Why Apparel Retailers Have It Made
One of the most challenging types of retail businesses to operate is an apparel business. Whether you specialize in men’s fashions, women’s fashions, children’s clothes, or you sell all kinds of apparel, you have special challenges. Even specialty apparel shops–like wedding dress shops, for instance–have unique challenges.
But a challenge doesn’t mean an obstacle. You can solve those challenges and move on to profitability if you have the right tools.
Managing The Apparel Retail Store
One of the biggest challenges to managing an apparel store is the seasonal change in fashions. You get a lot of turnover in merchandise. And because fashions tend to go out of favor quickly, you end up having a lot of clearance sales and after-season specials.
That’s both a good thing and a bad thing.
It’s a bad thing because who wants to take a cut on the sales price of a product? But there’s the beauty of it too. By discounting your out-of-fashion and out-of-season merchandise, you can draw more traffic into your store and sell those customers something they haven’t seen before–at full price.
With such a high turnover in merchandise, you have to establish clear rules for allocation and replenishment. And that’s where your retail management solution comes in.
What An Apparel Retailers Management Solution Should Do
A good Apparel Retailers management solution should do three things well, at a bare minimum:
- Manage your point of sale functions
- Help you plan your business better
- Allocate and replenish inventory seamlessly
You also need to be able to measure key performance indicators. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter what else you can do well. Your business will crumble.
Apparel Retailers – Managing Point of Sale
When it comes to managing the point of sale functions, you need to be able to capture names and addresses of your customers so you can build positive relationships and provide better customer service. That means also tracking what those customers purchase.
Apparel Retail Planning
There is nothing more significant to the success of a retail chain than planning. You need to be able to know how much and what kind of product to buy for each season, but you also have to be able to manage your expenses in areas other than product purchasing.
Allocation and Replenishment
All your stores are different. Customers at one location may prefer a particular style of dress while customers at another location like another one. You have to know how to allocate your product and replenish your merchandise when it sells out. That’s what a good retail management system can do for your apparel business.
You have it made, because that’s precisely what ChainDrive has to offer.