Retail shrinkage in Kenya: what a proper stock count reveals

Shrinkage is usually four problems wearing one name

Kenyan retailers often describe every unexplained loss as theft. In practice the register splits into receiving errors, unrecorded damages, expiry write-offs and genuine loss, and each needs a different control.

• Receiving: goods signed for but never counted in
• Damages: breakages disposed of without a record
• Expiry: slow movers written off too late
• Loss: the residual after the first three are removed

Duplicate item records inflate the problem

Many Kenyan businesses migrated an old item master into new software without cleanup. The same product exists three times, so one code shows a shortage while another shows an overage and both look like shrinkage.

Batch control for pharmacy stockists

For pharmaceutical stockists, batch and expiry accuracy is a regulatory obligation as well as a commercial one. Capturing it during the count avoids a separate exercise later.

From count to routine

After the reset, a short weekly cycle count on the top-moving categories keeps the balance honest without ever closing the shop again.