Case study · womenswear · 3 stores
It billed USD 649,340 and grew +14% year over year — but its operating result is −USD 8,531. Below: where every dollar goes, why it happens, and the up to USD 58,000 a year it can recover without selling more.
Of the USD 649,340 coming through the door, this is what's left at each step down to the result. The problem isn't at the top — gross margin is healthy — it's how overhead eats it up.
Four operational issues explain the red. Each is quantified and backed by the evidence that follows.
The Downtown store drives 47.5% of sales yet runs a −9.1% margin. Premium rent and staffing eat up what it sells; the other two stores subsidize it.
Dresses and coats — its highest list-margin categories — get the deepest discounts (32% and 30%), while it holds price on the lowest-margin items. The discounting is backwards.
28% of stock has sat over 90 days without selling (USD 47,200 tied up). Meanwhile, 12 de sus 20 best-sellers estuvieron quebrados en el trimestre.
A full 26% of staff hours fall in the slowest window (weekday mornings, 14% of traffic), while the real peak — Saturday afternoon, 27% of traffic — goes uncovered.
The two profitable stores add +USD 29,868, but they don't offset Downtown (−USD 28.078) or central overhead (−USD 28.320). Business result: −USD 26.531.
The two highest list-margin categories (dresses 62%, coats 60%) end up below blouses after discounting. Toggle the discipline view to see the recoverable margin.
Staffing doesn't follow the customer. Too many hands when no one's there, too few at the one moment that matters: Saturday afternoon holds 27% of traffic but only 16% of hours.
Three levers that don't depend on growing sales — part of the plan simply recovers sales lost today — plus an immediate cash release. Toggle them and watch the result move. Figures in base (conservative) scenario.