Tips for Restocking

No matter what industry you work in or where you get your stock, whether it is from a franchise supplier or a site, the most important thing to do is to manage your inventory correctly. You need to know when to restock, how much you need to buy and things of this nature. Buying too little means that you are not going to have products on hand when people want to buy them. Purchasing too much means that you are going to be wasting money that will just sit on the shelves because there is no demand. This can be a fine line to walk, but it is possible.

First, you need to have a daily inventory check schedule. For small stores, this is often a manual check that is done by hand. You want to see what things run out quickly. Part of this, of course, is so that you can reorder those items right away. However, you also want to track the numbers to see if you need to change what you order. If you are only ordering five of a certain item every month and it is selling out after two weeks, you could double your orders, keep up with the real demand, and make more money off of the same product.

Another option is to use inventory tracking software. You simply input how much of each product you have available. If you are out, this number will just be however much you ordered. The system then automatically tracks what is sold. Items are scanned at the front of the store and the identification numbers go into the database. The system then subtracts that number from the known stock and alerts you when you hit zero. You can look at reports to see when things run out and adjust your order numbers accordingly.

Finally, it is good to keep in mind that some items are going to sell more at specific times than others. If you sell utensils that can be used with a propane grill, for example, you may sell a ton of them in the spring and the summer, but the numbers could drop off significantly in the winter, when people are no longer grilling as often. You have to adjust your orders for items like this according to the times when they sell and when they don’t. Keeping the same supply all of the time will not work.