Most retail software assumes a customer buys one of something. Produce and farm supply retail does not work that way.
A customer wants nine kilos out of the bulk bin. Another wants four metres of cable off the roll. A third wants half a bale, because half a bale is what fits in the ute. None of those are a scan of a barcode.
We hear how stores handle this today. Someone works it out on a calculator and types in a dollar amount. Or there is a shortcut key set up years ago with a price that has not been reviewed since. Or the item goes through as one unit and the difference is absorbed. Each of those costs money quietly.
Selling by weight, length and fraction is a core part of our produce software. The item is set up once with its unit of measure and its price per unit. At the counter your team enters the quantity, or takes it from the scale, and the software does the rest. The sale is accurate, the stock on hand drops by the right amount, and the gross profit on the line is right.
That last point is where the value sits. If bulk sales go through as dollar amounts, your reports cannot tell you what you made. Category performance, supplier performance and margin by line all rely on the quantity being real.
There are three practical things worth thinking about in your own produce /stockfeed / farm supply business.
The first is your unit of measure. Decide whether you buy and sell in the same unit, and set the software up to handle the conversion if you do not. A tonne in, kilos out, is common and easily handled.
The second is who is allowed to override a price. Bulk sales are where discounting creeps in. Being able to see who did what, and when, is worth having.
The third is your scales. Where a scale is doing the weighing, the software should be taking the weight rather than your team reading it and typing it. Fewer keystrokes, fewer errors.
None of this is exotic. It is the basic requirement of selling bulky goods, and it is the first thing we show in a demonstration for a produce business, because a system that cannot do it properly will cost you every day it is in place.
If you are selling by weight, length or fraction today, tell me how you handle it now and we will tell you honestly whether we are a better fit. If we are not, we will say so.
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Contact us: sales@towersystems.com.au or 1300 662 957 or research us: www.towersystems.com.au. Locally made. Locally supported.
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