Featuring Craig Barnell (Director of Customer Insights, Inventory Optimizer; COO, Fishers Finery) and Ryan Carbone (Director of Support & Product Implementation, Inventory Optimizer).
Lost sales don’t always show up clearly in your reports—especially during peak periods like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. In this episode of “If You Don’t Have It, You Can’t Sell It,” Ryan and Craig break down how hidden stockouts quietly erode revenue, and how a new lost sales feature inside Inventory Optimizer is helping Fishers Finery identify and recover demand that was previously invisible.
The Challenge
For years, Fishers Finery relied on highly accurate forecasts—maintaining over a 92% in-stock rate across more than 4,000 SKUs. But even with strong performance, there was a blind spot:
- Days with zero sales caused by zero inventory were being treated the same as days with no demand
- These periods skewed forecasts downward
- Seasonal and high-variant products were especially impacted
- Lost sales during peak demand went unmeasured
“If you had inventory and didn’t sell, that’s demand. But if you didn’t sell because you had no inventory, that shouldn’t drag down your forecast,” Craig explains.
The Solution
Inventory Optimizer introduced a new lost sales feature that identifies and removes periods when sales dropped to zero due to inventory running out—without altering historical data.
When Fishers Finery toggled the feature on and re-ran forecasts, the results were immediately measurable:
- Lost sales periods were excluded from demand modeling
- Forecasts recalculated in minutes using AI and machine learning
- SKU-level recommendations adjusted automatically by size, color, and MOQ
- Purchase orders reflected what should have sold, not just what did sell
The team tested the feature across two very different collections:
- Athleisure, with hundreds of size/color variants and complex MOQs
- Cashmere, a highly seasonal, high-value collection planned nearly a year in advance
In both cases, the system backfilled missed demand with accurate, case-pack-ready order quantities.
The Results
The changes weren’t extreme, but they were highly precise.
- Lost sales of 16–20% were uncovered in the cashmere collection
- That translated to $300K–$400K in recovered revenue opportunity
- POs were issued immediately, allowing some replenishment to be air-shipped before peak sell-through
- Forecast accuracy improved without inflating overall inventory levels
“We’re not doubling forecasts or wildly changing strategy,” Craig notes. “We’re making precise corrections at the SKU level—and that’s what drives real growth.”
The team now estimates the feature could increase top-line revenue by 8–10%, a seven-figure impact at scale.
Takeaway
Even best-in-class forecasting can miss demand if lost sales aren’t accounted for. By identifying when zero sales are caused by zero inventory (and removing those periods from forecasts), brands can unlock hidden revenue without guesswork or overordering.
Inventory Optimizer’s lost sales tracking helps sellers:
- Preserve forecast accuracy
- Capture seasonal demand
- Order smarter at the SKU level
- Stay in stock when it matters most
Watch the episode or schedule a demo to see how lost sales tracking can improve forecasting decisions and protect revenue during peak demand.
