From serving small business, local, independent retailers for decades, there are three things that stand out as the things that shock retailers the most when they discover them using our POS software.
The 3 things that shock small business retailers are, however, things these retailers tend to not want to know about, because of how the discovery makes them feel. This is why we say they shock them.
Dead stock.
Every retail business has underperforming stock, many have dead stock, that is, stock not selling, stock that is sitting there doing nothing for the business. Dead money. Wasted space. Missed opportunities. Dead stock can kill a business.
In a typical independent small retail business, dead stock accounts for 15% and more of the total investment in stock. In a business with $100,000 in stock, that is $15,000 dead, wasted, lost.
Our POS software shows the value of dead stock easily, quickly, continuously. It is easy for retailers to see the value of dead stock. Most don;t look. Most don’t want to know.
For us, when helping a retail business, dead stock is an easy win. See it. Make a plan. Act. Stop making decisions that result in dead stock.
Theft.
Every retail business experiences theft – employee theft and customer theft. Most retailers don’t look for theft, don’t use tools in POS software that can show theft may be an issue.
Theft in retail is one of those things – if I can’t see it, it’s not happening, which is nonsense, of course.
In a typical small independent retail business, theft costs between 3% and 5% of annual turnover. A shop turning over $1M a year in sales experiences theft to the value of at least $30,000 a year is occurring in the business between employee theft and customer theft.
In our experience, retailers tend to obsess about customer theft and ignore employee theft. The thing is, employee theft is usually hitting a business at a higher cost.
Every retail business needs a consistent focus on theft.
What am I missing?
Every retail business has opportunities they miss. The easiest one to see and understand is the cost of sales not achieved because the business did not have the stock available when a customer was in and wanting that stock.
In our work with retailers across many retail channels, but small business retailers, independent retailers, we see that in the top 20% of inventory items, businesses are out of stock of these enough of the time to be able to predict a value loss to the business.
In our research across a number of businesses, we can see the cost of what am I missing? hitting between $15,000 and $20,ooo in revenue in a year. The question for any retailer is – do you want that $15,000 to $20,000 in additional revenue each year? We hope the answer is yes.
In our POS software we answer the question of what am I missing out on? without if having to even be asked.
These are just three things we know small business retailers are shocked to discover.
In a business turning over $1M a year in sales, these three things can combine to be worth $60,000 a more in a year. Every retail business we know would like an extra $60,000 in revenue value, especially if it is easy to put in place processes to lock that revenue in.
These are easy wins in retail businesses that our Tower Systems POS software can deliver for small business retailers. To facilitate the delivery, we back it with training and business insights support – so that using the POS software to leverage the 3 easy wins in, well, easy.
If you run a local retail business: know your dead stock and fix it, understand the cost of theft and fix it, be sure of what you are missing out on and fix it.
This is easy action advice for small business retailers today. These three things offer small business retailers easy wins.
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The right POS system for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business. Tower offers specialty retail business software made for local small business retailers. To see if we might help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today.
Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au.
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