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The key to retail success is having a plan you can implement, reducing the variables and executing the plan to perfection! Ok So you knew that already, but how do you go about doing that.
Since you are reading this, I will assume you are part of the 20% of retailers that have put processes in place to monitor your expenses, manage your inventory levels and are reviewing your product mix and performance.
You might even be part of the 20% of the 20% that has implemented a CRM that tracks customer preferences and is aware of slippage activity; if you are just doing loyalty that’s not good enough.
So you are now part of the 20% of the 20%, now what – how do you get to be 20% of the 20% of the 20% that is executing to perfection. Let’s look at one of the simplest ways to get there.
Put another way :
80% of all small business are content with opening the doors and waiting for customers to come in – when they do they focus on selling them what they have and meeting whatever needs they ca,
20% of them are looking at their product mix and managing their costs and inventory levels on a regular basis – They are aware of a key KPI’s and are looking for ways to increase margin and ROI.
20% of that 20% (4% of all merchants) are taking it a step further they have implemented a CRM and have launched an online commerce store – they work hard at trying to increase their foot traffic, focusing on marketing, making their inventory visible and doing what they can to match their stock levels to customer preference.
The difference makers – the ones who seem to have all the luck the 20% of the 20% of the 20% (thats .8% or 80 out of a 1000 businesses) are focused on doing more with what they have – seems simple but often misunderstood it’s focusing your energy and efforts on where they make a difference. Make every action count! What does that mean.
How many customers come in and how many are buying – if for example 10 out of every 50 customers who come in buy something, focus on what it takes to get that to 11 – that immediately reflects a 20% increase in sales. Are they looking for sizes, color or product you don’t have – can you meet those needs using retailcloud’s endless aisle or predictive reordering to ensure you have the right mix? Does your clienteling system allow you to suggest substitute products?
Yes again you are right everyone says that , but what kind of insight does your POS system give you on similar customers, are you using machine intelligence to recommend items based on what customers have selected as well as what that customer has previously purchased? If your average units per transaction are 1.67 and you get 1 out of every 5 customers to buy one more item this could result in a 12% increase in sales.
Look at what how many customers are coming back and how often, does your POS system allow you to reach out to them with targeted offers (promos or experiences) to drive them back – the better you know your customers the more effective experience based marketing is; say for instance you know they love UnderArmour shoes, invite them back for an early preview of the new shoe line; or if they like a certain wine – allow them to reserve part of that allocation before it comes in – (use the retailcloud prepaid feature). Utilize the valuable information in your customer preference profiles. If you can increase your customer retention by 10% this again would have a huge impact on your bottom line.
So what does it take to be the 20% of the 20% of the 20% – it’s the little details; while your competition is using a scrambling approach you can focus on the details and successfully execute a winning strategy.
retail Key performance Indicators ( KPI ) in combination of recommendation & pragmatics analytics are key to solve sales challenges retail companies are facing. If you would like to learn more about the how you can improve your retail performance bookmark our blog and keep watching this space.
It is that time of the year, the dreaded full inventory count. This blog lays out 10 steps to simplify the process, increase your accuracy and reduce the amount of time spent on this task
The prep planning is the key to a successful and accurate count, most of the prep work can be done during regular business hours and will both reduce the time you spend counting as well as minimize recounts. Remember, an inaccurate count affects at least two years or stock levels and KPI analysis.
Schedule the date far enough in advance so that all involved have time to prepare for it. Plan for a date/time that is less busy. Ideal timing is right after an inventory clearing sales event before the new merchandise is received into stock.
Best practice tip: Give yourself at least 30 days to plan
Assign a specific role in the process to each person and make sure that they understand the role is fixed. Explain the need for accuracy. Of course consider your staff for the task, with thought given to checks and balances. If internal theft is a consideration, you cannot depend on an accurate count. You may want to assign personnel to areas which they do not have a direct associate with or other stores. Using an outside service provides an alternative, with the downside is that they can be costly and they do not have the same knowledge of the merchandise and stock locations that your team does.
Best practice tip: Use experienced team members in key roles, who have an understanding of the product and the count plan
A fixture map is a physical layout of the store with all stock locations. Each display, rack, stock location should be assigned a fixture map code that will be used for counting. When doing the physical counts, include the fixture code on the count sheets so you are able to tell which areas are not counts and where the merchandise was, if a recount is needed. The fixture map will also encourage all team members to use the terms in describing the completed work.
This will provide a critical map to a well planned wall to wall inventory count that assures that all product is counted.
Best practice tip: Organize fixtures so that the product is not varied, and the counts can be done systematically. Once counted they should easily be tagged as completed.
Before the count date, visit your inventory to understand the layout of the store and look for obsolete and damaged items. Make sure that the inventory areas are clean and organized; product is in their proper places and not mixed up. Make sure all items have barcodes if applicable. Look for areas that may not have been considered in the fixture map, such as hold/layaway or merchandise that has fallen behind the display. Review all merchandise that needs to be returned to your vendors. Complete RMA’s and ship back or identify these items for the count. Consider products that you may want to markdown prior to the count to reduce the inventory. You can run category and attribute analysis reports and review Stock Days, Turnover and Return on Inventory Investment numbers to identify products that should be targeted for markdowns.
Best practice tip: Organize product on the shelves, removing damaged items and use discounts and promotions to clear obsolete ones.
To get an accurate count, all sales and movement of inventory must cease. Make sure that all store/warehouse transfers are completed and merchandise has been received into the system. New shipments received should be frozen, and seals should not be broken. Review Open Transfers and Adjustments and make sure they are committed or errored out as appropriate.
Best practice tip: If you can’t freeze receiving, then clearly define a physical not to be counted area for items that have not been received into the inventory.
There are a number of methods available and selecting the one that will work best for your business depends both on your type of inventory and how your merchandise and store are laid out.
Manual count sheets are simply forms to enter the product ID (SKU) and quantity. This method is effective for wall to wall counts using count teams, with one person calling out the SKU, price and count and the other recording the data. This allows you to pair an experienced person as the counter with the less experienced employee to record the information and helps less experienced personnel learn the inventory. The downfall is that there is room for mis-recorded SKU’s and it’s a manual process so more time consuming.
Preprint the count sheet from your POS System and use this for recording the count. The biggest problem is that the form will not follow the logical flow of your merchandise layout. To much time can be spend flipping through pages searching for items. If some items are not included, you are more likely to miss them altogether. However, system generated count sheets are useful in narrower spot counts or warehouse locations where the inventory is well organized. Run an inventory balance report and download it to a CSV file so that you can sort it and prepare the count sheets. Your final count sheets can be imported into the system to adjust your inventory balances; this will generate write-off amounts for you to review before you commit the counts.
Using a portable inventory device can be the most efficient way to take inventory when all items are barcoded. You will not need the two person count team and merchandise can be counted quicker. These devices also automate the reconciliation process so that the store can complete the count quicker and be ready to unfreeze the inventory in less time. The primary hurdle is the expense of the devices. There are two options here; you can use Portable Inventory scanners or any Android phone to scan and count the inventory. The Inventory Manager application can be used to load the data into the system automatically or the data from Multiple devices can be combined into one count using mInventory.
Best practice tip: Use digital tools whenever possible, organize counts in smaller groupings so you can easily recount, if necessary.
Designate a responsible person to monitor and control the distribution and return of the count sheets. If you are using electronic counting, designate one person to monitor and coordinate activities. Use the fixture map to describe the counts.
Best practice tip: Have one person in charge, who is managing the process. Everyone follows their plan.
For accuracy, enough time needs to be available to take the count, complete the count audits and recount as needed. If possible, start early in the day, while all employees are fresh and alert.
Although such a major inventory count is disruptive, resist the urge to focus on speed. The primary goal should be accuracy. Speed will come in time, but an inaccurate count does not provide any value to the store
Best practice tip: With proper planning you have plenty of time, however planning will not eliminate errors from exhaustion.
Even your best counter can make mistakes so instead of blindly adjusting inventory based on a single person’s count, steps can be taken. Have two separate teams conduct the count separately and compare the numbers to determine discrepancies and areas to look further into. Recount all items where discrepancies exist.
Best practice tip: Double count all items, and triple the count the discrepancies
Depending on device/method used, determine that all inventory has been included. Investigate discrepancies and recount as needed. Document explanations. Determine the adjustment amounts. Make necessary system adjustments based on the physical count.
Deeper research into discrepancies can always be completed at a later date – in fact several weeks or months later, but the only time a physical count can be accurately verified is at the time all movement is frozen. So take the time, while you have the staff in place and focused on the inventory count to resolve any count discrepancies.
Once all data has been uploaded into retailcloud, review the potential write-offs and recount any items where the variances are outside the acceptable differences. Check storage areas again for overlooked product.
Best practice tip: Get the count rights, resist getting involved in reconciliation or adjustments until later.
A well planned and organized physical count is the basis of determining and analyzing shrinkage. Without a reliable physical count, analysis of the results will be unproductive. It takes a bit of work to initiate the implementation of the physical count. But, in the end, when inventory is accurate and operations are running smoothly, the attention to detail will be well worth it.
Click here to subscribe to my next post on Cycle Counts
Also See 5 WAYS TO MAKE INVENTORY MANAGEMENT EASY
The sleekly designed Poynt Smart Terminal with it’s built in EMV reader and Interactive Customer Display makes it easy for small retailers to step up from their calculator registers into something that provides them with flexibility and integrations into todays must have retail solutions.
Poynt users of all sizes will have a couple of decisions to make in deciding if Register or Skycraft POS best meets their needs. This post will help navigate the waters and simplify the decision.
Both apps have the ability to create user pages to easily layout items making them easy to find, and both also support line item and order level discounts, coupons and fees, as well as the ability to set tax levels based on the item. Register has a limit of 500 SKUs per catalog so if you have more than that you will need to move up to Skycraft POS which has unlimited SKU’s.
With Skycraft POS in addition to the features mentioned above you also get category management features that allow you to run margin and performance reports by up to 3 classifications and 5 attributes. Leaving lots of room for growth. The inventory management module is also quite comprehensive allowing you to easily identify categories that are impacting your net margins.
There is also a built in CRM list builder app to easily get and launch marketing campaigns, a loyalty program to offer club pricing, discounts on merchandise to your most valuable customers as well as Time & Attendence with time sheet management. These together with Sales Tax Settlement reporting and Barcode Label printing are the most popular features on Skycraft Point of Sale App.
Other benefits of the Skycraft application is that you can add Advance Orders for online ordering with delivery or pick up in Store, you can also connect your Poynt to Windows and Android POS devices on retailcloud and there are phone apps for cycle counting and other inventory functions. You can also connect to retailcloud online and launch an ecommerce store within minutes.
Regardless of which application you select you cant go wrong with your new Poynt Smart Terminal.
If you are not considering using the Poynt to get one view of your transactions, inventory and customers, there are some other apps (most of these features are already included or available in Skycraft POS) you may want to also consider
Let me know if you have any questions or feedbacks on the apps recommended here. You can reach me on twitter @retailmadesimpl or post your comments below
Often the butt of jokes, CVS Pharmacy has always had a ridiculously long printed receipt. They recently announced that they will be offering digital receipts to their reward members (and in the process save thousands of trees).
In an era when in many cases customers are even digitizing their payment and loyalty cards, the notion of a printed receipt is becoming obsolete. Especially a printed receipt that is so long and crowded with information it becomes a source of jokes for late night TV hosts. CVS is taking what should be a universal step of allowing customers to opt out of printed receipts, at least if they are committed enough to join a loyalty program. After all, loyalty programs are supposed to make the shopping experience better, not more burdensome.” DAN BERTHIAUME, Chain Store Age.
Many customers prefer the digital receipt so that it cannot get lost if needed for a future return of merchandise and ease of check out. Retailers look for ways to enhance the customer experience and offering digital receipts is just one additional way to accomplish this.
An added advantage to offering digital receipts is that you are building your customer database, as you now have your customer’s email address. This will allow you to deploy targeted marketing based on your customers buying habits and further enhance their experience with your store, as you cater to their purchasing needs.
Digital receipts have always been a standard feature of retailcloud’s POS products and retailers have been enjoying the benefits for years. The feature is easy to implement (check the box to enable on your device) and use (the cashier is prompted for digital receipt at the end of the transaction).
Going one step further, is the Enhanced Digital Receipt (shown) available on any retailcloud device as an Add On Feature. Not only does the customer have sales transaction information, they also have recommended items that are aimed specifically towards the customer. This Enhanced Receipt allows for a review of the products and further engages the customer with your business and your product line. If used with the retailcloud eCommerce integration, click on a recommended item to easily make another sale.
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