Measurement is key to the success of any retail business, especially in small business retail where competition is tough.
Measuring sales, stock, employees and suppliers will profit a business if those in charge act on what measurement reveals.
This is small business retail management advice we share with our POS software customers. While it is a boring topic, it is a business critical topic for if you measure and act on the evidence you are on a path to success. Ignorance may be bliss … it is also a road to failure in business.
Without accurate and consistent measurement, you are not able to make good business decisions or to hold others to account for their actions.
By measuring you can make better decisions.
Here are some simple rules for accurate measurement in retail:
- Only sell what you can track – by scanning a barcode or pressing a PLU (stock code) to track the item.
- Do not use department keys to sell items as this denies you the opportunity of tracking individual items you sell. Scan the barcode every time!
- Enter into your computer system everything you sell. Record stock you receive by supplier so that you can track supplier performance.
- Enter into your computer system everything you return to suppliers – consignment stock, returns or damaged goods.
- Record all sales and other activity at the sales register by employees.
- Reorder replenishment stock by using your computer system to create orders for you.
My making your business data driven you are better equipped to take the emotion and gut feel out of business decisions. This will improve decision quality and accountability and, hopefully, the return you achieve from these decisions.
Businesses which do not measure stock, suppliers, employees and sales accurately often find themselves faltering without knowing why – because they have no accurate data on which to base research.
Measuring everything reveals a path forward and this path is success.
Yes, this is a snooze of a topic. However, it is also a business critical topic offering a bankable result – if you measure everything and act on the results as revealed by the measurement.
Tower Systems helps small business measure, analyse and act. Our advice for small business retailers is considerable – reaching as far as retailers ask. It starts with our POS software and offering retailers opportunities to fully learn how this software can serve any specialty retail business that chooses it.
