Billing for your footwear shop, pair by pair, size by size
The size that sold out, the winter that never came and the fair stall, all on one phone.
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The cold that did not come, the Eid crowd and the size that ran out first
A winter bought for, and a winter that stayed short
A short cold spell, fewer weddings in November and higher GST are believed to be behind a 25% fall in one winter's footwear sales in Bahadurgarh, Haryana. A shop buys its winter shoes and its wedding juttis months ahead, from the wholesaler, on the order of the last year's feeling. When the season comes in short, the boxes sit on the shelf and the money is in them. Nobody can send the cold back, but a shop can know sooner which boxes are not moving and what to do about them.
Before a festival the crowd takes the sizes you need most
Before Eid, Diwali or a wedding week the crowd comes all at once. In such a rush the common sizes go in the first hours, and the shop is left with a shelf of the sizes nobody has, and a customer standing there who wants the size that is gone. The one who is fetching boxes from the back is not the one who is billing.
One design, a run of sizes, and a left and a right that must stay together
A chappal comes in a design, and each design comes in a run of sizes and a few colours. Each pair is two shoes in one box, and a box can be on the shelf or in the godown or on the wall with its mate on the other side of the shop. The owner knows which sizes are low by looking at the wall, and the wall is not the stock.
Tools for a wall of chappals and a shelf of shoe boxes
Low stock warnings
A warning when the common sizes of a best-selling chappal run low, the ones that go in the first hours before Eid, so the order goes out while the crowd is still thin. The shopkeeper hears it from the phone and not from a customer.
Many shops, one owner
The shop, the fair stall and the godown under one account, each with its own count of pairs. The evening count says what is at the fair and what is at home.
Daily reports
Each design's sales kept day by day, so a winter that stayed short is seen in the first week, and not in March when the boxes are still full.
Pairs counted, a fair stall of its own and a bench for the cobbler
The maker's article number is the item's name
A footwear maker sends a carton marked with an article number, and the wholesaler's list is in the same numbers. Use the article number as the item's name, with the design beside it. When you order again, the number you read off the phone is the number the maker knows, and nobody describes a chappal over a call.
Leather, rexine and rubber are three counts from three suppliers
A shoe in leather, one in rexine and a chappal in rubber come from three different suppliers at three different rates. Keep each material's pairs as separate items. The evening sales show which material the town buys, and the next order goes to that supplier first.
Juttis for the wedding season are counted in pairs on the day they arrive
Embroidered juttis for the wedding season are ordered early from the maker. When the carton comes, put each design and size in as its own item, counted in pairs. The shop sees at once what it has for the season, and the bride's family that asks for a size in red is not told to come back next week.
Questions a chappal and shoe seller asks
I take a stall to a fair for a week. How do I know at night which sizes came back?
Add the stall as a place of its own and count the pairs you carry there, size by size. Each bill at the fair takes a pair off the stall. At night what is left is what you carry home, and those unsold sizes stay home next fair.
The winter did not come and my woollen-lined shoes are still on the shelf. How do I see what is left?
Open the stock. Each size of each design shows its pairs, so you see at once which are still full. That is the list to take to the wholesaler when you ask to swap, and to put on a sale rate.
A pair of the same design is in the godown and not on the wall. Can I see where the sizes are?
Yes. The shop and the godown each have their own count of pairs, so a size that has gone from the wall may still be in the godown, and you know before you tell the customer no.
Sandals sell all summer and woollen shoes only in winter. Can I see which design is moving this month?
Yes. Each design's sales are kept day by day. Open this month and read which designs are going and which are standing, then put the going ones on the front of the wall and the standing ones at the back.
Where shoes are made and where they are sold: a fair in Patna and an Eid rush in Srinagar
Bihar signed two investment agreements worth Rs 125 crore at the 2026 India International Footwear Fair, expecting about 1,800 new jobs, Patna Press reported in August 2026.
Before Eid-ul-Fitr in March 2026, crowds filled the garment and footwear shops of Srinagar's Goni Khan Market and Jamia Market in Nowhatta, despite intermittent rain. A festival rush like that is when a shop learns which sizes it never has enough of.