Halloween has crept up on Australian retail. When we started out, 31 October was just another day. Now there are costumes in the shops, plastic skeletons in the garden centre and kids at the door expecting lollies.
The things that actually scare us in a shop don’t wear costumes, though. They hide in the stockroom and the supplier invoices, and some of them have been there for years.
Ghost stock
The system says you have four. The shelf says none. Nobody sold them, or at least nobody rang them up.
Ghost stock is sneaky because your POS won’t reorder something it thinks you still have. So the gap stays on the shelf, and a customer asks for it on a busy Saturday. Count your fast sellers every few weeks rather than waiting for the annual stocktake to give you a fright.
Zombie stock
Every shop has a few lines that won’t die. They’ve been on the shelf so long they’ve faded. You walk past them every day and stop seeing them.
Run a report of anything that hasn’t sold in 90 days. It’s rarely pleasant reading. Discount it, bundle it with something that sells, or send it back if the supplier will take it. That space and that cash are worth more doing something else.
Vampire costs
This one drains you slowly. A supplier puts a line up by 40 cents, then another goes up by a dollar. Nobody tells you, and the new price sits quietly on the invoice.
I’ve seen retailers absorb increases for six months without noticing. Check invoices against your cost prices when stock comes in, and adjust the sell price that day while you’re thinking about it.
The haunted till
The drawer opens and there’s no sale. A refund appears with no receipt. Usually there’s a boring explanation. Every so often there isn’t.
Your void, refund and no-sale reports will tell you who, when and how often. You don’t need to be suspicious of your team. You just need to look now and then.
The witching hour
It’s 6.15pm. The door is locked, your feet hurt, and you still need to balance the day. If that takes an hour with a calculator and a shoebox of dockets, your system is letting you down. It should take ten minutes.
Skeleton staff
Three people on a dead Tuesday morning and two on a flat-out Saturday afternoon. Most rosters are built on habit. Pull your sales by hour and day and roster to what the data shows, not to what you’ve always done.
While you’re at it, sell some Halloween stock
Halloween is now a real trading event for gift shops, newsagents, toy shops and garden centres. Put Halloween lines at the front of the shop for the last week of October, and put lollies at the counter. On 1 November, mark down whatever is left and clear it. Packing it away for next year just creates next year’s zombie stock.
Then look at what sold, so next year’s order is better than a guess.
If any of these sound familiar, we can show you how Tower’s reports bring us out of hiding. Call 1300 662 957 or email sales@towersystems.com.au.
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