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Here's how to improve stock efficiency in your store
Managing your stock using ShopMate is faster and more efficient than managing it manually, with many more benefits to help improve your store’s performance.
If you don’t already use ShopMate to manage stock what’s the best way to get all your existing products listed?
The fastest way to get set up is to do an initial stock count – Using a hand-held scanner is the easiest method. Work systematically through each department, remembering to count the stockroom, hot food and deep freeze units.
Stock Re-order/OrderMaster
Having your stock listed on your EPoS makes reordering really quick – ShopMate will advise which lines are running low – you can place an order directly through the till or BackOffice.
To reorder, use the re-order report (Other Function > Administration > Reports > Reports > Re-order Report ), a product can be set up to have a minimum stock level and once stock meets the requirement it will be added to your order, you can control how often each product gets reordered, The product management under stock Details > Re-Order Information can control that.
Multiple products can be grouped together and the same process can be used as a Product Group Re-order, there is a report for this as well called ‘Product Group Re-order Report’. In these 2 reports, you can create an order from the report, but for the ‘Re-order Report’ you are able to add these products to an existing order.
Price Updates
Your ShopMate system is linked to your wholesaler price file. ShopMate can tell you each morning if items should be re-priced. As soon as the notification arrives you can print your shelf edge labels quickly and efficiently. If your stock isn’t listed in ShopMate, you won’t be notified and your prices can quickly get outdated. Staying on top of price changes can help keep your store competitive, compliant and ensure healthy margins.
Fire/Flood/Insurance Claims
ShopMate keeps a record of your stock and automatically backs it up to the cloud each night. In the even that your store suffers a flood or fire and you need to make an insurance claim, your stock file could ensure you are able to claim for the full product contents in your store.
Analysis of Best Sellers/Slow Lines
Many retailers think they know what sells – but It’s easy to be subconsciously biased – perhaps your manager notices everyone who purchases the same flavour drink that they like themselves. No sales assistant can give you feedback so specific that you can use to improve sales figures.
The best way to track your bestsellers or slow movers is to keep an accurate record of sales that you can analyse and compare later – you might be surprised to discover how small tweaks to your stock could improve your sales . Might the branded peanut butter sell better than the unbranded? Do baked beans sell faster when there are three varieties to choose between?
Have a look at the Management Portal/product tab – Here you can sort all products every sold by ‘date last sold’ and see what’s sold in a period. That’ll help you know which seasonal products sold before Christmas – and which ones sold afterwards. To access reports go to: Other Functions, Administration, Reports, then Reports. You can use the Top and Slow Sellers Report.
How do you keep your stock levels up to date day by day?
Your wholesaler will provide you with an automatic delivery note through ShopMate – you can check off the delivery and approve it. This will add all the items on the list into your stock file. Other Function/Manage Stock/OrderMaster/CollectNotes.
Orders placed via ShopMate will generate a receipt on the system that can be booked in This is also true for depot and web orders – as long as your supplier supports electronic delivery notes.
How can you monitor shrinkage/theft using your stock file?
Are you sure that selling premium lines is profitable? What if your shrinkage actually takes so much profit away that even stocking a premium line becomes pointless? Perhaps shrinkage isn’t affecting you as much as you might expect Are you sure you know? Could shrinkage be reduced if certain lines were repositioned? You can only monitor and learn if the stock file is current.
Do you have to stock take regularly?
Traditional stocktaking was time consuming. It used to be that you had to get all the team in, count the entire stock in the store and stockroom each year – it used to take all night! But it doesn’t have to be this way now.
You can plan a regular rotation of stock checking by category or even per bay. Using a hand-held scanner like the Memor means you can keep track of the stock you have. Your team will spot end of line items, gaps, or shelf edge errors and be able to clean as they go – there are lots of advantages.
The Memor will track ‘live’ sales so if you have a count of 5 mars bars but sell 2 before you sync the HHT, ShopMate will know that you now only have 3 left - so stocktakes no can be done during your regular opening hours.
You might find regular stock counting to be a useful process on short date items as each item’s date can be checked at the same time. Regularly checking items can also highlight stock that is on promotion.
If you simply scan an item with the Memor, you can see how many there are in stock – so you can see if you can top up the shelf display from stock without also having to check the stockroom for each line.
Are there any further benefits?
Yes! Being able to analyse your sales gives you more insights – you can use the information from your sales to analyse how much space to dedicate to each category. Since the subtle arrangement of items can mean the difference between a successful or a failing store, knowing about your category performance is crucial. You will need several months of operations with a full product file – so get started today.
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