5 Signs Your Retail Merchandising Is Out of Control
Every retail chain has its merchandising challenges, but there may be a time in the life of your retail enterprise when merchandising woes reach a level that they are out of control. Here are five signs that your merchandising problems are so challenging they are costing you too much money.
- You are almost always out of a particular size – Clothing and shoe retailers, particularly, have a problem with size ordering. Your electronic retail management solution can show your inventory to be at its peak while you have a certain size that is completely out of stock. This happens because your drill-down merchandising tools aren’t detecting your current inventory down to the size accurately. The solution is a more intelligent size allocation analysis. Not only can you track your merchandise down to the size, but you can analyze it down to the individual SKU.
- You can’t replenish certain stores fast enough – If you’ve been in retail for long, you know that you could have one store going bonkers with sales of a particular item while the same item is flat everywhere else. Automatic replenishment won’t fix that issue. Most retailers use a min-max standard chain-wide. A better way is to allocate your merchandise according to store sales figures. Use a more advanced allocation and replenishment process.
- Lack of information is keeping you blind – Reporting is very important. You need to see your product orders by vendor, purchase dates, product types, and more. You also need to see sales numbers so that you know when to replenish, how to allocate, and when it’s time to run a special. More information is better than not enough.
- You have no idea what it’s costing you – You order your merchandise, but you don’t know what the true cost of your inventory is. What you need is a better cost calculator. Maybe the formula you’re using to determine cost isn’t accurate enough.
- You’re having trouble keeping up with vendors – In your retail niche, you have vendors that specialize in a certain type of product, maybe even so specialized that they only manufacture certain sizes. If you have several of these types of vendors, then you need a more intelligent way to manage vendor relationships.
Retail chain management is all about the merchandising. Take care of your merchandising woes and you’ll solve a lot of your problems.
2 Responses
[…] you using your point of sale solution effectively? Why […]
[…] Previous story 5 Signs Your Merchandising Is Out of Control […]