Review a prepaid product range after its first 90 days
At day 90, take out the launch plan and compare it with what sold, what it cost to sell and what staff still need help with. Make a decision for each product: keep it, change the way you sell it or take it off the till. If the trial covered only one outlet or a quiet season, say so.
Check who bought the product, whether cashiers could explain it and whether finance could match the sales to supplier records. Use the objectives you set at launch so you judge the trial against the job it was meant to do.
Decision table
| Decision | Evidence to support it | Next action |
|---|---|---|
| Continue | Demand and operations fit the intended purpose | Keep controls and review cadence |
| Adjust | Useful demand with a correctable issue | Run a limited change and measure again |
| Retire | Poor fit or unsupported workflow | Close access and reconcile balances |
By Freepaid ยท Published
Compare actual results with the launch brief
Collect the same measures used at launch: transaction count and value, product mix, confirmed fees, staff time, customer requests, corrections, support cases and remaining float. Use consistent date cut-offs. Separate completed orders from pending, rejected and unknown outcomes. If the original target was to serve a particular customer need, include evidence about that outcome rather than relying only on total sales.
Check whether costs are actual or estimated. Record the source for supplier terms and any internal hourly rate used to estimate staff effort. Ask finance to confirm how operational contribution and formal accounting measures should be understood. A small number of sales may still support a valuable customer need, while high volume may be unsustainable if the business cannot resolve recurring issues.
Worked example: interpret the evidence
Consider a pilot with 120 sales, 8 support cases and 2 orders still open at day 90. Read the tickets to see what went wrong and how serious it was. Check the two open references with the supplier, then compare the actual product costs and ask cashiers what customers found confusing.
If cashiers found the instructions confusing, try a revised till guide and see whether the errors fall. If the supplier can't serve the intended product or the open orders still have no explanation, pause expansion while you check. If demand and support match the launch plan, keep selling within the existing limits.
Close the review honestly
Do not count an unknown transaction as a confirmed sale simply because it appeared in the submission file. Reconcile each unresolved outcome against its original reference. Record the source and time of status checks, and assign a named person to follow up. If the item remains unknown at the review deadline, state that limitation and decide whether the product should remain paused until evidence is available.
Review access, funding and customer communications alongside product performance. If the range is retired, remove access according to the organisation's procedure, settle confirmed balances and retain the records required for finance and support. If adjusted, identify exactly what will change and what measure will show whether it helped.
Make the next decision measurable
- Revisit the original purpose, target audience and approved budget.
- Collect sales, costs, time, exceptions and customer evidence for the full period.
- Verify supplier terms and resolve unknown transaction outcomes where possible.
- Choose continue, adjust or retire and document the reasoning.
- Assign an owner, action date and measures for the next review.
- Preserve the report and update the product range record.
Write down the decision, the evidence behind it and who owns the next step. Use the product support cost worksheet to count staff time, and the retailer product selection guide if you're considering adding a category.