In a shoe store, one sample of a model is displayed on the sales floor, while all pairs are stored in boxes in the stockroom. One model may come in ten to twelve sizes and several colors, and each customer comes looking for their specific size. This is why footwear inventory management is built around a simple rule: the sales unit is a specific size in a specific color, while the purchasing and analysis unit remains the model. If these two levels are mixed together, the owner loses a clear understanding of what exactly is in stock.
Below, we examine the entire operating cycle of a shoe store: how a merchandiser receives a size range, what the salesperson sees at the checkout, how the store handles returns and seasonal warranties, how to inventory thousands of boxes, and how the manager decides what to do with remaining stock at the end of the season. For each stage, we show what data Torgsoft records and what the owner can check using this data.
The Inventory Unit in Footwear Is a Specific Size of a Specific Model
The merchandiser enables the size range attribute for the product type, after which each size of the model receives its own product card with its own stock balance. Selling size 38 deducts size 38 from stock and does not affect size 39. At the same time, the SKU groups the entire size range into one model, so in reports the manager views the model as a whole when planning reorders.
In addition to size, the product card contains characteristics that determine both purchasing and product display in the footwear business: SKU, color, season, gender, material, manufacturer, and collection. Torgsoft also offers these fields as filters in analytical modes, so the owner can view sales separately, for example, for women’s spring-autumn boots from a specific collection.
The season directory is maintained by the administrator or merchandiser. Each season has the status «Active» or «Inactive», and the second status removes old seasons from selection lists while keeping them in previous documents. Without this directory, after three years of operation the list of seasons in the product card becomes difficult to use.
Some additional product card fields, including «Age», «Packaging», and packaging dimensions, are displayed by Torgsoft only after activating the Online Store Synchronization option and enabling the «Use additional product characteristics» setting. This should be taken into account in advance if the store plans to export product cards with full descriptions to its website.
Receiving by Size Range, Barcodes, and Labels
In Torgsoft, a size range is linked to the manufacturer. When the merchandiser receives a new shipment, the software automatically selects the required size range, and it remains only to enter the quantity for each size or one quantity for all sizes at once. If only one size arrives in the shipment, the merchandiser enters it separately. A ready-made range can be selected from those created earlier, or a new size can be added directly in the form.
The next issue is barcodes. In footwear, manufacturers often print the same code for the entire size range, so the checkout scanner cannot distinguish size 37 from size 41. Torgsoft solves this with the «Generate the product’s own barcode (EAN13) if the manufacturer’s barcode format differs from EAN13» setting. The software generates its own barcode with the 29 prefix, and each size receives a separate code. Another setting, «Print only own barcodes on labels», keeps the factory barcode where it is valid and prints the store’s own barcode only for products without a suitable manufacturer code.
The label printer prints a price label with the size. This practical detail saves the salesperson time: boxes are stacked with their ends facing outward, so the size on the label should be readable without taking the box off the shelf. The administrator configures the label template, and the required characteristics can be displayed on it, including size and discount percentage.
The merchandiser attaches a photo to the model, and it is displayed for all sizes with the same SKU. There is no need to photograph each pair separately. If the store photographs products directly at the workstation, the Taking Product Photos with a Webcam option is available for this purpose. It is licensed for each workstation and does not work in the terminal version, so networks using a terminal server photograph products in another way.
Sales: Scanning the Box, Finding the Size, Fiscal Receipt
At the checkout, the salesperson scans the barcode on the box, and Torgsoft adds exactly the size contained in that box to the sale. This provides the main protection against stock mix-ups. When the salesperson selects a product manually from the list, they may choose an item with the same price but a different size, and the discrepancy will only become apparent during inventory counting.
The second tool at the same level is the «What to do if there is insufficient stock during a sale» setting. The administrator selects one of the following actions: allow sales into negative stock, warn the salesperson about insufficient stock, prohibit sales into negative stock, configure the rule separately for each accounting center, or separately for each product type. Prohibiting negative stock means that the salesperson cannot sell a pair that is not recorded in the database, and the merchandiser must first check the stock balance or register the receipt of goods.
When the display sample does not fit the customer, the salesperson opens the «Availability of model sizes in the retail network» mode using Alt+W directly from the sales form. They scan the barcode of the sample, and the software displays accounting centers and the quantity available for each size of that model. Before first use, the administrator must select the required accounting centers under «Settings — Select accounting centers»; otherwise, the window will remain empty.
For stores that are required to use an ECR or pECR, cash or card sales must be processed in accordance with the requirements of Law No. 265/95-VR. The Software ECR option allows the salesperson to fiscalize the receipt from the same sales window and process a fiscal return. The option is licensed for each computer or device regardless of the software version, meaning that a retail network calculates the number of licenses based on the number of checkout points.
The Bank Terminal Integration option transfers the receipt amount from the software to the payment device. The cashier does not enter the amount manually on the terminal, and the amount on the receipt matches the amount charged by the bank.
Returns, Exchanges, and Seasonal Warranty
Returns occur more frequently in footwear than in most retail sectors and are divided into two different cases with different legal time limits.
The first case — exchange of a pair of proper quality that does not fit in size or color. Article 9 of the Law «On Consumer Protection» gives the customer fourteen days for this, excluding the day of purchase, unless the seller has announced a longer period. In Torgsoft, this period is set by the administrator in the «Maximum return period (days)» field. The default value is 14, it can be changed, and zero removes the restriction entirely.
The second case — a manufacturing defect discovered by the customer while wearing the footwear. Footwear belongs to seasonal goods, and under the current rules the warranty period is counted from the beginning of the corresponding season: for winter products from November 15, for spring-autumn products from March 15 and September 15, and for summer products from May 15. This follows from Part 3 of Article 7 of the Law «On Consumer Protection» and the seasonal list in Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 172 dated March 19, 1994. The off-season period is not included in the warranty period. A pair of summer sandals purchased in February with a 30-day warranty will be under warranty from May 15 through June 14.
These dates are calculated by the manager or salesperson in accordance with the law. Torgsoft stores the sale date, model, size, and product season, so the store has the necessary data for the calculation, but the software itself does not track the seasonal warranty period.
Technically, the salesperson can process a return in three ways.
- By receipt: they scan the receipt barcode, select the required pair from the list, and refund the money.
- By selecting a receipt: they open the list of sales transactions and find the sale manually.
- Without a receipt: they scan the customer’s discount card and select the product from the list of their purchases, or scan the barcode of the pair itself and search for the corresponding sale.
The last option covers a common situation when a customer comes without a receipt but has their card.
If the store links each sale to a salesperson, the return is also attributed to the specific salesperson. This affects the calculation of their remuneration, and the owner can see whose return rate is higher than the network average.
Inventory Counting That Can Be Performed in Parts
A full inventory count of a shoe store with sales suspended takes one or two days. Therefore, stores count goods in parts: by product type, manufacturer, supplier, or shelving section.
The merchandiser opens «Warehouse — Warehouse Status», filters the required product group, selects it, and adds it to the inventory statement. When creating the statement, they select a blocking mode. «Block goods when added to the statement» is suitable when the store closes for inventory counting: the goods immediately become unavailable for sale. «Block goods after the first scan» is intended for counting while the store remains open: the goods are blocked after the first actual scan rather than when the entire statement is created.
Employees can count goods in three ways: with a scanner and immediate entry of the result into the software, manually using a printed statement, or with a data collection terminal followed by uploading the file into the statement.
The rights of employees performing the count are configured separately. The «Restrict the inventory statement for inventory counting by the salesperson» setting in the «Access» section hides the recorded quantity from the salesperson, prohibits printing documents with results, and hides the wholesale price. The «Hide warehouse quantity for goods under inventory counting» setting in the «Role» section does the same for a specific role. The salesperson enters the number of boxes actually counted and does not see how many should be there.
After the statement is closed, Torgsoft generates reports on shortages, surpluses, and the final result taking stock mix-ups into account. The manager sees exactly which sizes have discrepancies and checks the shift that worked with those goods.
Storage Location and Service Speed
The salesperson spends the most time searching for boxes in the stockroom. The Product Storage Location option allows the administrator to create a list of locations, such as racks and storage cells, and assign an address to each product. Torgsoft supports two modes: one storage location per product and multiple storage locations. The second option is more practical for a shoe store because one model may be displayed on the sales floor, stored in the stockroom, and kept in seasonal storage boxes. The salesperson sees the address in the software and goes directly to the required pair.
For a retail network, this has another benefit. When the merchandiser prints an internal transfer invoice with the storage location included in the document, the warehouse employee collects goods sequentially by rack.
Season, Slow-Moving Stock, and Redistribution Between Stores
Footwear loses relevance quickly. A pair that the store fails to sell by the end of the season remains in stock until the following year, tying up the owner’s money.
To see the situation in time, the manager opens «Analysis — Assortment Management Center». The mode shows product movement across accounting centers as sizes with color highlighting by movement type: receipt, sale, write-off, and internal transfer. The manager selects accounting centers and a period, filters goods by season, gender, sizing, color, or material, and sees where a model is not moving and where it is selling quickly. By dragging a cell, the manager plans an internal transfer, while the transfer invoice is created as a separate action in the same mode.
The second tool is promotions. The administrator creates a promotion with a percentage or fixed discount amount, specifies the product group, period, type of trade, and accounting centers where it applies. The product group is built by product type with additional filtering by manufacturer, season, and supplier, so the discount can be applied selectively to a specific collection in specific stores. Participation of promotional goods in the cumulative discount system and promotion priority over maximum discount restrictions are configured separately.
To prevent popular sizes from selling out earlier than the rest of the range, the store sets thresholds using the Minimum and Maximum Stock by Warehouses option. Minimum stock levels can be configured identically for all warehouses or separately for each one, which is important for a network with stores of different sizes.
Footwear withdrawn from sale until the next season is packed and sent to storage. The Seasonal Packaging and Storage of Goods option allows the store to track such goods in boxes, so the following year the merchandiser can find the required batch without sorting through the entire warehouse.
Purchasing for the Next Season
At the end of the season, the owner decides how many pairs and which sizes to order. The «Analysis — Product Sales Rating» report is used here: it shows which sizes the store sold during the selected period and for the selected accounting center, taking returns into account.
For footwear, this report is especially important because adult and children’s product ranges follow different patterns. If a certain size of flip-flops sold well last summer, in an adult footwear store that size is highly likely to remain popular this summer. In a children’s store, the logic is different: the children of the same customers have grown over the year, so several larger sizes should be ordered.
The «Sales Analysis by Seasons» report adds seasonal dynamics: how much the store sold from the previous collection and how much from the current one. The Automatic Inventory Level Calculation option helps calculate recommended stock levels based on sales and delivery times. The merchandiser uses this data when preparing an order for the supplier.
The merchandiser does not have to enter incoming supplier invoices completely manually. Torgsoft supports importing product lists from Excel if the supplier provides invoices electronically or if the store is transferring its initial stock balances from a spreadsheet.
Salespeople: Who Sold the Pair and What Actions the Manager Can See
In footwear retail, the sales consultant actively participates in the sale, and their remuneration is linked to specific pairs. The Linking the Sale of Each Product to a Salesperson option records the salesperson responsible for each line of the receipt. The administrator selects the method of salesperson registration in the settings: scanning a badge before each sale, when logging into the software, or before each product is added. The first option is suitable when several salespeople use the same computer, while the second is suitable when each salesperson has an assigned computer.
The Staff Salary and Motivation option uses this data to calculate a fixed salary, percentage of revenue, bonuses for meeting targets, and penalties, and generates a statement. The manager sees the calculation for each salesperson and can explain the amount.
The administrator defines access rights through roles. A role determines whether the salesperson can see purchase prices, change the sale date, or access other accounting centers. The «User Activity Log» stores the history of actions, allowing the manager to match any transaction to a specific user account. The software records actions and restricts access, while the owner makes decisions regarding individual employees.
Customers, Cards, and Repeat Purchases
Footwear is purchased several times a year, so a customer database has direct value for the store. Torgsoft stores contact details, purchase history, and accumulated purchase amounts, and calculates cumulative discounts and birthday discounts.
The store orders plastic discount cards in batches, and for each batch the administrator creates a barcode range. The Discount Card Verification via SMS option allows the salesperson to find the customer by phone number and confirm bonus redemption using a code sent to the customer. This solves two situations at once: the customer has forgotten the card at home, or someone else is trying to use another person’s accumulated benefits.
A structured membership program, in which the customer receives a permanent discount after accumulating a certain amount during a specified period, is built using the Discount Club option. To encourage customers to return before the next season begins, the Bonuses with a Limited Validity Period option is used.
The Gift Certificates option solves a specific footwear-related situation: a person wants to give someone a pair of shoes but does not know the size. At the checkout, the salesperson scans the certificate barcode, and Torgsoft checks whether the certificate has been paid for and whether it has already been used.
The Bulk Messaging to Customers option allows the marketer to select customers from the database and send messages via SMS, Viber, or email. In footwear retail, selections can be based on purchase history: for example, parents who bought children’s shoes in size 24 last year can receive a message about the new collection in size 26.
The Visitor Tracking option collects data from TK-01 and TK-04 counters through an account on the GSM Counters portal. The owner compares the number of visitors with the number of purchases, evaluates the results of a promotion across three periods, and sees peak traffic hours in order to schedule staff shifts. The option is licensed on the basis of one license per retail location.
Online Channel: Website, Marketplaces, Delivery
Online sales have their own complexity for a shoe store. On the website, the customer should see one model card with a choice of size and color, while the warehouse must deduct a specific pair from stock.
The «Online Store Synchronization» option transfers products, prices, and stock balances to the website and receives orders back into the software. Data exchange takes place according to a configured schedule or by manual launch, so some time passes between a sale in the physical store and the data update on the website. The administrator sets the synchronization interval, and for a store with high turnover of popular sizes it should be shorter.
Separate options are available for marketplaces: Integration with Rozetka.ua and Integration with Prom.ua. Stores launching their own website from scratch can use the Torgsoft Online Market platform.
The manager prepares shipments directly from the software using the Nova Poshta Integration and Ukrposhta Integration options. The shipping document is created from the customer card, and the order is sent for shipment without switching to the carrier’s online account.
The manager controls all of this from a smartphone using the Torgsoft Mobile App option: sales, stock balances, size availability by location, and reports. The option is licensed for each computer or device regardless of the software version.
Money, Bank, and Reporting
The Bank Statements option imports statements for selected accounts directly into Torgsoft. The accountant or owner sees incoming payments, creates payment orders for expenses, and reviews unidentified payments when a customer has transferred money without specifying the correct payment purpose.
Torgsoft exports tax invoices in a format accepted by M.E.Doc. This eliminates the need to enter the same data again in the accounting software.
To assess financial performance, the store uses software reports: daily product profit for a selected period, a comparative monthly report, a summary report for a period, average markup at retail locations, and sales revenue analysis. The owner sees which models generate profit, how discounts affected the markup, and which products have not moved for long enough to be included in the next promotion.
Equipment That Starts the Automation Process
The minimum equipment set for a shoe store looks like this:
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barcode scanner — selling a pair, receiving deliveries, inventory counting;
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label printer — a price label with the size for each box;
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receipt printer — printing sales receipts and internal documents when required by the store’s workflow;
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bank terminal — card payments; when the integration option is connected, the amount is transferred from the software;
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data collection terminal — inventory counting of a large warehouse without printed statements.
The fiscal receipt is generated by an ECR or pECR. A software ECR operates on the same computer and does not require a separate cash register. Stores that use a traditional fiscal registrar connect it through the Fiscal Registrar Integration option.
What to Check in Your Own Workflow
If inventory accounting is already being used in a shoe store, checking four things provides the fastest practical benefit.
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Does each size have its own barcode, or does the store use one factory barcode for the entire size range?
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What option is selected for selling into negative stock, and is the same rule used at all locations?
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Which blocking mode does the merchandiser use during partial inventory counting, and is the recorded quantity hidden from those performing the count?
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How many models from the previous season are still in stock, and did the owner see these figures before ordering the new collection?
The first three points can be resolved through settings during a single working session. The fourth requires regular review of product movement across locations, and it is this factor that determines how much money the store will tie up until the next season.
The configuration for a specific store or retail network, the list of licenses, and the equipment setup are described on the software for a shoe store page.
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