It's 1:40 on a Saturday. The client is in the basin, towel on, foils out. Your colourist opens the cabinet and says the sentence every owner dreads:
"We're out of developer."
Six-vol, the only strength she uses. Nearest supplier: closed until Monday. The client rebooks in frustration, the colourist has an hour of dead time, and you spend KES 800 on a boda to a pharmacy across town that maybe stocks it — for a service you'll now do at a loss.
Stockouts don't cost you a product. They cost you the service, the client's afternoon, and sometimes the client.
Why does running out always feel sudden?
Because most salons discover stock levels visually — someone opens the cabinet and sees the bottom of the bottle. But by the time a bottle looks empty, you needed to have ordered it two weeks ago. Visual stock-checking is a rear-view mirror.
Real inventory management works forward, not backward. It should track:
- Current stock levels — live, not as of last Sunday's count
- Products used during services — the biggest blind spot in most salons
- Fast movers vs slow movers — what actually drains
- Reorder points — the level that triggers "buy now"
- Movement over time — is usage trending up with your bookings?
What is "usage per service" — and why does it change everything?
Here's the blind spot: the stock that disappears during services. Colour mixed for a full-head, treatment oil in the steamer, the gel used at the nail station. In most salons none of this is recorded — so the "stock count" only captures retail sales, and the cabinet empties through a hole nobody is watching.
When products are deducted as each service ticket closes, your stock level is the truth — not a guess between counts. You see that Tuesday's eleven colour services consumed 4 tubes, that Gel Polish moves twice as fast as your estimates assumed, and that at the current booking rate, the developer runs out next Thursday — not "sometime soon."
What is a reorder point?
Simple rule: the stock level at which you must order for a new supply to arrive before you run out.
If you sell through a bottle of shampoo in ten days and your supplier delivers in four, your reorder point is four bottles. When stock touches that line — alert. No counting, no memory, no Saturday surprises.
How does Podium handle this?
Product usage is recorded on every service ticket automatically. Stock updates as your team works. You set reorder points once, and Podium flags items as they hit them — like Gel Polish at 8 units, quietly announcing it needs attention while there's still time to act calmly.
Inventory stops being a Sunday-night counting ritual and becomes a screen that tells you what to buy before it's urgent.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to count stock every week?Not with per-service usage tracking. Physical counts become a monthly verification, not the primary system.
What is shrinkage, and can software catch it?Shrinkage is stock that vanishes without a recorded use — waste, spillage, or walking. When every legitimate use is recorded on tickets, what's missing becomes visible for the first time.
Can I track stock across branches?Yes. Growth and Chain plans show stock per location with consolidated reporting.
Want your cabinet to warn you before it empties? Book a demo and see usage-per-service tracking live.
