Retailing is such fun. You get to surround yourself with great merchandise (of course it’s great – you bought it) and introduce it to your staff and your customers who love your selections. You get to display it and watch as your customers happily march to your register and pay for your items. What could be better?
Well, all of the above would be better if you were actually making money. It’s not good enough to sell merchandise if you constantly have more invoices to pay than income from your sales. I’m sure that, like most retailers, you wonder why that continues to be the situation – month after month.
The simple truth is that retailers love to buy. And the reps encourage you to buy MORE! When you do, you feel good, you feel powerful. The reps play to your ego in so many ways. If you allow it to happen, you’ll overbuy every time.
The only way to stop this cycle is with open to buy planning. As soon as you set up your open to buy plan you’ll know where your current inventory is out of balance and where your future orders are out of whack. Sure, this is difficult information to process, but just remember it’s your money and so get busy getting you house in order. That means clearing out old, non-selling items and canceling orders that will not really be needed. The reps will object and try to change your mind, but stand firm. It’s your money!
With a good open to buy plan in place you will now know HOW MUCH to buy. You certainly know what to buy, but it’s buying the right quantities that will insure your success.
If you have an open to buy program and are still struggling, you need to switch to myotbplan.com. If you don’t have an open to buy program, you need myotbplan.com. Our program is easy to use, has Help on every screen, is accessible from any device, is more accurate than the others, has support 10 hours every day of the year, requires NO contract and is guaranteed to improve your buying, inventory position and cash flow. There’s no risk, but great rewards.
myotbplan.com will turn your store into a money machine – guaranteed! Let’s talk.