Inventory management is an essential part of running a retail store. Regardless of what domain your business belongs to, you will need to have a sufficient stock of products in your inventory. Excessive stocks or a shortage of stocks can lead to a variety of problems. The former case results in a rise in costs, and the latter impedes the shopping experience for customers.
So how do you efficiently manage your store’s inventory? The answer is with a POS software solution. It is a program that encompasses powerful, easy-to-use features for managing inventory. With just a few clicks of a button, you can control all aspects of your inventory. Let’s take a closer look at how in detail.
Track products
Stocks must be purchased at the right time. Procrastinating this action can leave your inventory devoid of a particular stock for a long period of time. After making the purchase, it helps to keep track of where the goods are. That includes knowing whether the goods have been dispatched from the supplier and where they are in transit.
Using a POS system, you can see the status of your purchase. The software’s integration with GPS devices lets you know where your goods are. Furthermore, it shows you an approximate estimated time of delivery.
Stock up on the right items
Your inventory may contain a good amount of merchandise, but the important question is – do customers want to purchase those goods? Stocking up on low-demand products will result in low sales. Hence it is crucial to understand what your customers purchase the most. Thereafter you can focus on stocking up on those items.
A POS solution scours through the purchase history of your customers and identifies buying trends. Based on that, it shows you what products customers purchase the most and what products they purchase the least. Using this information, you can optimize what stocks you procure. This results in higher sales and better customer satisfaction.
Arrange products
After stocking up on products, you will need to arrange them on the shelves in your store. At this point in time, it is important to know how popular each item is. For example, if chips are immensely popular, it is a good idea to arrange them towards the front of the store. Furthermore, you must keep a log of where your items are.
With a Point of Sale software solution, you can map out your products in your store. Whenever you need to find a particular item from the aisle or need to help a customer in locating it, you can quickly look it up in the software.
Automate stock purchase
Traditional methods of managing stocks are cumbersome. They require intensive manual effort. They take up a lot of time and are prone to errors. Those methods include the use of spreadsheet software and paper-based tools. When you use them, you will need to constantly check the number of items in your inventory. And depending on what items are running low, you will need to place a purchase order for those products.
That is not the case when you use a retail billing software solution. It automatically updates stock numbers in real-time. What’s even better is that it can autonomously detect fast-depleting products and send out auto-filled purchase forms to suppliers.
Manage damaged goods
Returning or exchanging goods with a supplier is a hassle when done manually. It involves numerous forms. On the contrary, with a POS solution, you can quickly pull up the item you want to return and issue it to the supplier who dispatched it. It’s a simple and straightforward process that saves you a great deal of time.
Conclusion
Effective inventory management in your retail store leads to lesser costs and better customer satisfaction. It gives you an idea of how buying trends change over seasons, what items are ideal to have in stock and how to drive up sales. If you’re looking for a world-class POS system that can holistically take care of your inventory, then I highly recommend SmartPOS. It is cloud-enabled, rich in features, comes with full support, and is highly secure. Visit SmartPOS’s website to know more.
