Every retailer wants to succeed, but how can they make it happen? More customers? More inventory? More sales? More advertising? Better personnel? Better displays? Better weather?
Yes, there are a lot of factors in retail success and you can only control a few. You can work toward all of them, but there’s only a certain amount of influence you will have on what happens. And if you consider the list above, they all require additional expenditures.
So, what is success? To get to this answer, you must determine why you are in business. Many small retailers are retailers because they love their products and enjoy the interface with the customers. Actually, if you talk to 100 retailers, you’d probably get 100 answers. In truth, there is only one answer and that is “to make money”.
Retailing is a means to an end. If your store doesn’t make money, you’re better off taking a job or going on vacation (if you already have lots of money). Why work all day long, all week long, all year long, only to lose money?
OK, back to business. Yes, you can spend to improve your traffic and that may make a difference, but the way to succeed in retail (make money) is to make sure you not only buy the right items to keep your customers coming back, but you absolutely need to buy the right quantities so you keep your inventory lean, balanced and turning, your markdowns minimal and your cash flow positive.
So, as they say in sports, sometimes the best offense is a good defense. In retail terms that would mean buying the right items in the right quantities to support your sales, achieve higher turnover and a positive cash flow. Now I realize many retailers live to buy! There’s so much great merchandise out there and the reps want you to have plenty. One thing that hurts retailers is their desire to never miss a sale. You cannot be all things to all people or you will quickly find that you cannot pay your bills and will be closing your doors. If you’re doing the best possible job of moving your store toward success, you will miss some sales. Just concentrate on all the sales you ARE making.
There’s only one way to control your buying and that is open to buy planning. Many retailers are familiar with the terminology, but too few utilize it. If you’ve followed our blog, you know we offer the best open to buy available. It’s easy to understand and use, accurate, accessible, affordable, well supported and guaranteed. No one offers the package that we do.
So, if you want to achieve retail success you need open to buy planning. If you want the easiest, least time consuming, most accurate open to buy, you want MYOTBPLAN.COM. Give us a call at 310-829-5148 and let us answer your questions. You have nothing to lose and success is within your grasp.