One inventory figure across Pakistani stores and a website

1 The problem

A retail chain’s website and its stores kept separate stock, reconciled overnight. Customers ordered items that had sold in a shop that afternoon. Staff had no view of the next branch. Online cancellations were heading toward one in six — expensive in a market where cash-on-delivery already eats margin.

2 Our approach

Stock became one real-time service both the storefront and every till write to, with reservation on add-to-basket. When a store line drops — and in Pakistani retail it does — the till queues locally and reconciles on reconnect. Conflict rule: the customer standing at the counter wins. Click-and-collect and ship-from-store came after that truth existed, not before.

3 What we built

• Live inventory as the single source of truth
• Basket reservation, released on timeout
• Offline-tolerant POS with a written conflict rule
• Click-and-collect and ship-from-store
• Search and merchandising through Algolia
• Load test before the peak season, not during it

4 Technology