Retailers buy product by the carton, and sell it in units. These key result areas are important to a retailer, and these questions will focus on the features of each industry or a client. So a retailer has to have some stock. Each firm should answer this type of question as part of its market positioning. That would encourage a firm to hold low amounts of stock and turn it over rapidly.
Fashion is important in some sectors, too.
This affects fashion retail, and also toy retail. This can be a big issue in footwear retail, or fabric sales. A lot of money can be tied up in stock which is largely unsaleable due to being the 'odd bits' left over at the end. A retailer has to think about margins. In some cases, this can be by conscious design, in other cases clients might just think it's impossible to achieve a higher gross profit margin, often due to 'the new business down the road that's started discounting'.