Inventory & stock control
How this is scored
Whether the stock figure can be trusted: every goods receipt, sale, transfer, return and correction booked as a movement, stock per location and channel, batches, serial numbers and best-before dates where the goods need them, reorder points and purchase orders, and stock synchronised to every sales channel so nothing is oversold.
0 — No stock keeping; quantities live in the shop or in a spreadsheet.
3 — A stock number per product that can be edited by hand, with no movement history, no locations and no link to purchasing.
5 — Stock per product and warehouse updated by orders and goods receipts, synchronised to the connected sales channels, with low-stock alerts and purchase orders to suppliers.
8 — Every movement booked with a reason and a user, stock per bin location, batches, serial numbers and expiry dates tracked, stocktaking (cycle or annual) supported, bundles and kits resolved to components, and reorder suggestions from sales history.
10 — The stock record is an audit-proof ledger: complete movement history exportable, inventory valuation method stated (FIFO, average cost), multi-warehouse and multi-entity stock with transfers in transit, demand forecasting documented, and the stock figure reconciled across every channel in near real time.
The Fulfilment Provider
Stock per item and warehouse with a storage location, current, minimum and target quantities, reorder suggestions for purchasing, and real-time synchronisation across shops and marketplaces to prevent overselling — that is sound single-merchant stock keeping. For a multi-client warehouse I found no public information on batches, serial numbers, best-before dates, a movement history booked per reason and user, or keeping several clients' stock apart. 2 8 9 10