Verity for footwear retail
Footwear dies from the middle of the size run outwards, and a style at half sell-through can be unsellable to almost everyone who walks in. Verity tracks the run, not the style.
Runs alongside your existing billing setup.
Verity / Store
LiveStyles carried
284
Broken runs
96 styles
Return rate
9.8%
Ageing stock
₹28 L
Needs attention
Illustrative figures. Verity shows your own stock in this shape.
How the business runs
A shoe style is a run of sizes, and demand across that run is sharply peaked in the middle. When the middle sizes go, the style stops being sellable to the majority of customers who ask for it, even though the aggregate sell-through figure looks healthy. What remains is not slow stock; it is stock that no longer has a customer.
That makes size-run completeness the single most important stock measure in footwear, and it is invisible at style level. A style at fifty percent sold with sizes seven, eight and nine gone is worse than a style at seventy percent sold with the run intact.
The second characteristic is fit returns. Footwear carries a high return rate and most of it is fit — a supplier whose lasts run small, a style that is narrow, a size that is inconsistent across a run. Recorded as a general return rate it is a cost. Recorded with a reason and attached to the supplier and style, it is a buying decision.
The third is labour. Selling shoes involves retrieving boxes for a customer who tries several, and a large share of that work produces no sale. Nobody measures it, but it determines how many customers a shop can serve at peak.
The fourth is that sizes sit at the wrong store: forty-one style-size combinations available at one branch and asked for at another.
Verity holds stock at style and size, records return reasons, and makes the run visible.
What Verity calls these things
What gets in the way
Footwear difficulties come from measuring stock at a level above the size the customer actually needs.
Broken size runs are invisible at style level
Aggregate sell-through looks healthy while the sizes most customers ask for are gone.
In Verity Stock is held per style and size with run completeness measured, so a broken run surfaces while a repeat is still possible.
Fit returns are counted, not attributed
A supplier whose lasts run small produces returns indistinguishable from customer indecision.
In Verity Return reasons attach to the style and supplier, so a fit problem becomes a buying decision.
Sizes sit at the wrong branch
One store turns a customer away for a size another store is holding and will eventually mark down.
In Verity Availability across stores is one view at size level, with transfers as recorded movement.
Retrieval labour is unmeasured
Staff spend most of a busy hour fetching boxes for try-ons that do not convert, and nobody knows the rate.
In Verity Try-on and conversion are recorded, so peak staffing reflects the work the format actually requires.
Buying repeats the wrong size curve
Next season is bought to the supplier’s standard curve rather than to the curve the store actually sells.
In Verity Sales by size across styles produce the store’s own curve, which is what the next order should use.
Carryover has a thin size profile
Prior-season stock is not merely old; what remains is the sizes nobody wanted in the first place.
In Verity Ageing is reported with the remaining size profile, so clearance pricing reflects what is actually left.
The complete system
One system across the size run, returns and stores.
Inventory
Stock is held per style, size and width with cost, season, location and run completeness measured against the core sizes.
Why it matters here The size run is the unit of sellability, and style-level totals conceal its collapse.
In practice Ninety-six styles selling well and missing their core sizes.
Orders
Transactions record their style, size, customer, staff member and any return with its reason.
Why it matters here The return reason is the most valuable and least recorded fact in footwear.
In practice Fit returns concentrated on one supplier whose lasts run half a size small.
Suppliers
Suppliers carry their orders, delivery, sell-through, return rate by reason and the size curves they ship.
Why it matters here A supplier’s fit consistency is a commercial property worth measuring.
In practice Return rate by supplier alongside sell-through, which changes the next buy.
Locations
Locations roll into the business with size-level stock and recorded transfers.
Why it matters here A size at the wrong branch is a lost sale and a future markdown at the same time.
In practice Forty-one style-size combinations available elsewhere, surfaced as transfers.
Relationships
Customers are records with their purchases, sizes, widths and preferences.
Why it matters here Footwear repeat business runs on fit, and a known size makes a call worth making.
In practice A new arrival in a customer’s size and preferred style type.
People
Staff are modelled once, and every sale, try-on and return carries who handled it.
Why it matters here Conversion from try-on to sale is the core skill of the format.
In practice Conversion and units per transaction by staff member.
Workflows
Markdowns, transfers and returns beyond policy move through approval steps with reasons.
Why it matters here Markdown on a broken run is a different decision from markdown on a complete one.
In practice A markdown carrying the remaining size profile that justified it.
Reports and analytics
Run completeness, sell-through by size, return rate by reason and supplier, the store’s own size curve and ageing come from the records.
Why it matters here Buying to your own size curve rather than the supplier’s is the largest available improvement.
In practice The store’s actual size curve, from its own sales rather than from a standard.
Verity AI
Verity AI answers from your own size-level stock, sales and return records, respects permissions, and can create assigned follow-ups.
Why it matters here The questions worth asking are about sizes, and sizes are laborious to query manually.
In practice "Which selling styles are missing core sizes?" returns ninety-six with transfer and repeat options.
Records
Style details, fit notes and supplier agreements attach to the record they belong to.
Why it matters here A fit note from the shop floor is the earliest signal about a supplier.
In practice Recorded fit feedback visible at the next buying decision.
Control
One permission model and one audit trail across every record.
Why it matters here Markdown authority decides footwear margin at branch level.
In practice Cost visible to buyers; floor staff see availability and customer sizes.
Communication
Comments and activity attach to the style, supplier or customer they concern.
Why it matters here The knowledge that a range runs small exists on the floor and never reaches the buyer.
In practice Fit complaints recorded against a style rather than mentioned in passing.
Work in motion
These already happen. Recorded at size level they become the next buy.
Allocating to each store’s own curve rather than evenly is where most of the improvement is.
The repeat window closes long before the season does.
Without the reason a return is a cost. With it, it is a supplier signal.
Most stores buy the curve they are shipped rather than the curve they sell.
Pricing a broken run like a complete one is why clearance underperforms.
Verity AI
Verity AI reads the same size-level stock, sales and return records the store creates as it trades. It answers from your own stores, respects permissions, and can turn an answer into transfers and repeat orders.
Verity / Ask
Verity AI only returns what the person asking has permission to see.
Without chasing
Each runs from the size-level records at the point the condition is met.
When
A style sells out of core sizes
When
A fit return is recorded
When
A size is short here and held elsewhere
When
Stock passes into carryover
When
A supplier ships against a standard curve
What you can understand
Run completeness and fit, from size-level records.
All of it follows from recording sales and receipts at size, which is the level the format trades at.
One system, different ways of seeing it
Everyone works from the same records.
Owner
Is the range still sellable?
Run completeness, return rates by supplier, carryover with size profile, store comparison.
Buyer
What curve should I buy?
Store size curves, supplier fit and return performance, repeat windows, ageing.
Store manager
What is missing on the floor?
Broken runs, transfer candidates, returns to process, approvals pending.
Floor staff
Do we have this in her size?
Availability across stores at size level, customer size profile, alternatives.
Where it is used
Stock measured against the core sizes rather than as a style total, since a run missing its middle is no longer sellable.
Return reasons attached to style and supplier, turning a general return rate into a buying decision.
One size-level view across stores, so a size at the wrong branch becomes a sale rather than a markdown.
The store’s actual size curve derived from sales, rather than accepting the supplier’s standard.
Ageing reported with remaining size profile, so markdown reflects what is actually left.
Retrieval and conversion recorded, so peak staffing reflects the labour the format requires.
Sizes and preferences on the customer record, so a new arrival is a specific call.
Plain-language questions at size level, with transfers and repeats raised in the same step.
Getting there
Your billing setup continues to run and is mapped during implementation. Stock is brought across at style and size, along with suppliers and customers, and Verity is introduced as the operational layer.
Implementation runs about four weeks: discovery and mapping, configuration, migration, then an ongoing operations partnership.
Questions
Verity AI answers questions from your own size-level stock, sales and return records: which selling styles are missing core sizes, which suppliers have the highest fit return rates, which sizes are held at another store, what your actual size curve is. Each answer can become a transfer or a repeat order.
Because demand across a size run is sharply peaked and a style loses its middle sizes first. A style at fifty percent sold with sizes seven to nine gone is unsellable to most customers who ask for it, while the style-level number still looks healthy.
Returns carry a reason — fit, comfort, quality, changed mind — attached to the style and the supplier, so a range whose lasts run small is identifiable rather than indistinguishable from customer indecision.
Sales by size produce your own size curve per store, which is usually different from the standard curve suppliers ship to. Buying to your curve rather than theirs is the largest single improvement available in the category.
Availability across every store is one view at size level, and transfers are raised, approved and recorded as movement, so a size short at one branch and held at another becomes a sale.
No. Billing continues and is mapped during implementation. Verity holds size-level stock, returns, transfers, buying and the reporting across them.
Because carryover is usually priced as though the run were complete. Ageing reported with the remaining size profile lets markdown reflect what is actually left.
About four weeks: discovery and mapping of how the store buys and trades, configuration, migration of stock at size level, then an ongoing operations partnership.
Broken runs on good sellers are the fastest money in footwear. Tell us how stock is tracked today.