Inventory management confusion is quietly killing margins for fashion stores – missed sizes, empty online listings, and bloated safety stock lead to lost sales and unhappy customers. The fix? A retail platform that combines Lightspeed’s omnichannel POS with Datascan’s fast, accurate data-capture and inventory auditing. Here’s how it works – and how your store wins.

“We never know what we actually have – and customers notice”

Imagine this familiar scene: a customer falls in love with a dress online, chooses their size, and clicks “buy.” Your e-commerce channel shows it in stock. But when it’s time to pick and pack, the item isn’t there – it was sold in-store an hour earlier, incorrectly received, miscounted during stocktake, or trapped in “returns pending.” The sale turns into a refund, the customer loses faith, and your team spends time chasing explanations instead of selling.

For fashion retailers this shows up as:

• Out-of-stock online despite in-store inventory
• Overstocked slow-moving SKUs and understocked best-sellers
• High return processing times and misallocated returns
• Inaccurate size/color availability leading to abandoned carts
• Staff time wasted on manual counts, price checks, and reconciliation

The result: lower conversion, higher operating costs, and damaged brand loyalty – especially painful in fashion, where fit and immediacy matter.

Why piece-meal fixes don’t work

Retailers try band-aids: more safety stock, more manual counts, separate tools for e-commerce and POS. Those tactics increase costs or create more operational friction. The core issue isn’t a single missing tool – it’s fragmented data and slow, error-prone processes. Fashion retail needs real-time, accurate inventory visibility across channels plus fast, low-friction scanning and auditing to keep pace with buying behavior.

Lightspeed & Datascan (what they bring together)

Pairing Lightspeed’s unified commerce and POS capabilities with Datascan’s robust data-capture, barcode and auditing workflows addresses the root cause: poor inventory confidence.

How this combo solves the pain point:

1. Single source of truth for stock – across store, online, and mobile

Lightspeed centralizes sales, returns, and e-commerce data so inventory status updates instantly across channels. That means your online site won’t promise a size that the register just sold.

2. Fast, accurate physical audits and receiving with Datascan

Datascan automates barcode scanning, cycle counts, receiving and returns processing — reducing human error and dramatically speeding up audits. More accurate counts = fewer stock surprises and fewer angry customers.

3. Smarter replenishment and allocation

With more reliable inventory data, Lightspeed’s inventory and order-routing features can allocate items intelligently (ship from store vs. warehouse), reducing delivery times and cutting markdowns.

4. Better omnichannel experiences for customers

Real-time visibility powers services customers value in fashion: “reserve in-store,” “buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS),” and accurate size availability. Those features reduce friction and increase conversion.

5. Lower shrinkage and faster return processing

Automated scans and tight reconciliation help catch miscounts, theft, and misplaced stock earlier. Returns processed through Datascan feed clean data into Lightspeed, so returned items are available to sell faster.

Scenario: From Missed Sale to Delighted Customer

1. A customer reserves a pair of boots online. Lightspeed marks the inventory as reserved across channels.
2. Staff use Datascan to run a quick cycle count; the boots are scanned and verified in the backroom.
3. Because counts are accurate, the boots are waiting at the register for in-store pickup – the customer collects them and posts a positive review.
4. The sale and inventory movements are reflected instantly; replenishment thresholds update so you avoid being out of stock next time.

Result: a sale that would have been lost is captured, staff spend less time resolving errors, and customer trust grows.

Retailer Benefits (what you can expect)

• Fewer stockouts and lost sales — customers find the sizes they want, when they want them.
• Lower carrying costs — stop over-buying to mask poor visibility.
• Faster audits and less labor on manual counting — free staff to focus on selling.
• Improved omnichannel conversion — accurate inventory fuels BOPIS, ship-from-store, and real-time availability.
• Cleaner data for smarter buying decisions — better forecasting and markdown planning.

Quick Checklist to get Started (for Store Managers)

• Audit current friction points: BOPIS failures, frequent online cancellations, long return-processing times.
• Map systems and data flows: where do sales, returns, and receiving get recorded today?
• Pilot Datascan for receiving and weekend cycle counts at one store while Lightspeed powers transactions.
• Track KPIs: stock accuracy, BOPIS fulfillment time, online cancellations due to “out of stock,” and shrinkage rates.

Stop Guessing – Run the Store with Confidence

Fashion retail is unforgiving: a missing size is a lost customer and a damaged reputation. Lightspeed’s unified commerce platform gives you the infrastructure to sell everywhere, while Datascan gives you the speed, accuracy, and auditability to trust your numbers. Together they turn inventory chaos into a competitive advantage – less time firefighting, more time styling customers and growing sales.