Fazley Rabbi"Our best-selling item ran out again, and I only found out when a customer asked for it in the inbox." If that sounds familiar, the problem is rarely laziness. Stock lives in someone's head, a notebook or a spreadsheet nobody checks every day, so the reorder decision happens too late. The fix is to let a system watch the numbers and tell you, early and clearly, what to reorder.
How a low-stock alert system works
Every product gets a reorder level: the stock count at which you should place a new order so it arrives before you run out. Each time stock is checked, the system compares the current count with that level. Anything at or below it goes onto a reorder list, grouped by supplier, and the right person gets a message.
The reorder level comes from two things you already know: how many units you sell on a normal day, and how many days your supplier takes to deliver. Multiply the two, then add a safety buffer for late deliveries or a sudden rush. A product that sells steadily and takes a week to arrive needs a much higher level than one a supplier in your own town delivers the next day.
Setting it up, step by step
- Put stock in one place. This can be a Google Sheet, your POS, inventory software or your website's shop system. If stock is split across several notebooks, merge it first.
- Pick the items that matter. Start with your best-sellers and anything with a long supplier lead time. You do not need alerts on every item on day one.
- Write down daily sales and lead time for each. A rough figure from the last few weeks of sales is enough to begin.
- Set the reorder level, and a target quantity for how much to order each time.
- Choose where alerts go. A morning message on WhatsApp, email or a team chat to the person who places orders. One clear daily list works better than a ping for every item.
- Generate the reorder list automatically, grouped by supplier, with the quantity to order, so it can be checked and sent in minutes.
- Review the levels every month, and before busy seasons such as Eid or winter, when demand changes quickly.
Where AI fits, and where it does not
AI can look at your sales history and point out items that are speeding up or slowing down, flag seasonal patterns, and draft the order message to each supplier in Bangla or English. It should not place orders on its own. A person checks the quantities and prices before anything goes to a supplier, because a wrong order ties up cash.
Mistakes that make alerts useless
- Stock counts that do not match the shelf. Returned cash-on-delivery parcels, damaged items and samples often never get entered back. The alert is only as good as the count, so do a physical count at the start and spot checks after.
- Too many alerts. If staff get twenty messages a day, they stop reading them. Keep the list short and focused.
- One reorder level for everything. Fast and slow items need different levels.
- Forgetting cash flow. Reordering everything at once can strain your cash. The list should show what is urgent and what can wait a few days.
What you can do yourself, and where help is useful
A small shop can run a basic version in a Google Sheet, with a formula that highlights items below their level and someone checking it every morning. Expert help is worth it when sales come from several places, such as a website, a POS and Facebook orders, and stock needs to update automatically from each; when you want alerts sent without anyone opening the sheet; or when you have many products across branches. That is the kind of AI and workflow automation I build, often alongside a daily sales report.
The smallest useful first step
This week, list your top twenty best-sellers. Next to each, write the average daily sales, the supplier's delivery time and the current stock. Work out the reorder level and check the list every morning for two weeks. You will quickly see which items need closer watching, and you will be ready to automate the check. If you want help connecting it to your sales channels, get in touch.