Part five · Running it · Chapter 13

THE CATALOG SCORECARD

Nine numbers, on one page, reviewed by operations and retention together.

The scorecard exists to put the stock report and the retention report in the same meeting. Each number below connects a catalog decision to what repeat customers experienced. None of them has a published benchmark worth quoting; the target is your own trend, and a comparison group wherever a change was made.

NumberHow to count itHow often
1. Repeat-weighted in-stock rateDays each product was in stock, weighted by its repeat orders per day, over all productsWeekly
2. Cost per day at riskFor the top ten repeat products under four weeks of cover, the daily cost from the tool in chapter 3Weekly
3. Back-in-stock conversionSignups who order the product within 14 days of the restock messageEach restock
4. Alternative take rateCustomers shown a named alternative during a stockout who bought itEach stockout
5. Late notices on timeDelayed orders whose customer was notified, with a cancel option, before the promised dateMonthly; target all of them
6. Demand you already knowShare of next quarter’s forecast for top products in the certain and contingent layers (chapter 5)Each buy plan
7. Clearance shareRevenue from overstock sold at a discount, as a share of all revenue, and how much of it was sitewideMonthly
8. Dependents still orderingAfter each retirement or reformulation: dependents who ordered in the next 90 days, against their own rate before the announcementDays 30, 60, 90
9. Anchors coveredProducts labelled anchor in the last range review with at least your target weeks of coverMonthly

Put the stock report and the retention report in the same meeting. That’s most of the fix.

Reading it

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This is one chapter of The Catalog, which is free and readable in full on a single page with no form in front of it.