Unsold first batch: reorder or change the product?

Find out what the unsold stock is telling you

Make a review sheet by colour and size: quantities received, sales after returns, usable stock, faults, selling price, promotional spending and periods available to buy. Record whether each variant received comparable visibility. A colour that sold during a promotion is not automatically a reliable reorder choice at your normal price.

Use the clues below to choose your next check, allowing for overlapping causes. If complaints suggest a fault, use investigating customer returns before committing to more stock. UK consumer sellers must not sell products they know, or should have known, are unsafe. Hold suspect stock and seek competent advice.

Test the offer before changing the product

Ask intended customers to explain what the listing promises and why they would buy or decline. Check photographs against the actual goods, explain dimensions and intended use, and make variant selection clear. For a shop, check display position and whether customers can inspect the product. Limited exposure leaves demand uncertain.

Choose a specific correction and keep the product, selling price and audience as comparable as practical. Record the change, spending, enquiries, purchases and return reasons, then review on a date you choose. Set a spending limit before testing. Support for ecommerce sellers can help turn the findings into a purchasing brief.

Calculate a narrower reorder by variant

For each proven variant, estimate net sales over your chosen period after replenishment arrives. Add separately justified sample and replacement needs, then subtract usable stock expected at arrival and incoming stock. Project the arrival balance from current usable stock less expected sales before arrival. Keep customer commitments within the forecast so they are not counted again. For replenishment timing, see reordering China stock with low sales.

Ask the factory to quote that mix and identify any MOQ or packing restriction that adds unwanted variants. Compare the rounded order with your cash cap before accepting it. Minimum packs for sizes and colours explains the assortment check. A popular colour does not justify buying another pack of slow colours.

Compare cash needed before sales arrive

Prepare separate cost sheets for a narrower reorder, a product change and a pause while selling existing stock. For each purchase option, multiply quoted variant quantities by their quoted prices. Add sampling, packaging, tooling where needed, checks, freight, clearance, applicable duty and import VAT, storage, selling expenses and a reserve for returns.

Put each payment against its expected date. Add cash outflows cumulatively and subtract only receipts you reasonably expect by then; the largest gap is the cash the option needs. Compare that gap with available business cash after protecting routine bills and customer refunds. Treat slow-stock sale proceeds cautiously and do not count stock value as spendable cash.

Calculate expected contribution per sale from your selling receipt less delivered product cost, channel fees, advertising, fulfilment and expected return costs. Apply it to realistic net sales and compare the result with the option's fixed costs. Use forecasting a trial order for uncertain demand. Reduce or pause an option that fails the weaker-sales case.

Budget the sample work for each option

For an unchanged reorder, retain the approved reference and ask the factory to confirm materials, components, finish and packing. Identify any differences needing a fresh sample or check. For a product change, write the problem to solve, the proposed revision and what would demonstrate improvement. Compare the revised sample with existing stock under the same conditions.

Ask for separate quotes for samples, revisions, courier delivery and any specialist checks. Agree a sampling cash limit and the evidence needed before another revision. Test the candidate with intended customers at the proposed selling price; favourable comments alone do not establish demand. Use sample comparison to organise the physical comparison before production approval.

Approve a bounded decision

Write down the chosen action, supporting evidence, variant quantities, cash ceiling and review date. For a change, attach the approved sample and specification revision, agreed checking method and acceptance criteria. State that substitutions need your written approval. Keep remaining stock and revised goods distinguishable so sales and complaints can be traced to the correct version.

Send that brief through existing-supplier support if you want Cambridge China Bridge's staff in China to coordinate factory quotations and checks. Approval remains yours. A narrower reorder is a further trial; use when to scale up after a shipment for the later expansion decision.