Speed, agility and efficiency are anticipated of today’s retail businesses. To achieve this, retailers should invest in an electronic inventory control system, a central database, a point of sales system and an automated statistical forecasting system.



These tools do not just reduce your overhead and enhance your planning. They’ve develop into important tools which can provide you with a competitive edge to thrive and grow in the market.



Right here are seven methods technology can improve your retail business.



1. Lower inventory costs

An inventory control system is now a simple tool for retail management. It makes it possible for you to know what merchandise you might have on hand and on order, and how lots of of every single item you've got received and sold.



After setup, these systems automatically update your database when products sell or move from one location to another-from a warehouse to a store, for example. In addition they offer a number of instantaneous information analysis tools to keep track of your business.



As soon as online, just about every aspect of the stores’ functionality is at your fingertips. Choose and view products by cost, price tag, margin, initially or last date sold, date received or UPC codes. In minutes you are able to build new categories with hundreds of subcategories of style, size or colour.



2. Improve consumer satisfaction

Prospects anticipate you to become able to tell them if you have a product in stock or on order. They do not want to wait even though you wander by means of the storeroom or phone the warehouse.



Getting an electronic inventory system allows you to answer consumer questions with just a handful of keystrokes. It is possible to also check the inventory held by different shops for those who have several locations.



3. Automate your inventory control

Electronic inventory control can remove over-ordering and under-buying by referring to every single store's sales history to calculate the optimum stock levels for every single item. You inform the system how numerous days of provide you prefer-which it is possible to modify, as an example, in accordance with the season-and the system will look at past sales patterns to figure out after you have to re-order.



Your system can also perform "open to buy" calculations that let you know just how much to commit on particular retailer categories for maximum return. The system takes previous sales cycles, which include seasonal variations, into account. You could possibly also query the system to figure out what the order really should be if sales rise or fall.



This information and facts tells you:



Just how much you ought to invest in inventory from month to month;

how much inventory you might want to order to maintain up with anticipated sales without going overboard and tying up excess capital;

how merchandise to help keep flowing into the shop throughout the season;

which items are 'hot' and which are not, and their respective makers; and

what are your best-selling stores and that are your finest individual sales employees.

4. Facilitate inventory control

Internal theft and pricing errors can consume up about 4% of retail inventory. A transportable terminal offers substantially higher speed and accuracy than manual counts.



The system instantly flags discrepancies with recorded inventory levels and verifies pricing, creating it simpler to detect pricing errors and missing merchandise around the spot.



5. Keep track of your margins

Your inventory control system can recommend pricing and markdowns within your pre-set parameters, and/or track your margins according to the costs you enter. It's going to also make sure that you are always conscious of gross margins.



Even with special pricing offers, you never ever drop track of your margins. You'll be able to establish different pricing for distinct stores across geographic regions, for example, and for preferred clients which include employees or main buyers. You can also pre-set markdowns for end-of-season or other sales. The system continues to track gross margin, which includes the effects of markdowns and preferred pricing.



6. Enhance your forecasting

Automated statistical forecasting systems make much more calculated and correct demand forecasting.



Previous sales information, forecasts, and future orders are all on one system. Consequently, more accurate forecasts is usually made based on the totality of this details.

Forecasting systems can reach the desktop of each line manager, bringing chain-wide input (if proper) in to the process via interactive Web-based applications. Forecasts can then be additional adjusted, taking every aspect into account.

Automation facilitates rapidly projections and situation planning.



7. Adopt a just-in-time relationship with suppliers

Forecasting tools work in tandem having a central database, inventory control and sales systems to tie acquiring additional closely to actual consumer demand.



The outcome is an chance to lessen inventory and adopt a just-in-time relationship with suppliers.