Ask any business owner for a major source of headaches and you’re likely to hear a lot of frustrated mumbling about running out of stock. Sales are lost; customers are less likely to return and more likely to leave a negative review; your name and brand are damaged. Any product stock-out is detrimental to business, but they are an unfortunate commonality for all businesses, even the best. In fact, nearly $1 trillion worth of sales are lost due to out-of-stocks.
To be sure, a certain degree of this is unavoidable for any type of business. A volatile economy, unpredictable holiday seasons, tax rate changes, poor weather, and many other factors can make optimal ordering and stock management nearly impossible. But there are ways to stanch the bleeding and keep your business profitable. Here are five ways, including how your retail point of sale can help, to avoid stock-outs in your store and keep your shelves looking beautifully full.
1. Keep Up to Date with a Modern Inventory System to Avoid Stock-outs
Gone are the days of pen and paper ledgers or even Excel spreadsheets. The best inventory tracking is integrated into your point of sale system and helps guide your ordering and inventory management system. Additionally, using a cloud-based system allows you to manage and edit inventory remotely and also allows operations to continue even if internet access is interrupted.
The best retail point of sale allows you to create order recommendations when inventory gets down to certain levels. These levels and subsequent orders can be easily adjusted at any point and help take some of the human error elements out of the equation. You can also categorize your products based on the impact they have on your total revenue, highlighting your money makers and your money wasters. Figuring out which products aren’t selling is just as important when trying to prevent stock-outs of the products that are.
2. Stay Organized and Observant with Your Product
Employee and customer theft is an unfortunate reality. In fact, the numbers are jaw-dropping. It’s estimated that U.S. retailers lost $50 billion in product to employee theft in 2016. While theft prevention is another topic in and of itself, it contributes to stock-outs. Generally, missing and unaccounted products lead to misordering and empty shelves. Again, a modern inventory system can help bring problems like this to light and allow you to better pinpoint the issue.
3. Invest in Scanning Technology or RFID Chips for Faster Inventory
The barcode revolutionized the retail industry when it was invented in the 1970s. Scanning technology that has come out since then continues to improve. QR codes can be linked to free apps on your cell phone that make inventory a breeze. And accurate.
RFID technology is the next level. Though expensive, this allows you to take inventory without requiring a line-of-sight scan and ensures durability that barcodes cannot. It’s therefore even more accurate and less time-consuming, saving you on labor costs, and in the end, lost sales.
Such technology, such as perpetual inventory, allows you to count often as well. Figure out a system and routine that is best for your business. The more up to date your inventory is, the more accurate your ordering and stock levels will be.
4. Avoid Stock-outs by Picking up on Patterns and Anticipating Customer Demand
Look for sales patterns during certain times of the day, week, holiday season, etc. Too often businesses are caught off guard by spikes in sales when they are actually predictable events. Your point of sale system should be an integral part of this.
Automatic, up-to-date inventory reports are part of what makes a cloud-based inventory system an improvement to any retail store. This helps illustrate your business’s ebbs and flows in a tangible way, allowing you to order and stock accordingly.
5. Maintain Good Relationships with Vendors and Manage Your Capital
Communicate often with your vendors and always settle invoices on time. Similarly, they suffer from the same inventory issues you do. The more you can communicate, the more you can anticipate changes in availability of certain products. There are times when you can make large orders, and times when you can afford to order products in smaller, more frequent batches.
This goes hand in hand with managing your working capital. Over-ordering for one week can leave your pockets (and stock) empty for the next. Additionally, use marketing and pricing strategies on the floor to adapt. In either case, if you notice a significant surplus that isn’t moving, offer discounts or change its position in your store.
The more I learn to use KORONA POS, and with the help of awesome customer support, the more I believe this POS system could be a very good fit for many types of businesses out there. What I love the most about this software is the 24/7 customer service and reporting function which are very easy to use.
-Kevin L.
Conclusion on Ways to Avoid Stock-outs
The inventory game is tedious, but it doesn’t have to be as frustrating as it often is. Streamlining the supply chain process with the right point of sale system can help prevent stock-outs and, in the end, keep customers coming back happily.
Let us know what you think and any other ways you’ve improved your inventory management. Give us a shout to find out more about KORONA POS’s cloud-based inventory management system.
