How to keep stock records for an online shop in Bangladesh

Published 8 October 2026 · 4 min read

A Facebook shop runs out of knowing what it has more often than it runs out of stock. The same kurti is promised in a comment, sold in the inbox and handed over at a fair, and the customer who paid the advance hears it is gone. Here is a simple way to keep stock records that stays right when you sell in more than one place, whether you keep them on paper, in a spreadsheet or in an app.

Why the count goes wrong

Most mistakes come from three places. A sale is made in one place and nobody takes it off the record kept in another. The total looks fine while one size has run out: forty in XL and none in M is still forty kurtis. And stock leaves for reasons that are not sales, like a stained piece, a gift or a sample for a photo shoot, and nobody writes those down.

Count each size and colour as its own item

A customer asks for the blue one in M, so that is what runs out. Give every size and colour its own line in your records and its own short code, like KRT-BLU-M, and write the code on the bag or the shelf label so that counting goes faster.

Take a sale off when the order is confirmed

Take the piece off the record the moment the order is confirmed, not when the parcel goes out; in between, someone else can be promised the same piece. If the order is cancelled, put it back. If a parcel comes back, put it back only after you have opened it and checked that it can be sold again.

Write down every change, with its reason

A stock register needs only a few columns: the date, the item’s code, how many came in, how many went out, why, and how many are left. The reasons worth keeping apart are bought in, sold, returned, damaged or lost, given away, and corrected after a count.

The reason is what makes the record useful. A month of “3 fewer” tells you nothing; “2 damaged in the rain, 1 given as a sample” tells you to change the packing and to stop giving away the dear ones.

Count the shelf regularly

Count the fast sellers every week and everything once a month, and compare the count with the record. A difference means a sale that was not written down, a piece that was damaged or a piece that went missing. Correct the record to what is on the shelf, and write down the reason if you know it.

Know when to reorder

Reorder when what is left will only last the days your supplier takes to deliver, plus a few spare. If a size sells 3 a day and the supplier takes 5 days, reorder when 15 are left, and keep a few more before Eid. Work it out for each size, not for the product.

Before you order, check what is already on its way. Ordering the same kurtis twice because the first lot has not arrived yet is an easy mistake and an expensive one.

Keep what each batch really cost

The buying price changes from one batch to the next, and what it cost to bring the goods home, the van, the porter or the courier, is part of it. A kurti bought for ৳600 with ৳50 of transport on each piece cost ৳650, and a margin worked out from ৳600 is one the shop never makes. Write down the buying price and the transport with each delivery.

If you buy on credit, write down what arrived and what you paid on the day it happens. What you owe a supplier is what arrived and stayed, minus what you have paid.

Paper, a spreadsheet or an app

A notebook works for a shop with twenty or so items that sells in one place. A spreadsheet holds more, but it does not take a sale off by itself, so it is only as right as the last person who remembered to update it. Once you sell in the inbox, on a website and at a counter or a fair, the record has to change by itself whenever something sells anywhere, or the three will disagree.

Sells Pilot keeps this record for you. Every size has its own count, and a sale on Messenger, Instagram, your shop website or the counter takes it off the same shelf, so nobody is offered a piece that has just sold. Returns, damage and corrections are recorded with their reasons, you are told when a size runs low, and the reorder page shows what is nearly gone, who is waiting for it and how fast it has been selling.