Bernard Zimmermann's blog

Most of your sales floor is never seen by your customers. So it’s up to you to bring your merchandise to their attention. So in modern retailing, I have noticed is that shops now have many special areas. Not one but many! In the supermarkets as well as the regular area, you will find the same product at the ends of a shelf, the entrance and cash register area. So rather than have one big section dedicated to a product or line they have several. There is often is no correlation to these items in this area but people look at it. 

Try this

Reduce some of the area of a department and move some of these items into a special area. Make it noticeable put a nice sign advertising this area

This will maximise the reach of these products so giving you more opportunities to market your products.

And of course, tell me how it goes.

Due to COVID-19, we all do a lot more work from home. To many, it is a new normal.

Now there are some of the expenses of working from home can be claimed too. 

Some valid deductions would be on your home computer. You can look at such as its desk, your computer chair, electricity, carpets, lighting, etc.

You can also often claim a share of the rent for the area of your office from which you conduct business.

I would suggest that you discuss this with your accountant, click here for more details.

We will be having a webinar on your EOFY reporting which we would love for you to attend. It will be hosted through Facebook Live, on Monday 6th July, at 10 am!

We will cover:

• Profit / Loss 
• Stock Valuations
• Outstanding Customer Debts
• Outstanding Subagent Debts

-General Discussion

Got anything you wish to add or comment, go for it here.

To join, go to https://www.facebook.com/POSSOLUTIONSAU/Live  at 10 am!

Hope to see you then.

While you are there, why not go to the POS Solutions Facebook Page and like us? That way you will be informed on future webinars too.

The challenge retailers now face now is uncertainty. Consumer shopping habits have changed, for example, how now people are moving around the shop. In the past people wanted to browse, now you need to get their attention in a few seconds from the distance. This is the main comment people told me from yesterday's post.

What we need to do is see how shopping behavioural patterns have changed

As such now my article here on how to make up a shopping planogram can do it for you.

All you need is our software.

A big sheet of paper

A ruler

A black pen

Four marking pens - Red, Yellow, Green and Blue

20 minutes

These figures are up to 10 June 2020

Before I looked at this, I would say we were worse than we are now. Going by these figures Australia’s economy and labour market are not bad. We have economic growth and our unemployment is better than compatible countries overseas.

If you want you can get more figures and do comparisons click here.

Unfortunately, it does not go by state but if it did I am sure you will see NSW and WA doing a lot better then Victoria.

Now you are collecting information for your business for the end of the financial year. In the business world, the clock has been reset so many will talk to you, for example, your suppliers, accountant, bank and insurance broker etc.

It is time to consider what happened this year, see what has gone well and what has not gone well. More importantly, it is time to start planning for the new year.

What works for me is you do a SWOT analysis of your business? I am sure to you that it will be useful and rewarding to sitting down, hopefully with someone, reviewing your business in a formal method.

Review your debts and write off the bad debts in your computer system. What most people do is write them off in the official books. Then put them into a voodoo account in case they do actually by some miracle get paid for them.

Write off any trading stock that is damaged or obsolete.

Revalue your damaged stock to the current value of the stock.

Keep in mind what your accountant will want is your stock valuation by

*Cost prices 
*The Market selling value 
*Replacement value 

If your books are set up on a CASH system, you need to pay off outstanding debts to get the credit for them in this financial year.

To help you we will be doing webinars on financial and management reports very soon.

Many of you have now done a stocktake, so you have your figure for your accountant.

You have the information, now what you need to do is look for the stock discrepancies. 

What went wrong in this year!

What you need to know is your stock shrinkage? 

Can you answer this simple question? Some of the largest retailers in Australia cannot. But if you do not know what it, how do you fix it?

The good news is with our point of sale software; it would be easy to find out now.

*Go to your stocktake section

*There you will find reports show the discrepancies (variances) in the stocktake.

*Highlight the discrepancies that have occurred.

These discrepancies will be due to many reasons. Shoplifting, both internal and external, will be a significant cause. So it is worth checking what is missing.

Examine the stock discrepancies by suppliers. Supplier errors are a big problem with my clients. Some have told me the total cost of their point of sale system paid for itself by this saving alone.

But keep looking at these figures. I would suggest looking by department and then item. 

Try to identify areas that have high-security concerns. Now consider what to do, e.g. more cameras, a new arrangement in your shop, and better stock controls. As a bonus rearranging your store will also give your shop a fresh look.

This analysis can save you a lot of money, saving on 1% of every million dollars is $10,000, not bad for a few hours work.