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ProphetLine POS has been our lifeline for seven years in our four retail stores. The software is robust and offers many more functions and ...
Read MoreWhether it’s investing in new POS Software to make your business run more efficiently with less effort or reducing your overhead so you are a survivor and not road kill, you have to do what it takes to be around and relevant. This is not an easy time for small business people, but you have probably seen it before and you will probably see it again. You might have been in business in the 1970’s when the oil crisis, savings and loan disaster and 22% interest caused a 45% decline in the stock market or the late nineties when the dot com crash cause a 30% fall off and after 9/11 when we saw a 25% drop in the market value. The business people that went through this and adapted to the events usually came out stronger when the economy made the rebound that it always does. I will repeat, to be relevant, you need to be around.
Quit brooding and start doing the basic things that will keep you relevant. Do a once over on your store design, maintenance, layout of merchandise and employee training. All merchandise that has been in your store for any length of time needs to be put on sale for whatever you can get and that money reinvested in quick turning, high margin items that are totally different from what the big box retailers carry. If you have tried to be something to everyone, stop!! Do a departmental income statement in your POS Software and carry and enhance the high margin, quick turning inventory. Do a vendor performance check in your retail stock ledger and say adios to those that are bad money makers. Remember your slogan for next year, "To be relevant, you need to be around."
Brother, this isn’t brain surgery and you are not getting an inferior, stripped down, lesser priced product, you are getting award winning ProphetLine POS Software. Retailers, whose margins are under more pressure than ever, have experienced some tough cost cutting lately. While some closed their doors, others embraced new technology developments to turn their operations around. Not surprisingly, POS Software has become the focal point of the retail operation. This is where errors in retail transactions can be controlled, and it is where the customer’s last impression is made by checkout time, accuracy, and ease of transaction.
Also, today’s POS Software has become instrumental in gathering customer data to use in the four major marketing decisions that store managers must make: product, price, place, and promotion. These are the variables that can be worked with to attract and retain customers.
The ills of the economy are going to be short term but your potential for growth are going to start the middle of 2009 and you will need help from POS/Retail Management Software. Now is the time to implement a strategy and find ways that are not cost prohibitive to transform your business processes and keep your expenses low until this turn around occurs. The only two reliable and efficient ways to improve your business sales and cash flow are to market more to existing customers or expand your geographical territory by making your products and services available through the Internet.
Capturing information with your POS Software is essential to mining more business from your existing customer base. Your customers will gladly give you some personal information if they know that preferential treatment or special pricing is the end result. Notifying them of new product arrivals, private showings or a pending sale are a few of the ways to build your customer loyalty and keep them shopping with you and not your competitor.
The next best way to improve your business is to implement an easy to maintain and efficient Internet presence. A brick and mortar retailer can expect a ten percent increase in sales, according to industry averages, within the first year if the web store is properly worked and maintained and it needs to be integrated with your POS Software at an economical price. It’s just another way to get your product line in front of the buying public.
If you are interested in doing the above changes, the ProphetLine POS Software Company will work with you to make these changes as painless as possible and fit with your budget.
A small retailer can take a look at their store and wonder how in the world they are ever going to compete with that big box retailer down the street.. But you might have more in common with the mega chain than you might think. You may be surprised to learn that so-called “Big Box Retailers” are not computerized any better than you can be for a price that is totally inline and the dividends far exceed them. The right POS Software in the hands of a diligent retail store owner can give them a return on their investment in as little as six months and provide at least a 10 percent boost to their bottom line. Just installing a point of sale/retail management system imposes certain controls on your business that improve profitability. Spending the time to learn and take advantage of its many capabilities brings even more returns.
Of course, POS Software doesn’t do this all by itself. It takes commitment, not just of the dollars required (which you’ll quickly recover) but of the time and resources to learn about and use your new system. First make sure you select a quality Point of Sale System that has all the functionality you need. Then invest the time you once spent drowning in paper to making use of your new system, and you’ll soon enjoy increased margins, sales and profits — probably even better than Wal-Mart’s!
Remember the old saying, plan your work and work your plan. That is exactly what open to buy planning does. Your POS Software and the built in open to buy planning will give you the tools you need to change your purchasing habits from buying more merchandise, to buying the right merchandise. The end result should be products that turn fast, have good margins and give you a good sell through percentage.
Buying the right merchandise at the right time can only be accomplished by knowing how your merchandise and vendors are performing. This helps you eliminate overbuying and gives you the right product mix. If you carry multiple like items in a department from different vendors, you need to identify your best performing vendors and eliminate much of the product from your poorer performing vendors. After your plan is developed and you have forecast your open to buy dollars, you need to revisit this plan frequently and make it a work in progress. Evaluating the amount of inventory and the product mix can be fairly simple if the POS Software you use is seamless and fully integrated with your open to buy.
Lousy Economy With Good POS Software Keeps You Going Patience is not always a virtue when you are dealing with a lousy economy. You need patience to not force things that cannot happen, but you need to be aggressive in how you are proactively changing your business strategy and doing a better job with the budgeting process. You need to be able to view quick and concise reports from your POS Software that will give you revenue at a departmental and class level as a percentage to your overall inventory. When you find department "A" is 20% of your inventory and 10% of your revenue, you need to do a more in-depth review of that department and make the proper adjustments. The most important thing you should do is compare vendors and find the ones that give you better turns, sell through and margins. If vendor "A" is not as strong as vendor "B", you should tell them and require better pricing or better terms to continue carrying their product line. Good POS Software will give you these statistics and make your New Year a more enjoyable experience. Your goal this year should be to work smart and make the kind of decisions that will move your business to a leadership position in your category. When the economy turns around next year, you will then be in the enviable spot of competitors trying to catch you.
Rudolph Flesch once said that, Creativity may simply be the realization there’s no particular virtue to doing things the way they’ve always been done. In this tough retail climate, you have to think out of the box and do things in a way you might not have done in a good economy. Don’t hold status quo just because that is the way you have always conducted your business. Creativity can mean the way your retail floor space is laid out or your merchandise displayed, greeting your customers at the front door and being pro-active rather than having them come to you. Promote gift cards and use the data collected with your POS Software to better understand your customer buying habits and product preferences.
Selling more to your good customers is the easiest way to improve sales. The bottom line is the need to better understand your good customers and use this information to be creative and call them for a private showing or inform them of a new product line that will be arriving that would be perfect for them. No matter what size your company, building and nurturing a base of Loyal Customers through targeted marketing efforts contributes to a better bottom line. Information gathered with POS Software is how the most profitable companies separate themselves from the pack.
There is a saying in aviation, "There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots." That same theory holds true for retailers in a recessionary period. You can be bold and stock inventory that might appeal to a small group of early adaptors or be conservative and stock inventory that will turn fast and appeal to more people that are shopping for good value and universal appeal. Your POS Software should watch your inventory and purchasing decisions by using the POS transactions and showing you logical actions to take to be a consummate retailer. You don’t need a technical staff and professional buyers to make good purchasing decisions. You just need information that is simple to obtain and easy to understand. If you are not using a good Retail Stock Ledger, you are not maximizing your revenues.
This single sheet of paper can give you comparatives on vendors, items, classes, and departments. Who gives you the best turn rates and sell-through, vendor A or Vendor B? You now have the knowledge to make smart business decisions. The typical retailer is overstocked by 10-25% at any given point in time, meaning that for every $100,000 in sales, there can be $5,000 to $25,000 (at retail) in excess inventory on the shelves. When you start looking at $500,000 in sales, the wasted investment runs into six figures. Imagine converting $100,000 of excess inventory into cash. Let your POS Software be your workhorse and give you the information to chart a course in rough waters.
