Which suppliers deserve your orders? Reading supplier performance from your sales data

You probably know which suppliers are easy to deal with: the rep who answers the phone, the one who delivers on time, the one who gives you a good price. What most merchants cannot say is which suppliers send them products that actually sell. Friendliness and price per unit tell you nothing about what happens once the boxes are on your shelf.

Your sales history can answer that question. Grouping your items by supplier and looking at how each group sold turns a vague impression into something you can use in the next negotiation.

Why supplier performance matters

A low unit price looks like a good deal until half of the order is still on the shelf six months later. The cash you spent on that stock is blocked, the shelf space is gone, and you eventually mark the items down, which erases the saving you thought you made. A supplier with a higher price and products that sell out in three weeks can be the cheaper one in practice.

It also affects your time. A supplier whose products you keep reordering is one you can rely on. A supplier whose products you have to chase, discount or hide in a corner is costing you attention every month.

Warning signs a supplier is underperforming

• Most of the items from one supplier appear on your slow-moving list, while items from other suppliers in the same category do not.
• You keep accepting the supplier's minimum order quantity even though the last two orders were only partly sold.
• Their products sell well for the first two weeks, then stop. That usually points to a novelty effect, not a lasting range.
• You discount more of their products than anyone else's, or you only sell them during promotions.
• A supplier delivers late often enough that you lose sales on their best sellers while waiting.

How to compare your suppliers in one hour

1. Export your sales by item for the last six months from Clover. Six months is long enough to cover a full reorder cycle for most products.
2. Add a supplier column. If you do not record the supplier on your items, build it from your purchase invoices for your top 100 items only. You do not need the whole catalogue.
3. For each supplier, add up the units sold and compare them with the units you bought in the same period. The ratio of sold to bought is your sell-through. A supplier at 85 percent and one at 40 percent are not equal, whatever the price list says.
4. Count how many of their items you reordered at least once. A high reorder rate means the products earn their place. A rate near zero means every order was a gamble.
5. Look at the slow list. How many of your slow-moving items come from each supplier? A supplier with a short, steady list is fine. One with half your dormant stock is not.
6. Put the three numbers side by side: sell-through, reorder rate and share of slow stock. Do not blend them into one score. Look for the supplier that is bad on all three.

A second case: a boutique ordered scarves from a wholesaler who always had new designs. The owner noticed that each collection sold well in the first two weeks, and then little. Reorders were almost nil. She kept ordering because the new range felt exciting. After the check, she cut the order size by half and asked for a small test batch before committing to a full collection.

A mini scenario: a corner store owner prepares his autumn order. He sees that the snack supplier he trusts has a 78 percent sell-through, while a newer supplier of imported sweets has 35 percent and two items he never reordered. His decision: keep the snack order as it is, halve the minimum quantity on the imported range, and ask the second supplier whether he can take back unsold boxes or order in smaller lots.

Common mistakes

The first mistake is judging a supplier on revenue alone. A supplier can account for a big share of sales simply because you buy a lot from them. Revenue shows volume, not whether the products were a good use of your cash.

The second is comparing suppliers across different categories. A craft-beer supplier and a stationery supplier turn over at different speeds. Compare suppliers within the same category, or compare each one against the average for its own category.

The third is looking at too short a period. A product bought last month has not had time to sell. Leave out items received in the last six to eight weeks, and be careful with seasonal ranges that have not reached their season.

The fourth is cutting a supplier because of one bad order. Check whether the problem is the supplier or a decision you made, such as ordering a full carton of a product you had never tested.

Where CornerPilot fits

Clover gives you item sales, and you can export them, but building the comparison each time takes a spreadsheet and an afternoon. CornerPilot connects to your Clover data and shows product performance, slow-moving items and period comparisons in one dashboard, so the sold-versus-bought check starts from clean numbers. Data syncs on a schedule, not live, which is enough for a monthly buying review. The supplier mapping stays yours: you decide which items belong to which supplier.

The takeaway

A good supplier is not the cheapest or the nicest, it is the one whose products sell and get reordered. This week, pick the supplier you order from most, list its items from your Clover export, and work out how many units you sold against how many you bought in six months. If the answer surprises you, do the same for your second and third supplier before your next order.

To see how a Clover-connected dashboard supports this kind of check, look at the features page or the pricing.