I had a really interesting conversation with a veteran retailer last week. She is preparing for her (first ever) intensive, complete product line review to evaluate performance for every single line she carries. She wanted my opinion about her POS codes plan and gave me permission to share her goals and rationale with the Retail Details community of indie retailers in case it helps others.
🛍️Her Goal#1 is to set up a system of POS codes moving forward that will allow her to generate reports that will guide smarter purchasing so she can…
spot actual best-sellers, not just perception
identify buying mistakes
have real-time control over inventory (or at least current data)
spend less time on reorders and ultimately have less out-of-stocks
🛍️Her Goal#2 is to go back and code all purchases since Q4 2025 during a full line review, so she will not “flounder through trade shows and cave in to sales rep suggestions, in store and at market”. (Her exact words.)
Becky’s two cents at this point in the conversation:
There’s no perfect score for buyers and curating merchandise for a retail store is not an exact science. Either you have some of what you bought left over or you run short of the amount you could have sold.
Having too much left over is a sign of a problem. Having nothing left over is also a sign of a problem, which may actually indicate a bigger problem — the revenue you missed out on. The trouble is, the merchandise you didn’t buy isn’t visible, so you can’t see the bigger problem. ~Becky Tyre, Retail Details
Note: The 2026 Quick Tips series is available as exclusive content for premium subscribers, who also have access to 280+ newsletters in the Retail Details archives.
Now, let’s get to the codes, how she plans to use them, and what I added to her list.
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