The short answer: shrinkage — stock you paid for but can’t sell or account for — comes from four places: customer theft, staff theft, paperwork mistakes and short deliveries. Shoplifting gets the attention, but the other three are often easier to fix.
1. Check deliveries before you sign
Compare every delivery with your purchase order — item by item, quantity by quantity — before signing. Short deliveries that get signed for become “missing stock” weeks later.
2. Log damage straight away
Broken, expired or returned-damaged items should be recorded the same day with a reason. Otherwise they show up in the next count looking exactly like theft.
3. Fix paperwork errors at the source
Items scanned as the wrong variant, sales rung up under a generic product, transfers between branches that were never recorded — each one makes your stock figures drift.
4. Count high-risk items often
The sooner you spot a gap, the easier it is to find out why. Frequent counts on small, valuable lines narrow down when and where stock went missing.
Related: cut stock loss · supplier management.