Sample findings

What a £200 starter review gives you

A complete findings note for an example candle shop, written the way a real one is: for the owner, not for a programmer.

The business, its candles and its numbers are invented. The problems are real ones that turn up in small shops all the time. A real note covers only your setup, and reads just like this one.

Jump to the findings ↓ or read the shop’s story first →

The note, at a glance

Starter Reliability Review: the stock update

The business
A candle shop selling on its own website, on Etsy and at weekend markets.
What they asked
Why customers can sometimes order a candle that has already sold out.
The slice
The nightly update that shares stock numbers between the website, Etsy and the market stock sheet.
What I had
Read-only access to the update’s settings and its last eight weeks of history, both shops’ product lists, and their order lists with customer details removed.
What changed
Nothing. I read it, I didn’t run it, and the shop carried on as normal.
Price and timing
£200 fixed. Findings within 5 working days of sign-off, plus one follow-up.

Summary

The short version

  • The update works on most nights. On the nights it doesn’t, nothing tells you, and the website keeps selling from the last numbers it had. That is the main reason for the sold-out orders you described.
  • I found five things, listed below with the most important first.
  • Three of them you can sort out yourself, with no software changes. Two need a small change to the update itself, by whoever looks after it, or by me.

None of this means anyone did a bad job. It’s what happens when three places that sell the same candles are expected to agree, and nothing checks that they still do.

Findings · example

Five things, most important first

Finding 1 · fix first

When the nightly update doesn’t run, nothing tells you

What I found

The update didn’t run on 3 of the last 56 nights. Twice the connection to Etsy had expired and needed signing in again, and once the automation tool itself was down for maintenance. Each time the update simply stopped. No email went out, and the website carried on selling from the last stock numbers it had.

Why it matters to you

Two of the three oversold orders you mentioned came in the morning after one of those nights. Left as it is, it will keep happening every few weeks, because connections expire and tools sometimes pause for maintenance.

What to change

Two small guardrails. An email to you whenever the update hasn’t finished by 7am. And a check on the website that pauses a candle if its stock number is more than a day old, so it can’t be sold from old numbers.

Who can do it

Whoever looks after your website and the update, or me as a First Fix at £450 fixed. This is the one I would close first.

Finding 2 · fix soon

Three candles are never updated, because their names don’t quite match

What I found

The update pairs products by name. Three candles are named slightly differently in the two shops: Lavender & Cedar, Fig & Black Tea, and Sea Salt & Driftwood use “&” on the website and “and” on Etsy. The update can’t pair them, so it skips all three every night without saying so.

Why it matters to you

Their numbers only change when someone edits them by hand, so they are the candles most likely to oversell. The third oversold order you mentioned was Fig & Black Tea.

What to change

Make the three names match exactly, in either shop. Longer term, pair products by a stock code instead of by name, so a renamed candle can’t quietly drop out again.

Who can do it

You, in a few minutes. Renaming the three is enough to bring them back into the update.

Finding 3 · fix soon

When a candle sells in both shops on the same day, one sale goes missing from the count

What I found

Each night the update copies one shop’s stock number over the other’s. If a candle sold once on the website and once on Etsy that day, the copied number only takes off one of the two sales.

Why it matters to you

The count creeps up by one each time. It happened on 11 days in the last eight weeks, so some candles show a little more stock online than you have. It hasn’t caused an oversold order yet, but it will once one of them runs low.

What to change

Change the update so it counts the sales in each place since its last run, and takes all of them off one shared number.

Who can do it

Whoever set up the update, or me as a First Fix at £450 fixed. It is a change to the update itself, so it is worth doing in a copy and testing before it goes live.

Finding 4 · worth knowing

Market sales reach the website on Sunday evening

What I found

Weekend market sales go into the stock sheet by hand on Sunday evening, and the update picks them up that night. Until then, the website and Etsy don’t know about them.

Why it matters to you

On a market weekend, a candle that sold out at the stall can still be bought online until Sunday night.

What to change

A simple habit covers it. On market weekends, set the online stock for your best sellers one or two lower than you really have, and put it back on Sunday evening.

Who can do it

You. No software change is needed.

Finding 5 · worth knowing

The update runs on one person’s login

What I found

The update was connected to the website and to Etsy with the personal login of the friend who set it up.

Why it matters to you

If that password changes or the account closes, the update stops. Once finding 1 is fixed you would hear about it, but you would still need that person to connect it again.

What to change

Connect both shops again using a login the business owns, and write down where the update lives and how to sign in to it.

Who can do it

You, together with the person who set it up.

Limits

What this review didn’t look at

  • Payments, refunds, and anything inside Etsy’s own systems.
  • How the website looks, and anything outside the stock update.
  • Customer details. The order lists came with names and addresses removed, and I deleted them once the note was sent.

Your choice

What you can do with it

  1. Fix it yourself

    Findings 2, 4 and 5 need no software changes, and each one says what to do.

  2. Pass it on

    Send the note to whoever looks after your website or the update. Each finding says what to change, so they don’t start from scratch.

  3. Ask me for a First Fix

    One finding closed for £450 fixed, in a copy you control, handed back for you to put live.

Whichever you choose, you can reply to the note once with any questions, and I’ll answer them in writing. In the example, the shop chose a First Fix for finding 1: the owner now gets an email when the update hasn’t run, and a candle pauses itself if its stock number is more than a day old.

The first step

Want a note like this about your setup?

Describe what keeps going wrong, in your own words. If a review isn’t the right fit, I’ll say so.

Starter Reliability Review

£200 fixed

  • One part of your setup, chosen together
  • I look, but nothing is changed
  • Findings in plain English, plus one follow-up

Within 5 working days of your yes · nothing in your system is touched

Starter inquiries answered within one working day.

Tell me what keeps going wrong →
Doby Baxter

Doby Baxter

I read every message myself, and I’ll answer in the same plain words you use.

Have a team with its own developers? The full Reliability Review, from £900, goes deeper and is written for them. Download that sample (Word) →