This year, you’ve made steps to ensure that the holidays won’t take your business by surprise. You have developed an incisive marketing campaign to drive traffic your way, and have a full contingent of well-trained staff waiting in the wings to provide excellent in-person and online customer service.
But unless your inventory procedures are streamlined and in line with what your customers want, the rest of your hard work will fall by the wayside.
Use the power of your point of sale system to change your inventory game once and for all.
1. Get inside information about your customers.
The solution lies with data you have already gathered thanks to your point of sale system. Your POS device, in conjunction with the software that drives it, comes with built-in database functions that are perfect for gathering and storing details about your customers, as well as the products they have bought in the past.
Using your barcode scanner peripheral, you should be tracking every piece of merchandise from the time it arrives in your warehouse until it is bought. Then employ your POS’s reporting feature to crunch some numbers.
With just a few clicks, you can learn which of your products flew off the shelves during last year’s holidays, and which items lagged. During your inventory ordering projections for the next few months, taking these details into consideration will enable you to make smarter procurement decisions.
Don’t overlook the customer relationship management component of your POS to gather additional insights. Using email surveys sent to the loyal shoppers in your POS database, you will be able to gather feedback directly from the people who will be making your registers hum this season.
Their contributions can help you to identify inventory pain points before they become major profit drains.
2. Unleash the power of data.
Although your POS hardware might not take up very much room, it certainly has a large imprint when it comes to the information it gathers and stores.
Use it to gather and report on a wealth of vital details, including insights about inventory tracking, turnover rates and customer preferences.
With these numbers, you can then identify inventory pain points, predict demand and make smart strategy decisions that mean your stock is in place and ready for the upcoming holiday rush.
3. Gain control over your inventory.
Another way that your POS can revolutionize your operations is through tracking in real time. This is possible because your system is instantly updated every time an in-person or online purchase is made.
Because your POS is integrated with all of your other accounting and ecommerce product management systems, you can then quickly pivot according to the current buying behaviors that you are seeing.
Real-time tracking also lets you make instant decisions about updating and revising your merchandise inventory going forward. With this data, you can purchase only the products that people want, without overspending resources on excessive quantities.
You can even configure your system to send alerts when counts run critically low, so that you can contact your shippers and replenish quantities before they run out.
As a result, you can furnish customers with what they want when they want it, minimizing back orders and helping to ensure that the sales go to you instead of to your competitors.
4. Put cost savings to work for you.
Thanks to the power of your POS, you can save money, enhance profits and ensure that you always have enough resources to keep your warehouses filled with the merchandise your customers are demanding.
By employing the tools built into your POS, you will only order what you really need, reducing the costs of excess stock and storage, and minimizing the inefficiency that arises when you are forced to hold onto goods that are not selling.
Now more than ever, this Black Friday and beyond will furnish customers with unprecedented product options and bargains. In order for you to surpass an abundance of local and global competitors this season, maximizing your insights and control over your inventory will be essential.
Your POS has everything you need to supercharge your product decisions and quantities. Use it to gain crucial insights into your shoppers’ buying decisions, track sales as they happen and maximize your financial resources.
Not sure how to get started? Talk to your payment services provider to get tips and POS training customized just for your business.
