Shocking? Not really. The one thing retailers can count on is change. Even though we’d like things to stay stable, they never do.
Shopping centers, enclosed malls, Walmart, big box stores, discounters, online retailers, climate change, style changes, customer flight, customer aging, and the list goes on. I’m sure you can add many items that have shaken and continue to shake up your world.
The one thing you want to count on staying stable (or growing) is your bottom line. If you want to keep your cash flow positive, you must be reflexive and reactive to anything that comes your way in terms of change. If you don’t, you’ll be in big trouble and maybe throw in the towel. I hope not because there’s always an answer.
You cannot sit back and expect what has happened today to happen tomorrow. It might, but there’s a high likelihood that it won’t. You need to be on top of your customer’s needs, market trends, weather trends, competition and everything else that is making its way to your customers to pull them away from your store.
And whether your business is experiencing growth or pulling back, your most important job is to be sure that your inventory is adequate to support sales and meet desired turnover rates. That can be tough to do because there’s a tendency to want to buy more than needed to insure that every customer is satisfied, but that’s a recipe for disaster.
The only way to properly plan and control your buying is with open to buy planning. This process is based on your anticipated sales and desired turn rates. If you buy within the plan limits, you will always have the right amount of inventory to support sales, give you the turn you seek, reduce markdowns and yield a positive cash flow.
The only open to buy system that is guaranteed to keep your buying, inventory and cash flow right on target is MYOTBPLAN.COM. Not only is it guaranteed, but it’s also the easiest, most accurate, most accessible and best supported open to buy plan available. And it pays for itself in a few hours.
Retail can be the greatest experience and the most fun you’ll ever have, or it can be a living hell. If you use MYOTBPLAN.COM, you’ll be well prepared for any changes the universe throws at you. And you’ll always come away a winner.