In this episode, Salena Knight explains why the products you regret buying can be some of the most valuable data in your retail or ecommerce business.

It is easy to focus on best sellers, products that sold out, and suppliers that performed well. But your clearance section, old stock, and products that have been sitting in the warehouse can tell you just as much - and sometimes more - about your buying decisions.

Salena walks through how to look beyond "it didn't sell" and identify what actually went wrong. Was the product itself the problem? Did you buy too much? Was the colour selection wrong? Was the price too high? Did demand only appear after a significant discount?

She also explains why clearing old stock isn't enough. If you don't understand the buying decision that created the excess inventory, you risk making the same decision again with a different product.

You'll learn how to:

• Use old stock as buying data
• Distinguish between a product problem and an overbuying problem
• Look at sales performance alongside discounts and timing
• Identify patterns across seasons and product ranges
• Recognise assumptions that influence your buying decisions
• Turn disappointing inventory into a lesson for future buying
• Ask better questions before repeating a buying decision

The key takeaway: You've already paid for the stock. Make sure you get the lesson from it, too.