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Retailers have more data at their fingertips today than ever before. The challenge isn’t access, it’s knowing what to pay attention to and how often. Too many operators either let reports pile up until month-end or get lost in dozens of metrics that don’t move the needle. By then, opportunities are missed, and problems have already cut into margins.
The key is consistency. Reviewing the right reports every single week helps retailers spot shifts before they snowball, whether it’s slowing sales, inventory piling up, or discounts eating into profits.
To make sure we’re focusing on the essentials, we sat down with our senior sales executive, Ray Wener, who has worked with enterprise retailers across different industries. He shared which POS reports should form the baseline of your weekly reviews. Using Stratus Analytics or any comparable analytics software, these are the reports that bring clarity without clutter.
By the end, you’ll know exactly which reports to check weekly, why they matter, and how they can help you stay proactive rather than reactive.
The most fundamental check-in for any retailer is sales performance.
A week can feel short in the big picture, but it’s long enough for early signs to show if sales are trending up or slipping. Waiting until the end of the month to review performance means you’re reacting after the fact instead of making timely adjustments.
One of the most useful reports to run weekly is a Department Sales Report with a week-over-week comparison. Comparing revenue, gross profit, and item counts side by side helps you see whether you’re meeting expectations and how those results align with your plan. For seasonal or cyclical categories, those weekly comparisons are especially valuable because they highlight patterns that might otherwise get lost in the month-end rollup.
When results aren’t where they should be, these reports can guide your next move, whether adjusting merchandising, pushing specific categories through marketing, or shifting staff to departments needing more coverage.
Retailers using tools like Stratus Analytics can build custom versions of standard reports that automatically compare this week against last week, or even the same week in prior seasons. That level of automation takes the manual lift out of the process, giving you clean, timely insights that free you to focus on action instead of digging through spreadsheets.
Once you know where your sales stand, the next step is looking closer at the products behind those numbers. Sales performance tells you how much is moving, but inventory reports tell you what is moving, and just as importantly, what’s not. Reviewing this weekly helps prevent two common headaches:
Start with a Merchandise Sold Report, sorted in descending order of items sold. This highlights your strongest performers for the week. From there, check the quantity on hand to ensure you’re not at risk of a stockout. If these items are buried in the middle of a store layout or lower on a category page online, repositioning them for better visibility can keep momentum.
On the other hand, run an Aging Report to catch slow movers early. By looking at on-hand, on-order, sell-through, and turns, you can flag products tying up space and capital. Once identified, you have options to adjust pricing, relocate them on the sales floor, or coach staff on how to better present them to shoppers.
Acting weekly rather than monthly gives you more chances to course-correct before the season leaves you with deep markdowns.
With real-time reporting tools like Stratus Analytics, you can view both best-sellers and underperformers side by side and act right away. Instead of waiting for end-of-month audits, you’re able to rebalance inventory on the fly, whether that means shifting stock between locations, adjusting purchase orders, or fine-tuning promotions.
Once sales and inventory are under review, the next piece of the puzzle is understanding how discounts are used.
On the surface, markdowns and promotions might look like easy wins, with more customers saying yes at the register. But without regular audits, discounts can quietly eat into margins and create habits that work against long-term goals.
A Discount Sales report customized with staff details gives you the necessary visibility. Instead of just seeing how much was discounted, you can spot who issued the discount, why it was applied, and which items were involved.
Weekly reviews of this report reveal important patterns, whether a certain employee is discounting more often than others, or if specific products are repeatedly being marked down because they’re overpriced, poorly placed, or simply not resonating with customers.
The real value comes from turning these insights into coaching moments. When managers understand the context behind discounts, they can address staff training opportunities, revisit buying decisions, or refine promotion strategies. That’s a much stronger approach than simply reacting to shrinking profit margins after the fact.
Linking discounts directly to staff performance and product categories in a modern POS system make sales operation audits easy. Retailers can see where discounts are helping to drive loyalty and where they’re simply eroding profit. This clarity makes it easier to coach teams with real examples and address merchandise challenges at the source.
Weekly reports are LITERALLY your early warning system. Looking at sales performance shows if you’re on track, inventory reports reveal where dollars are tied up, and discount audits uncover the hidden leaks in your margins. When all three are reviewed consistently, you’re staying ahead of all the problems.
If you’re ready to stop flying blind and start making decisions with clarity, it’s time to put your reporting tools to work. Want to see how Stratus Analytics helps retailers turn weekly reports into real results?
