Thriving retailers have one quality in common: They all run a tight ship when it comes to tracking and optimizing their inventory.
They do this by addressing the inventory pain points that can minimize efficiency and drain productivity. Most find that their best tools can be found close at hand in their business’s POS system.
Pain point 1: tracking inventory
When you use an extra minute here and there to attempt to keep product counts by hand, the potential for entry errors and oversights is immense. Your POS’s inventory tracking tool takes the guesswork out of logging and monitoring sales.
You can even configure your software to alert you when quantities reach a certain benchmark, giving you plenty of time to re-order before you run out. Additionally, the software tells you what isn’t selling so that you order less or modify your tactics to improve sales.
Pain point 2: seasonal inventory
If you only sell some of your products at specific times of the year, storing excess quantities can be expensive and time-consuming. However, your POS tools can give you a count in real time of everything you have on your sales floor as the season comes to an end.
That’s the optimal time to sell off what you don’t want to pack away until next year.
Pain point 3: overstocks
As we said above, inflated quantities of merchandise are a logistical and financial nightmare. Keep them from happening in the first place by making use of your POS’s inventory forecasting software.
It can track trends, calculate lead time and even indicate the best reorder point.
Pain point 4: stocking a new store
Expansion is a wonderful sign of success, but it means figuring out how much inventory to move into your new location.
The good news is that your POS’s inventory management and reporting tools can harvest past sales data to help you more accurately predict what you will need.
Pain point 5: expediting
When orders fail to arrive as expected, even your best-laid plans can fall by the wayside. Although you can never have total control over your suppliers or their delays, you can keep track of their contact details and invoices in your POS system’s software.
Configure it to set reminders that prompt you to make follow-up calls and send second or third invoices, and your chances of getting your merchandise sooner will increase.
Although your POS might look unobtrusive, it packs a real wallop when it comes to optimizing your inventory functions. If you suspect that your current system is lacking some of the updated tools that would enable you to streamline your product management functions, don’t wait another day.
Contact your merchant provider or payment processing company right away to discover alternative options. This might even be the perfect opportunity to switch vendors in order to find the solution that can best meet your present needs and grow right along with your business.
