Real-World Use Cases

The Problem

Sarah runs an online boutique. She regularly discovers items are out of stock only when a customer complains. She's losing sales and doesn't have time to manually check 150 products daily.

The Solution with StockOracle AI (Free)

1. Install the free plugin on her WooCommerce store.
2. Set Default Lead Time to 14 days (her supplier ships from overseas) in Settings → General.
3. Set Safety Stock Buffer to 7 days to account for shipping delays.
4. Enable Email Alerts with Critical and Warning levels in Settings → Alerts.

Daily Workflow

Every morning, Sarah checks the Dashboard. The Health Score gives her an instant signal — if it drops below 70, she knows something needs attention. The Reorder Alerts page shows her exactly which products to reorder today.

Result

Key Features Used

• Dashboard Health Score
• Reorder Alerts (Critical/Warning)
• Weekly Email Digest
• Inventory Analysis table (Days Until Stockout column)

The Problem

Marcus owns an online gift shop. Every year he either over-orders (leaving him with dead stock in January) or under-orders (running out of best-sellers before Christmas). The standard 90-day velocity calculation doesn't account for seasonal demand spikes.

The Solution with StockOracle AI Pro

1. Enable Seasonality Analysis in the Pro settings. The module analyses 24 months of historical order data to compute monthly demand factors.
2. Review the Seasonality Dashboard showing his December factor is 3.2× the annual average.
3. In September, the AI Forecasting module — fed with the seasonality factors — projects November–December demand for each SKU.
4. Use the Purchase Order module to create and send October restock orders to suppliers with sufficient lead time.

January Clearance

Post-holiday, the Dead Stock module identifies what didn't sell. The cash flow projection shows the capital tied up. Marcus uses this to plan a January clearance promotion targeting specifically those items.

Key Features Used

• Seasonality Analysis (Pro) — 12-month demand factors
• AI Demand Forecasting (Pro) — peak season projections
• Purchase Orders (Pro) — October restock workflow
• Dead Stock Detection (Free) — post-season clearance identification
• Cash Flow Projections (Pro) — January capital planning

The Problem

TechKit has $40,000 in inventory that hasn't moved in 6–18 months. This capital is blocking new product investment. They don't know exactly what's dead or how much it's costing them.

Step 1 — Identify Dead Stock

Navigate to StockOracle → Dashboard. The Dead Stock Value card immediately shows the total capital at risk. The Dead Stock Summary section on the dashboard lists the worst offenders.

Step 2 — Export and Prioritize

Use Export All CSV from the Inventory Analysis page. Open in Excel and filter by ABC class C with zero sales in 90 days. Sort by Stock Value descending — these are the most expensive items to hold.

Step 3 — Apply Tiered Recommendations

StockOracle AI automatically categorises dead stock into three tiers with specific recommendations:

Result

TechKit recovered $18,000 in cash over 6 weeks through targeted promotions, freeing capital for 3 new product lines.

The Problem

PetSupply Co. ships from 3 locations. Often, one location is out of a product while another has excess. They're doing manual spreadsheet reconciliation weekly, which is error-prone and time-consuming.

Setup

1. Go to StockOracle → Warehouses and create three warehouses: "Main Warehouse", "East Fulfilment", "West Fulfilment".
2. Set stock levels per warehouse for each product on the warehouse detail page.
3. Assign supplier records to each warehouse's default supplier in the Supplier Manager.

Daily Operations

The warehouse overview shows total and per-location stock at a glance. When the Main Warehouse has excess of a product that East Fulfilment is low on, use the Stock Transfer feature to balance inventory. The transfer is logged with timestamp and quantity.

Reorder by Location

With per-warehouse stock data, reorder calculations factor in which location needs replenishment. Purchase Orders can be assigned to a specific warehouse's supplier, sending the reorder email directly to the right contact.

Key Features Used

• Multi-Warehouse Management (Pro)
• Stock Transfers (Pro)
• Supplier Manager (Pro) — per-warehouse supplier assignment
• Purchase Orders (Pro) — location-specific ordering

The Problem

NutriShop places 15–20 purchase orders per month across 8 suppliers. Orders are currently managed in email threads — it's easy to miss items, send to the wrong contact, or forget to follow up on late deliveries.

The Solution

1. Set up all 8 suppliers in the Supplier Manager with correct email, lead time, and payment terms.
2. Each Monday, review the Reorder Alerts page. Critical and Warning alerts are the POs that need placing this week.
3. Click Create PO from any alert card to pre-populate a Purchase Order with that product and suggested quantity.
4. Add any other products from the same supplier to the PO to consolidate shipments.
5. Click Send to Supplier — the supplier receives a professional HTML email with the complete PO.

Tracking Open Orders

The PO list view shows all open orders with their status (Draft / Sent / Partially Received / Received). When stock arrives, mark the PO as Received — this provides a complete audit trail of all restock activity.

Key Features Used

• Reorder Alerts (Free) — identifies what to order
• Supplier Manager (Pro) — stores 8 supplier records
• Purchase Orders (Pro) — creates and tracks all POs
• Email PO (Pro) — automated supplier notification

The Problem

CraftyGoods is growing fast but always feels cash-constrained. They don't know how much they'll need to spend on inventory restock next month, making it hard to plan financing or manage cash reserves.

Using Cash Flow Projections

1. Navigate to StockOracle → AI Insights → Cash Flow.
2. Review the 3-month projection showing expected reorder expenditure month-by-month.
3. The projection is based on current sales velocity, reorder points, and unit costs.
4. Identify months where projected spend exceeds available cash — these are the months to plan for financing or reduce orders.

Dead Stock as Working Capital

The Advanced Analytics panel shows $23,000 in dead stock. The CFO uses this to make the case for a clearance promotion: recovering even 40% ($9,200) would cover the following month's restock spend without additional borrowing.

Monthly Executive Reports

Set up the Monthly Executive email report to go to the founder and CFO on the 1st of each month. The report includes: inventory value, turnover ratio, dead stock capital, projected restock spend for the next 30 days, and ABC summary.

Key Features Used

• Cash Flow Projections (Pro) — 3/6-month restock cost forecasting
• Advanced Analytics (Pro) — carrying costs, turnover ratio
• Dead Stock Detection (Free) — capital liberation opportunities
• Monthly Executive Email Report (Pro) — stakeholder reporting