Keeping Sufficient Stock in Your Retail Store

Many retailers open their store with a minimum level of stock, which is acceptable at first because you want to test the market first to see which products are the movers and which do not sell as well. After this period, you should then have figures that give you an idea of which products are fast movers. Then you should start planning ahead.

Firstly, do a monthly assessment. Extract your daily sales figures and compile a monthly stock sales list. On your list, filter the stock from the highest selling product to the lowest selling product. This will make it easier for you to view your stock sales at a glance.

Next, take a note of the highest selling products and how much of that stock you have left at the end of the month. If you no stock left at the end of the month, you may need to increase your stock level the following month. Increase the next month's order with approximately 10% then assess it again the next month. If you do still have stock left at the end of the month, note how much stock you have left and make a decision as to keep your stock level consistent or to lower the next month's order. It is advisable that you keep the stock level constant until you see that there is a dip in the sales and popularity of that particular item.

Do the same for each of the products on your stock list. It may be a tedious task but it has to be done if you want to stay ahead of the demand and your competitors. You need to always ensure that you have enough stock of a product so that you can make the sale. If you don't have the product in stock, you will lose the sale, the customer will be disappointed and will go to another retailer, most likely, your competition. That could mean that they may not come back to you next time because you don't have enough stock of what they are looking for. Sometimes, even if you don't make the sale on that day, you need to ensure that you have enough in stock. Because after that customer has shopped around they may come back to you as you have that particular item in stock. In a case like this, that customer will continue to return to your store to find that product and also make additional purchases of other products that you have on the shelves.

Therefore it is very important for your monthly sales to ensure that your retail store has sufficient stock of all the popular products that you supply.

Source: http://www.jecc.co.za