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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 MoreIf you are a small retailer in these tough times, you must streamline your business by cutting costs and managing your inventory efficiently. The best way to do that is through information from your POS Software that will provide you with all the management tools to be an extremely informed buyer. A good POS Software package can help you quickly determine your best selling products, how fast your inventory is turning, if proper margins are met, how to buy for your future product demands and how to allocate shelf space. Remember you are a retailer and not an analytical genius, all the reports you need to make these informed decisions should be easy to access, understand and decipher.
Your POS Software should also give you information on your best buying customers so you can send thank you notes and keep your relationship on a personal level that gives them a reason to continue shopping with you. Tough times will not be here forever, but you must make adjustments to weather the storm and be around for the returning good times. When the good economy does return, you will be in the driver’s seat. Good luck and good informed retailing to you!
ProphetLine POS software aids in this task through our Getting Started section and the use of ‘Steps’ to complete the tasks of entering data before you move on to the next section. Example – Departments and Classes should be added prior to adding Inventory Items or each item will need to be re-visited to assign Departments and Classes. Departments and Classes are for reporting and/or Web Shopping classification. Think of a department as the broadest way to categorize your inventory and each department should be a profit center in your retail store. We have also started a section of tutorials that will help you understand what is involved in the initial set-up process.
With this being said, there is still another step that can greatly reduce the amount of time and frustrations setting up your system could cause. Think about how you want your business to look on paper and how our inventory will be organized on your web shopping cart if you decide to put one in.
ProphetLine POS software also provides ‘Testing’ or ‘Training’ data for you to use to see how your ‘ideas’ will work when put in practice. If you are unsure of your setup, add them in the Testing/Training Data and check them out. This gives you the ability to test your setup without creating invalid entries in your ‘live’ data in case you change your mind.
It happens every day, that loyal employee that has been with you for years is caught stealing. The only way this can be avoided is through better hiring practices and more accountability in your POS Software and store systems. If we are truly in a recessionary period, there is pressure on your employees to create more income and this comes at the expense of you, the small retailer. Hopefully you can hold status quo on your revenue this year, but improve on all the outside influences that can affect your bottom line.
If someone told you that good POS Software would put a lot of money in your pocket and you didn’t investigate how, wouldn’t you be short changing your business. Good POS Software has been proven to: lower theft and shrinkage, give you accurate pricing, eliminate inaccurate inventory counts, capture customer marketing information, ensure proper inventory levels and much more. POS Software needs to be thought of as a business necessity and not an expense. If you are one of the fortunate small retailers that can afford to lose this additional revenue, then you are in a great market. Good POS Software will help you get to the next level of profitability. The longer you wait, the more you lose!
The means is the POS software takes all the sales and purchases and puts them in an easy to understand process that is the end result, improved retail performance. As a small retailer, you wear many hats and can’t spend all of your time trying to be an analytical genius. We have built a retailing process that is easy to use and gives you the information needed to improve your retail performance and still have time left over to lead a normal life outside of your business.
Most Point of Sale (POS) software gives you a variety of lists which mean very little because they don’t tie several important factors together. ProphetLine has taken all the information gathered at the inception of the sale and put it into an easy to understand roadmap for success. We do all the heavy lifting by crunching hundreds of variables and you review and make informed decisions. The biggest task the retailer undertakes is defining the department/class structure and reviewing the department/class comparative report of the inventory. Read More…
There is a frightening word going around lately and that is recession. It has been a long time since, we the small American retailer, has had to face this economic pressure. As a small retailer, there are steps to take that will ease the pain of a recession and that is good inventory control. Don’t over buy and analyze your inventory and make it fit the clientele that you cater too. Now is not the time to bring in assortments that don’t fit your base business model. Do your department/class comparatives and make sure the dollar value of each department is in line with the revenue contribution. The pressure is also on your vendors to perform well and now is a good time to make sure they are doing their best to help you promote their products, give you good terms and better margins. Your POS software should give you all the information needed to make the good, tough and informed decisions you need to weather the recession storm.
There isn’t anything new in retail store technology that is so innovative that it guarantees you retail success in 2008. Most retail systems are last year’s model with a different ribbon and a new name. I feel good about where ProphetLine is and where we are going. ProphetLine POS Software is so fully integrated and feature inclusive, you can run a specialty retail store and never need another product. I know our product development this year is in line with what retailers need to get through this tough period and stay strong until the economy is back on the upswing. If you are in the market for POS software tools to help you improve your business processes, now is the time to start.
Several years ago, Wal-Mart discontinued their across the board approach for stocking inventory in all their stores. They finally realized that localizing inventory assortment by the store’s geographic location was far better for continued growth. As a small retailer, you have the advantage of working and living in the area you service. Use your POS software to define your customers and their needs. You can’t be everything to everyone, so use precise information to narrow in on the markets you have an advantage in. Your inventory should be unique and what your customers are asking for, not what you like. Use the three step approach described in an earlier blog and compare department against department, apply that information to your open-to-buy plan and find your best performing vendors.
You need quality information from your POS software to enable you to make the decisions that will allow you to control your niche markets. Big box retailers have cornered the market on cheap, but can’t compete when it comes to being nimble and turning on a dime. When your Retail Stock Ledger tells you that Vendor A has a higher sell through and better turn rate than Vendor B, you now have the information needed to make quick informed buying decisions. Stock less inventory, turn more times and have higher margins is a recipe for success.
The economy is tough and your business is not growing like you want it to. Start with the small things that will improve your business and critique all aspects from the bottom, up. No business can survive without their customer base and keeping existing customers happy should be your number one focus. We are all working so hard on finding new business, we forgot about the potential in maintaining and improving business with the existing customer base. A recent survey indicated it costs six times more to find a new customer than dedicating a small amount of assets to improving service to existing customers. Your POS software should give you all the information you need to make the decisions necessary on which customers to give preferential treatment to. All customers are not the same, so don’t waste valuable time on catering to the bottom feeders.
The next thing you should do is look at your retail business with an open mind and evaluate like a customer would. When you come in the door, is the staff attentive and helpful, is the store neat and orderly, is the inventory selection good for the type of clientele you are seeking? Good POS software can help for some of these issues; common sense should take care of the rest. So start the New Year off right and do one small thing a day to improve your business and look at the difference two months down the road. Your small business is your livelihood, a way of life and your retirement fund. We would like to think, ProphetLine POS Software/Retail Management Systems can help you get there.
Step number one is to do a department/class comparative that gives you the percentage of inventory in each department and the contribution of that department to the overall revenues of the business. If twenty percent of your inventory is in department ‘A’, but it only contributes ten percent to the overall revenue, you have a problem which can easily be corrected. Step two is going to your open-to-buy planning program and make the adjustments necessary for future purchasing. You now have a road map to make good decisions on how much inventory should be in each department. Step three is going to your retail stock ledger and review which vendors perform well with good turns, sell through and robust cumulative gross profits. You can then bargain with the poorer performing vendors for lower pricing or better terms and if they don’t agree, they can be eliminated.
This sounds like a lot of work, except in ProphetLine POS/Retail Management Software it is totally automated and the only thing you need to do is look at this information and take well informed actions. If you are a busy specialty retailer that wears many hats, you can appreciate the ease of use and precise reporting. ProphetLine allows you to do what you do best, sell your products without having the hassles of being a technical guru.
