Retail is supposed to be exciting.
There are customers to meet, products to discover, displays to create, and those great days when everything seems to click.
But then there’s inventory control.
For many independent retailers, keeping inventory accurate can feel like a never-ending job. Purchase orders arrive, merchandise gets transferred, products are sold, returns happen, tags disappear, and somewhere along the way the numbers in your POS stop matching what is actually sitting on your shelves.
And that’s more than an inconvenience.
Inventory is one of the biggest investments in your retail business.
When your inventory records aren’t accurate, you may believe you have merchandise available when you don’t—or think you’re out of something that’s actually sitting somewhere in the store.
Either way, inaccurate inventory can cost you sales, cash, and profitability.
Start With the Foundation: Your POS Setup
Good inventory control begins long before the first sale.
Review your Department/Class/Subclass structure and make sure every product has a clear place. Your POS fields should also have specific purposes, and product information should be entered consistently.
Even something as simple as entering “black” several different ways can make reporting, searching, and analyzing inventory unnecessarily difficult.
Consistency creates clarity.
Get Purchasing and Receiving Right
Inventory problems can begin before merchandise even reaches the sales floor.
When entering purchase orders, check whether products already exist in your system before creating new items. Make sure costs, retail prices, descriptions, and other important information are accurate.
And when merchandise arrives, make sure what you receive matches what was ordered.
The cleaner your information is at the beginning, the more confidence you can have in the reports you use later.
Make Every Sale Count Correctly
A barcode doesn’t scan. A tag is missing. The line is getting longer.
Someone rings up a different product at the same price because it seems “close enough.”
But it isn’t.
The customer may leave happy, while your inventory records become less accurate.
Train your team to properly locate products when something doesn’t scan and pay attention to generic or “junk” items being used as shortcuts.
Every transaction should reduce the inventory of the product that actually left your store.
Track Every Movement
Transfers between locations, vendor returns, samples, donations, demos, and other adjustments all affect inventory.
If merchandise physically leaves your stock, your system needs to know about it.
For multi-store retailers especially, transfers should be carefully monitored so quantities leaving one location match what arrives at another.
Trust Your Reports—But Verify Them
Inventory control isn’t something you fix once and forget.
Review receiving reports, on-hand reports, negative inventory, adjustments, transfers, and unusual transactions regularly.
And don’t rely exclusively on your annual physical inventory.
If discrepancies appear, use cycle counts throughout the year to investigate individual departments, vendors, or categories before small problems become larger ones.
Most importantly, put someone in charge.
A properly trained system administrator who takes ownership of inventory accuracy can make an enormous difference.
Better Inventory Creates Better Opportunities
The purpose of inventory control isn’t simply to make your POS numbers look cleaner.
Accurate inventory helps you:
• Keep the right products available for customers
• Identify slow inventory and free up trapped cash
• Reduce shrinkage and unnecessary losses
• Evaluate merchandise and vendor performance more accurately
• Create stronger Open-to-Buy plans
• Make better purchasing decisions
• Improve sales and profitability
At Retail Smart Guys, we believe inventory shouldn’t control your business.
You should control your inventory.
We combine data, technology, and decades of real retail experience to help retailers understand what is happening inside their businesses and what they should do next.
That’s why we believe:
Actual Intelligence + Artificial Intelligence = Retail Smart Guys
But inventory isn’t simply numbers on a report. It’s your investment, your employees’ work, your customers’ experience, and the cash you need to keep building your business.
That’s why we approach inventory planning with Planning With Heart.
Better Plans, Better People, Better Pricing
Actual Intelligence + Artificial Intelligence = Retail Smart Guys
If you’re wondering where the cash for your next marketing campaign, new employee, store improvement, or growth opportunity might come from, take another look at your inventory.
The opportunity may already be sitting on your shelves.
Get a FREE first hour of setup.
Best,
Dan Jablons
Retail Smart Guys
Cell: 818-720-2585
