The analysis for slow-selling articles is the exact opposite of the fast-selling analysis. What a retailer will do with aslow-selling analysis is to determine the poorly performing articles. After it is determined that an article is a slow mover, themerchant has several opportunities for action to improve the business. If there are any outstanding purchase orders, they should becanceled or pushed back to a later date. It may be necessary to work with marketing to create a promotion to help stimulate sales.The merchant could also make a price change to move the merchandise faster. If the information is available, the merchant may workwith store operations to find a new location for the article in the stores.

As with the fast-selling analysis, each retailer will have its own measurements to determine which articles are slow moving.It may be that each merchandising department will have a different standard for defining what is a slow-selling article. Forexample, beer will generally sell faster than novelty merchandise, so a stock-to-sales ratio of 4 would be unacceptable for beer,whereas that same ratio would indicate a fast mover for novelty merchandise. The point is that managementmay need to establish different performance objectives for each department.