8 Things Your Retail Planning Software Must Be Able To Do
You need more than paper and a calculator to effectively plan your inventory.
One of the most important things to keep track of in retail planning is inventory. This way you can avoid having stock that is expired or out of style. You can keep from storing this dead stock by having an accurate status in real time on what you have and where it is. This also keeps your storage costs down since you are only warehousing the things that you can actually sell. Retail planning, done right, will reduce your costs. It will improve your cash flow and boost your bottom line. It does this because you make profitable buying decisions and have enough stock on hand without overbuying anything. The right retail planning software gives you the tools you need and the support to use them expertly.
What To Look For In Planning Software
In order to ensure adequate stock levels, your retail planning software must be able to do these things:
- Your software must work naturally and easily with your point of sale software.
- Your software must be capable of providing a comparative analysis of sales and inventory data in meaningful ways, like charts and drill-downs.
- Your software must be able to leverage historical contribution patterns so that you can determine precise dollar distribution.
- Your software must provide accurate stock level forecasting by using relevant receipt patterns to determine stock to sales ratios.
- Your software must allocate from the top down and the bottom up, with the ability to lock and unlock desired results at all levels.
- Your software must effectively plan and forecast units, retail, and cost.
- Your software must simultaneously maintain, monitor, and plan for multiple seasons.
- Your software must have an extensive options list with dynamic controls, segment views, and critical indicators.
Planning Software Should Be Integrated
In order to be truly effective, planning software must be part of an integrated platform that handles your data securely and efficiently. This integration is how you will see all the information in real time and effectively analyze so that your decisions are optimal.
Finding the right software for your retail planning is easier than it sounds because all of these things and more are part of ChainDrive’s Planning/Open-to-Buy software component. This is part of the fully-integrated omnichannel retail software that has transformed the way retailers do business. Take a look at ChainDrive retail planning software and see how your own business can be transformed, too. Contact us today or book a free demo to see how we can scale-up your retail chain.
