What Is a Reorder Window in Distribution?
A reorder window is the span of time when a recurring customer is due to buy again, based on how fast they consume what they last ordered. In wholesale distribution it is the gap between deliveries for a given account and product, and the moment a rep should call to catch the next order.
Why the window exists
Consumable products get used at a roughly steady rate. A restaurant goes through the same case count of gloves most weeks. A property manager replaces the same volume of can liners each month. Divide what they bought by how long it lasted, and you have an expected reorder date with a window of slack around it.
Where reps lose the window
On a small team, no one is tracking three hundred separate windows by hand. So the order comes in when the customer remembers, not when the pattern says it should, and sometimes it comes in to whoever the customer called first.
Catching the window means knowing, today, which accounts have entered theirs. That is a tracking problem, and order history already holds the answer.
An example
Lakeside Facility Supply delivers to a hospital that reorders nitrile gloves every 24 days, give or take three. Day 22 is the start of the window. A rep who calls on day 22 looks proactive and keeps the order. A rep who waits risks the customer running short and calling a competitor on day 27.
How wide is a window
The window is a range, not a single day. A product with steady, predictable use has a tight window of a day or two. A product with choppy use, or an account whose volume swings with their own business, has a wider one. Reading order history sets both the center of the window and how much slack sits around it, so a rep knows not only when to call but how soon the timing turns urgent.
See which accounts are due before the phone rings.
Allodial Predict reads your order history and surfaces the accounts that need a call today.