In our work with small business retailers our help often passes from POS software help to business management help.
recently, we were asked for advice on when and how to quit stock. here is the template advice we have created, which is useful in many types of retail businesses.
Advice for small business retailers on quitting stock
If you want to quit stock, quit it, quickly. Quickly means different things to different people. To me, this think it means 7 days … gone and out of the shop in 7 days from when you decide to quit the products.
The easiest way to quit stock is for your shoppers to understand the deal. Understanding the deal starts with how you brand the sale.
A sign with SALE on it could mean anything. I suggest you NOT use this.
A sign with, say, 50% off could be confusing as they don’t know the starting price and some may not understand percentages.
Sign with HALF PRICE is more easily understood but they still do not know the starting price.
If you really want to quit stock, I suggest you have tables or dump bins at price points: $1, $2, $5 – or that ever is appropriate to you.
I have tested this. I have tried $9.99 priced an item at 50% off, half price and $5.00. The $5.00 pricing worked the best, by far.
This is our recommendation on quickly quitting stock: get the price messaging right.
If your price messaging is hard to understand or if there are too many different price messages you could be creating a barrier and this could stop you achieving the sales outcome you want.
Also: display the product for a sale. i.e. not pretty. Reorganise it daily. Keep it separate to the premium merchandise.
