Quick tips to increase your stores revenues

Retail is hard and sometimes very unreliable.  Here are some quick tips to make sure you maximize all of your opportunities and boost your store revenue.

1. The cash wrap.

It’s the oldest trick in the book and one followed by almost all stores selling all kinds of merchandise.  How often do you change up your product assortment at the cash wrap?  Try some low price but high value/need items such as fashion tape, or your best selling shape wear line.  Special and unique jewelry also does well such as fun cocktail rings displayed in a way that encourages the customer to try them on and get attached while they are waiting to pay.  Cards such as birthday, thank you and any other occasion that your customers might be purchasing a gift for is a no-brainer.  Just make sure you offer free gift wrapping as well.

2. Customer notes.

Everybody loves to be recognized.  Train your staff to do this as well as keep notes on their size, their likes and dislikes, special upcoming events, and their favorite brands.  When to new arrivals come in, search your customer database for customers who might like that item.  An excel spreadsheet is a fast and easy way to organize these preferences if your POS doesn’t have this capability.

3. Team training and rewards.

From time to time, customers may be reacting to how your staff is treating or neglecting certain product.  If you have merchandise that is not selling and you can’t understand why, tell your staff more info about it.  Run a contest with the sales team and reward the highest selling staff member with a special treat.  You’ll be amazed what a little motivation does to that slow moving item on the floor.

4. Mark down slow moving items.

We all make mistakes from time to time and every once in a while, your customers may not love an item as much as you did.  After you exhaust the avenues of extra training, incentives, and possibly even a swap with the manufacturer depending on time, terms, and relationships, markdowns are needed and important.  Sometimes inventory turn is more profitable and important then just looking at straight margin for the long term health of the store.  Additionally, markdowns are the fastest way to freshen up the store and make everything look new again once the items are gone.

5. Mind your best sellers, always!

It is so important to understand what customers are reacting to and making sure you have enough of it to fill their demand.  Keep an eye on all your best selling items and make sure to stock them accordingly.  Best sellers are your clearest way to high profits and a good business as they become almost certain cash.  Why wouldn’t you keep them in stock – it’s a no brainer! 

6. Automate your reorders.

Being able to react quickly to customer needs and wants is really important.  With new mobile technology and extensive internet availability, it is more important now then ever to be able to transact with a customer at the exact moment he or she wishes to purchase.  If you allow them to walk out of the store without an item they want, competition is so fierce that most likely, you’ll loose them forever.  Check out www.thestockflock.com and sign up to find out when our automatic reorder system will be available.  It will change the way you manage your inventory and increase sales in the process. Plus it’s FREE!

To higher revenues!

Kate

The evolution of the POS (point of sale).

Back in January, I decided to fly to NYC for a day and walk the expo floor of the National Retail Federation's Big Show.  First off, that was the biggest show I have ever attended in any industry and second, if you are in the business of selling anything, I suggest subscribing to their newsletter if you don't already (and while you're there, check out shop.org).


 I attended the show so I could attain some information about points of sale and more specifically, if the current POS is moving to a more "open" format.  My idea about The Stock Flock is to one day partner with a progressive POS provider and have our database pre-loaded with that POS partner's package.  The exciting point is that yes, all new POS systems are open and many of the old have API's!  Great news, but what does this mean for you?


1.  Shift in the market is towards open, cloud based POS systems.  This is great because the days of having a server run your business is close to being over.  Cloud technology is faster, cheaper, more efficient, and has the ability to be accessed from anywhere (think checking sales on your iPhone while lying on a beach without the headache of calling in).  
2.  Shift towards handheld devices.  These have been around a long time especially in electronic stores such as Best Buy, but did you ever think of arming your staff with a iPhone, iPad or some other handheld credit card swiping machine?  I think these are great for retail events out of the store as well as big sales or special occasions.
3. Integration with cross-channel partners.  Gone are the days of the excuse that I don't want a website because my inventory online won't match what's going on in the store.  The more open POS systems will be able to integrate your inventory into the backend of your website.  


What is the current POS systemt you use in your store?  What are the good things and the items that you wish you could change if given the opportunity?  Let us know!  


For all inventory availability issues, check out our solution and let us know if we could help make your store more profitable!


Cheers!
Kate

Survival of the fittest

Founding, owning, and operating a boutique or clothing company during this economic downturn is not something for the faint of heart for sure.  It’s not just about pretty clothes it’s about business and adapting your strategy based on what works and what doesn’t.  We have indentified two basic categories that lead to success and failure and thought we’d share these with you.

Things you can control

            Expenses:  If you boil the business down, it comes out to be Revenue – Expenses = profit.  Expenses are the fastest easiest way to control that equation and our favorite point to start for everybody is the real estate game.  Negotiate the rents until there is nothing left to negotiate then be ready to leave if that is an option for you if you can’t get the rent where you need it to be.  Some landlords are now even willing to tie your rent to a percentage of your sales.  Anything less then 12% is considered a pretty great deal and under 10% is stellar!  There are other expenses to review from labor costs and conversions to simple things such as getting the best deal on hangtag printing.  The lower the expenses, the greater the profit!

            Promotions/Marketing: In the above equation, promotions and marketing efforts should help increase your revenue.  However, beware of common mistakes that are made in marketing such as forgetting to put a phone number or address on a piece of collateral.  Click here for a great list of three examples of poormarketing. 

            Training a great staff: A great staff is easier said then done.  We found these great tips to help with some ideas.   

            Vendor relationships:  The importance of finding both a great product and a great vendor can never be overvalued.  The WallStreet Journal had some great points on the importance of the relationship between a vendor and their merchant.

Product mix:  If you are a specialty boutique, product mix is easily the number one differentiator from your competitors.  Once you get the staff and vendor relationships down, your expenses, product mix, and promotions/marketing need to be constantly reviewed and worked on in order to have the best business possible.

           

Things you can’t control:

            Losing customers – Although your marketing and promotions, having a great staff, and having the best mix of product possible greatly improve your chances, there still might be the possibility of loosing a customer along the way.  We like to bring this up because this is a different thought process then usual

How to determine the cost of one lost customer.  We estimate that up to 20% of ales are lost on a weekly basis and that’s just sales!  What if you lost a first time customer’s sale?  Do you know how much that would be worth to you?  Let’s do a little back of the envelope math, shall we?

1.       What is your average sale?  example:  $75

2.       How many times/yr does your average customer buy?  ex:  3

3.       What is the average lifetime of your customers (how many years)?  ex:  3

So now, let’s multiply #1x#2 then take the answer and multiply again by your 3^rd response.    Total=$675

Total is pretty high, right?  Well the other thing to consider is that in the age of social media, that one customer is most likely going to tell their friends about their experience. So let’s pretend they tell 5 friends that are actively listening and 3 of them were thinking about shopping in your store but now are not.  The actual total of that 1 lost customer is really $2700 (675x3 + 675).  Pretty important!

This leads us to the secret and deadly player that isn’t mentioned in our simple equation but is eluded to = INVENTORY.  How to you handle Inventory?  It’s all about the inventory turn, having the right product mix, and having access to the inventory that your suppliers have on hand to reduce the amount of lost transactions that occur due to insufficient inventory.  The Stock Flock offers a solution to the last piece of the puzzle and will help you better manage your inventory and capture more customers.

Enjoy!

“There are many ways to succeed, but there’s only way to fail—financial.”

Old vs. New

In the world of fashion, there are two extremes:  the new and trendy and the old and vintage and anything in the middle is considered horrific, or is it?  Let’s think through a few different possibilities and how to turn the horrific into fabulous again.

Have some end of season merchandise hanging in your store or warehouse?

1. Get rid of it

            Liquidate – Whether it be in your store, selling it to an off price store (Fox’s, TJMaxx etc), or checking with your contacts such as sales reps for info on where they sell of their samples, get rid of it!  One of my favorite business consultants Jane Hamill gets it right when she says to take a loss – some cash is better than no cash!

Retail events – Retail events occur fairly regularly in many cities throughout the country.  These are great places to meet new customers and clear old merchandise without your store or brand in question.  If you choose to build your email list through these events, we suggest adding a list for “clearance or sale” customers so you can market to them appropriately.

Clearance sale- Although the ultimate goal is to have all customers buy your merchandise full price, it’s realistic.  Especially when sizes are involved, stores often times rely on the right person to have the right body type at the right time and this simply doesn’t always happen.  Twice a year for a clearance sale is pretty normal (check out Nordstrom’s twice yearly sale) and a good way to reward some of your best customers with priority notice or pre-shopping benefits.  Remember to notify those customers on your sale or clearance list after your top shoppers have been through!

2.  Buy it

            Closeouts – it’s all about the blended margin.  A great resource for finding high margin goods since you can get it for less are closeout sales.  Look at this for basics and things you know you can sell.  Why not make some of these items private label?  Check out Retail Minded for a great description of the difference between liquidation and closeouts

Vendor sales on old or past seasons – Ask your top selling lines if they have any merchandise from prior seasons or returns from other stores of your top selling merchandise and get it back in the store at a better price. 

If old stuff is so bad, then new stuff must be awesome! Right?!?

           

How many turns do you try for a year?  Most boutiques are looking for 4/year based on the seasonality of their business, but what if you could pull more?  Inventory turn  is the life blood of any product intensive business and the key to success.  All decisions should be made based on how fast it will turn and produce a profit. 

Happy shopping!