Sometimes, I get inspired when I talk to my clients about what they do in their shop.
Frequently, I hear from newsagents that their traditional markets are down and how it is affecting their businesses. Well, Nextra Sunbury is a newsagency, one of many nextra shops.
Ten years ago if you had gone into it, you would think that it is big but other then that, nothing extraordinary different to other newsagencies out there. Like many newsagencies, it has experienced dramatic declines in its newspaper and magazine trade, but unlike many others today, its profitability is way up.
Why?
Because it has changed its product mix, they made the changes away from the products that were declined and switched to products that sell well and had high margins. They now sell gifts, clothing, jewellery and stunned me, shoes. They now trade between one and two million dollars annually of products with excellent margins. These products are growing now in their shop by about 28% a year.
What is the secret?
If you talk to them, they will tell you that the secret is to use our software profitability reports. That way, they keep track of all stock movements, including sales so that they can easily rank their products by best sellers, location, revenue, profitability, margins, seasonal sales, and much more. Then they use the information.
Taking your reporting to the next level works.
Here are some points to consider
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Identify your slow-moving stock, then make an action plan, eg reduce your reliance on these products, move to a different location or maybe get rid of it.
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Identify your fast-moving stock, then make an action plan, eg increase your reliance on these products and/or move to a better location and look to leverage it with companion stock.
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Find your best areas in the shop. You may be surprised.
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Work your VIP club, Sunbury Newsagency now has a huge VIP club. This is an excellent source of repeat business.
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Use free services like Facebook and email marketing to inform customers of new products. Check out their facebook page here you will see that they are writing many posts and putting up pictures every day on Facebook.
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Help structure your seasonal inventory through analysing past years’ sales.
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Examine your stock levels and costs. You may be stunned, I heard of a small shop that depending on the greeting card companies to look after their cards, finding out that they had way over what they required in cards. The owner told me afterwards that he was shocked as they had way over what they needed, and the card company was suggesting that they buy more.
Take Advantage of Your Retail POS System
There are many other ways once you get into it that you can analyse retail sales trends in a meaningful way. You have, though posbrowser the most powerful POS system, I know. Play around with the software yourself, and learn the retail reporting and data analysis that it has to offer. Then use it. At least once a month, set up a formal review of your shop.
