You think you need MORE merchandise. You don’t want to miss a sale. Your vendors want you to buy MORE of their products. They push you in that direction with all sorts of fallacious reasoning. So, you try to fill your store with as much merchandise as possible. But is that really the way to go?
You need more displays and less inventory. Displays take more space. Displays are your best sales persons. Displays cost you almost nothing and have a major impact on the look of your store and on your customers’ thinking. The first things a customer spots when they come into your store are your displays.
Having additional merchandise packed onto racks, shelves and in drawers is a waste of your money. Having great displays and the right amount of merchandise available will always mean success. The trick is always knowing how much merchandise you need and then displaying it in a manner that whets the appetite of your customer. Following this path will lead to greater turnover of your invested capital and additional profits.
There’s only one way to determine the optimum quantity of merchandise to keep on hand at any given time in each of your merchandise departments and that is open to buy planning. Open to buy will clearly show you how much merchandise you need to buy in each category each month for the next 12 months to insure that the inventory on hand at the beginning of each month is correct to support the sales you expect at the turn rates you want to achieve.
Turnover is the critical element in this mix. The more you turn, the more you make. Your store is simply your means of making money and if you don’t treat it as such you are really wasting your time. By continuing to raise your turnover, you will continue to grow your income. So, the right amount of merchandise with better (and more) displays is your answer. Let open to buy determine your optimum inventory levels and your buying plan and put your creativity to work making displays that lead your customers to buy MORE.
You’ll find that LESS merchandise on the floor will mean MORE money in your bank account.