Category Affinity

Some products perform differently by location than others. Running shoes might thrive in the window; lifestyle footwear might prefer the back wall.

Rotation Impact

Measure what happens when products move between zones. Does refreshing placement revive slowing sellers?

Implementation Realities

Building the system is one challenge. Getting it adopted in a live retail environment is another. We learned several lessons that apply to any stockroom intelligence implementation.

Start With Pain

Don't lead with "this will give you better data." Lead with "this will help you find that product a customer just asked for." Staff adopt systems that help them do their jobs, not systems that help head office create reports. The intelligence layer is a benefit; the immediate utility is the driver.

Hardware Matters

We tested multiple scanning approaches. Dedicated scanners were fast but added devices to manage. Phone-based scanning was convenient but slower and battery-dependent. The right answer depends on the specific environment - volume, staff tech comfort, existing device ecosystem.

Pros: Fast, reliable, purpose-built. Cons: Additional devices to charge, maintain, and track. Best for: High-volume environments where scanning speed matters, or where staff don't carry smartphones.

Pros: No additional hardware, always available, familiar interface. Cons: Slower scanning, battery drain, personal device concerns. Best for: Lower-volume environments, staff who are comfortable with apps, situations where dedicated hardware isn't practical.

Pros: Shared device reduces training, larger screen for floor plan interaction. Cons: Fixed location limits flexibility, requires mounting and power. Best for: Stockroom receiving stations, floor plan management tasks.

Integration Points

Stockroom intelligence doesn't exist in isolation. Connections to other systems multiply value:

Product Master

Product information (images, descriptions, attributes) flows from brand systems. Staff see what they're scanning, not just SKU codes.

POS Integration

Sales data connects to placement data. The correlation between location and performance becomes automatic.

Delivery Notifications

Advance notice of incoming deliveries enables preparation. Staff know what's coming and can plan floor space.

Reporting Systems

Intelligence data flows to brand analytics platforms. Concession performance becomes visible alongside other retail channels.

Results We've Seen

Across stockroom intelligence implementations for retail concessions:

Metric Typical Improvement Impact
Time to floor (delivery to display) 65% reduction More selling days per product
Stockroom inventory value 40% reduction Capital on floor, not in back
Sell-through calculation accuracy From ±18% to ±3% Better markdown and reorder decisions
Replenishment response time 4 hours → 45 minutes Fewer stockouts while inventory exists
Placement optimisation 12% sell-through improvement Same inventory, better results

The Compound Effect

These improvements compound. Products reach the floor faster, so they have more selling days. Placement is optimised, so they sell better per day. Replenishment is faster, so they're available when customers want them. Each improvement multiplies the others. A concession that was "performing okay" becomes a standout - with the same products, same staff, same space.

Is This Right for Your Operation?

Stockroom intelligence delivers the most value when:

Concession Model

You operate retail space within larger stores (department stores, shop-in-shops) where you control merchandising but not the broader retail environment.

Inventory Volume

You're managing hundreds or thousands of SKUs across multiple locations. The tracking overhead is justified by the inventory value at stake.

Visibility Gap

You currently have limited insight into what happens between delivery and sale. Sell-through calculations use ship dates, not floor dates.

Performance Pressure

You're looking for ways to improve concession performance without additional inventory investment. Optimisation over expansion.

Ready to Close the Middle Mile?

If you're operating retail concessions without visibility into what happens between delivery and sale, you're making decisions on incomplete data. Products sitting in stockrooms, placement happening by instinct, sell-through calculations that don't reflect reality - these are solvable problems.

Our Digital Retail Intelligence practice includes stockroom and concession intelligence systems. We bring experience from implementations for global sportswear brands in premium department store environments to help transform retail operations visibility.

Get in touch to discuss how stockroom intelligence could improve your concession performance.