One of the most important features of your business is your stock. Without any stock, you can’t fulfill any sales and therefore you won’t be able to make any money. That’s why it’s always good to keep on top of your company’s stock, to make sure you have enough to sell but not too much that you might end up throwing away.
With this in mind, here are some ways in which you can achieve optimum stock levels in your business.
One of the best ways in which to keep on top of your company’s stock is being able to make sure you can access any product you need at all times. To start with, you should install lots of shelving to make the most out of any space you have.
Try and group your products into different categories; for example, if you sell clothes these could be grouped into different garment types such as tops, skirts, or shoes. Once you’ve organized your stock room, it’s important to keep it organized at all times.
When you restock the shelves or add new lines of stock, it’s important that you keep to the same system. It’s also important that you keep this room clean and tidy, so there are no obstacles getting in the way of you and your stock. One of the major problems that could obstruct your ability to do this is all the cardboard and plastic packaging that all of your stock will be delivered in.
Once these boxes are opened to gain access to your stock, it’s important that the packaging is disposed of in an equally organized manor. The best way to do this is with recycling baler machines, which not only reduce the size of the waste but compact it into one manageable bale. Without this, you could either end up with a large recycling bin in your stock room, or even worse—lots of unwanted cardboard left on the floor or the shelves.
When you’re trying to predict how much stock you’ll need in order to get through a certain sales period, it’s important to recognize any trends you’ve previously had throughout your years of selling. For example, if you’re a garden center you’ll probably sell lots of outdoor furniture in the summer months but less in the winter months.
The opposite would be true for Christmas trees. Some trends will be a lot less obvious than these examples, so make sure you review all of the information to make sure you’re increasing your stock levels at the right times. That way, you’ll know you won’t run out of a particular product at the specific time that everyone wants to buy it.
It’s highly likely that you’ll keep track of your stock by updating a spreadsheet when you buy new products and when you sell them. Whilst this is an efficient way of keeping track of your stock, it might not always be entirely accurate.
It’s important to regularly check your stock numbers manually and correct any incorrect data on the spreadsheet. Issues such as stock getting damaged or lost, or even a typo on the document could all result in incorrect calculations compared to your actual stock, which could lead to confusion when you go looking for stock that might not actually exist.
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