Retailers are trained to protect margin at all costs. But across specialty retail, that instinct often means holding onto aging inventory rather than marking it down and losing margin. The result? Cash gets trapped on the shelves, new buys become limited, and turnover slows. Ironically, retailers with lower margins but faster sell-through frequently outperform those sitting on high-margin stock that doesn’t move.
In this working session, Max Retail CEO and former retailer Melodie van der Baan helps you uncover where profit is actually hiding in your business – and why clearing inventory earlier often improves long-term profitability. You’ll leave knowing where dead stock hides in your financials, when to call a product “done,” and how to convert aging inventory into cash.
Key Takeaways:
- A practical framework for balancing margin against turnover – at the item level – so you can spot underperformers early and know when product should move instead of sit
- The hidden costs of aging inventory – how it erodes vendor relationships and quietly shapes how customers see your store
- Strategies to improve cash flow and reinvest in higher-performing inventory, using point-of-sale data and other techniques
