How to Avoid Losing Customers

It is frustrating when a customer comes in looking in your shop only to find you're out of stock. We all now how we feel when this happens. What is your customer now thinking, maybe of going to your competitor? 

The good news is this common issue can be largely avoided with our POS system. 

So here is how you can use the inventory features in our POS to avoid out-of-stock and keep customers coming back.

What is "Out of Stock"?

Out of stock means a product is unavailable for purchase because you don't have any left in your store. It is said here to account for about 8.3% of all shopping trips. It's a lot.

What we have now is a missed sale and a disappointed customer.

This is extremely common when

- An obscure holiday is occurring that some of your customers follow and you have forgotten to buy stock for them

-If have run out of stock and not realised it.

Use the "Sold Out or Selling Out Stock Lines" Report

Our POS system has an extremely handy report called "Sold Out or Selling Out Stock Lines".

It will take you seconds to run and save you thousands.

Here's how to use it:

1. Go to Reports > Stock
2. Select "Sold Out or Selling Out Stock Lines"

What you want is to pick a period last year of the same date as now to compare.

These products need to be checked ASAP. This can help you make sure you have adequate stock.

Moreover

It also alerts you whether items are not properly entered into your system as the stock-on-hand figure is negative, as shown in the example below.

I recommend running this report weekly to stay on top of stock levels.

The Risks of Out-of-Stock

Why go to such trouble to avoid out-of-stock issues? Well, the fact is that your customers will tolerate this situation only a few times before taking their business elsewhere.

Well, most of your regular customers tend to follow a "three strikes, and you're out" pattern:

• Strike 1: The first time a product is out of stock, the customer substitutes 70% of the time, and 30% go elsewhere.
• Strike 2: The second time, they may substitute, not buy anything, or go to another store.
• Strike 3: The third time, they switch stores 70% of the time—losing you their business.

Today, customers have little patience for out-of-stock. They will quickly take their business to retailers that reliably stock what they want.

So stay on top of your inventory with our POS system! Run stock reports weekly, keep high-demand products well-stocked, and avoid frustrating your customers. 

Running a successful retail business means ensuring every product on your shelves earns its keep. This is not easy. You know the items are ringing up the most sales. What is more challenging is to see if the slow sellers are boosting revenue by selling other products. This is where your point of sale software's Stock Companion Report can help.

Measure An Item's True Value

Go to Cash Register Reports > Sales Register > Stock Companion Sales by Period. See the green arrow below.

Select the stock item, put in the last 12 months, and you will get a detailed report listing profit, numbers, etc. 

You'll get a detailed report showing the item's profit, sales numbers, and more. With this data, you can evaluate whether a slower-selling product with low direct sales attracts customers who purchase other higher-margin items.

Insights for Smarter Merchandising

One client used the Stock Companion Report for dry cleaning. This service had low profitability, so they debated whether to keep it, but they found it brought in good customers who bought other products. So they kept offering it.

The Stock Companion Report is just one example of how our POS software arms you with the insights you need to optimize your product mix. Slower-selling items may be necessary to attract foot traffic and complementary sales. Understanding these hidden contributions lets you make informed merchandising decisions that maximise your total store revenue.

Let our POS system provide the robust reporting you need to understand what's driving your sales. 

This is just another example of how our POS System provides you with stuff you can use. Call us to learn more.

As a retail business owner now, it will be many months before you know how your business travelled in 2023. Here is a quick method to check and compare your yearly sales figures.

Year-over-year comparison

First, pull total sales reports for the past few years. For example:

Go to register reports.

Now select the item marked "Sales Comparison for a Given period".

Note you can do it by a supplier, but that can be done later when you have more time for detailed analysis. What we are doing here is getting a quick idea.

1) Put in here the dates 

01/01/2022 to 31/12/2022 AND 01/01/2023 to 31/12/2023

This will take you a few seconds. Then you will get detailed information showing how you went in 2022 compared to 2023.

Write down some key figures. on the report that you wish to measure.

2) Now go back in and run the report with 

01/01/2020 to 31/12/2020 AND 01/01/2021 to 31/12/2021 

You now have four years of information to study. This should give you a pretty good idea of how your business travels now. I find drawing a graph of sales shows me a clear picture. I hope these figures went well for you.

Sales trends

Say, for example, I have figures like this 

• 2020 total sales: $450,000
• 2021 total sales: $485,000
• 2022 total sales: $510,000
• 2023 total sales: $560,000

Compare the totals to identify upward or downward sales trends over time. Steady yearly growth suggests your efforts are working.

Evaluate Suppliers Sales

Use the same method except this time to break down sales by your suppliers month-by-month.

See how the supplier is doing for you.

Compare Operational Factors

Now, some questions to ask yourself.

• Did you expand hours, staffing, space or inventory?
• Did you run more promotions or advertising campaigns?
• Did you add or remove product lines or services?

Data-driven decisions

Use this to make data-driven decisions for your business to move forward. See what is working, what’s not, and where your retail business needs to head next. Let data guide your strategy. Turning those sales insights into concrete actions to improve your future performance is vital. Let the data direct you toward new opportunities for sales, traffic, and profit growth in 2024!

Unbelievable as it sounds, we are getting close to the new year, the years gone so fast, and this often inspires people to get organised and plan ahead. Diaries can be a great product to help your customers achieve their goals in 2024.

Your point of sale (POS) software is the perfect tool to help maximise diary sales in your shop.

Use Your POS Software to Understand Diary Sales Trends

Your POS software has reporting features that can provide valuable insights into your diary sales from previous years. Specifically, your software can show you:

• Which diary designs, sizes, and types sold well at different times of the year
• Tell you last year's sales, which will indicate what this year's sales will be. Make sure you have sufficient stock on hand to meet customer demand.
• Related products that customers tend to purchase alongside diaries (e.g. cards, nice pens) use your companion reports.

Prominently Display Diaries In-Store

It would help to ensure customers can easily spot your diary selection in-store. Here are some display tips:

• Dedicate prime real estate, like a front counter display, to diaries
• Arrange diaries attractively
• Highlight top sellers; people are drawn to such products
• Put signage and posters to indicate that you sell diaries.
• Do not count on people knowing you have diaries. When serving them, tell them you have them.

Getting diaries front-and-centre maximises the chance of catch-up sales from customers coming in to shop for other items.

Related Products Like Planners

In addition to standard diaries, consider that you can boost sales by also promoting related products such as:

Travel Planners

Help customers plan their dream trips and holidays with travel diaries and journals.

Health and Fitness Planners

Tap into New Year's resolutions with diet, exercise, and wellness journals. 

Work Planners

Appeal to professionals getting on top of their workflow with work-specific planners. Display alongside nice pens, highlighters, and notepads.

Get Organised

You can organise a successful diary sales campaign this year by utilising your POS software to understand diary sales trends, effectively displaying and promoting diaries in-store, and talking to customers. 

You Can't Manage What You Don't Measure

The Christmas holiday shopping season has just officially begun. This is one of the year's busiest and most critical sales periods for retailers.  Many of our clients will do half their trade this year in the next two months. But you can't manage what you don't measure. Going into your biggest sales event blind is a recipe for disaster. It would be to examine the key metrics (KPIs) to understand the impact on your bottom line.

Here, we'll explore two essential key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure this Black Friday to show you how they are used going forward:

Foot Traffic

Understanding how many potential customers walk through your doors is crucial. Converting that foot traffic into actual sales is the name of the game.

You have a few options to monitor your store's foot traffic:

People Counters

If you have followed this blog, you will know that a simple people counter is an inexpensive way to determine how many shoppers entered your store. It should be positioned near the entrance and recorded at the start of each day. A basic, manual counter for a shop is cheap nowadays. 

Centre Foot Traffic (If Applicable)

If you are in a shopping complex, you will find that many of these do monitor the foot traffic numbers. You can use this, but remember, in our experience, these centre traffic numbers are rarely reliable. Use them as directional guidance only.

Daily Sales & Profit

While foot traffic shows customer interest, your sales and profit figures reveal actual spending and earnings.

Your point-of-sale (POS) reporting will tell you the net daily sales and profit. 

Focus on two key profit metrics and compare them to last year's Black Friday. That will give you an idea of how you are travelling.

Number of Transactions

How many sales transactions did you ring in for Black Friday? 

Total Daily Profit

Gross daily profit is ultimately what pays your bills.

Use KPIs to Assess Performance

Armed with foot traffic and profit data, you can now calculate store performance metrics to measure Black Friday's impact.

KPI-Foot Traffic Conversion Rate

Divide your number of transactions by the total foot traffic. 

Rate = (Number of Sales) / Traffic 

This conversion rate reveals how well you translated store visits into actual sales.

Professional marketers commonly do this sort of analysis.

Benchmark to last year's Black Friday. If conversion drops with higher foot traffic, you may need help with sales, e.g., understaffed or poor shop windows.

KPI-Average Transaction Profit

Here, divide your total daily profit by the number of transactions. The result helps you determine the average profit margin per sale. Now, is Black Friday pulling down your averages due to heavy discounting?

Average transaction profit = Profit / Number of sales

Doing Sales Performance Analysis

Now you have POS Software, so you can do most of this and more automatically. I find analyzing sales data by department, product category, and customer segment can help retailers identify areas for improvement and make strategic adjustments.

You will find it here:

Main Menu > Cash Register > Register Reports > Under the Select Report tab, expand the Stock folder > select the report “Dissection Family Class Period Sales Comparison”.

Then you will see this screen.

 Now, put in the dates to compare.  Now, it will pop out a wide range of KPIs, including quantity, cost, sales, profit, and GP%, with a breakdown by amount and percentage. I think besides the two KPIs above, you will find many others useful. Note that these are your actual figures, not what your suppliers tell you.

I would also suggest that you look at your 

Retail department optimization

Consider tracking your sales performance across different departments to identify the most profitable channels and allocate resources accordingly.

Summing up

Implementing key performance indicators is critical for effectively managing your business during the hectic holiday shopping season. At a minimum, start by tracking the metrics of Foot Traffic and gross profit.

Compare these KPIs to prior years.

Don't fly blind - measure performance daily. Spot shortfalls early so the course can be corrected quickly. There's no better tool for managing through the wild ride of this holiday sales season than your POS System.

Long queues at the checkout can drive customers away and cost you sales. Customer wait times,  studies show the average time a person will wait is 6 to 7 minutes in checkout queues before walking out. For retailers, slow cashiers can have a big financial impact. 

The Cost of Customer Frustration

When customers wait too long at the registers, many will leave your store. Some studies estimate that 10% or more of potential sales are lost to customer walkaways. And for those who do stick it out, the memory of queues will linger in their minds.

To crunch some numbers of lost sales - if your business has one walkout a day with an average sale of $30, you have lost $11,000. If it is two, you have lost $20,000+  - that is money you could have kept if your checkouts moved faster.

The risk goes beyond the immediate lost sales, too. Think of your customer satisfaction if you have frustrated customers. They often don't return quickly if they associate your shop with long waits. Slow registers cost you transactions today and cost you customer experience value in the long term. Is it any wonder why major retailers like supermarkets invest heavily to speed up checkouts? You need to take note and make changes, too. 

Average time to complete a transaction in a shop

The industry standard to do this is about 40 seconds for transaction time plus about three seconds for each item to be scanned and rung up. So if you need to ring up four things, the time taken is expected to be about 40 seconds, plus four items in their basket at 3 seconds each, so it's almost 52 seconds.

Calculating The Cost to Your Bottom Line

To figure out the cost of long queues, here are two key metrics to analyse in your store:

Average transaction time: How many seconds does it take to process each sale?

Look at your POS software's " find transactions " screen to see what typical speeds you can achieve. For comparison, I've included some transaction speeds that my clients have achieved with our POS system. 

On this cash register number, they were doing a transaction every three (3) seconds.

Here as you can see, they did transactions from two (2) seconds onwards.

On this page, it was four (4) seconds onwards. Interestingly, the $431.80 transaction that would have required scanning many items was completed in about forty (40) seconds.

Customer defection rate: What % walk away after seeing line lengths?

What you need here 

• Number of lost sales from your Retail sales
• Sales value per abandoned basket
• Profit margin lost

I would suggest looking at both weekly and yearly figures

How to reduce checkout queues

Here are some proven ideas to try in your store to keep the registers moving faster:

1. Restructure Queue Layout

Research shows a single queue line feeding multiple checkout points is perceived as fairer by customers than individual lines per register. It also helps even out speeds so no single operator bogs down line length.

2. Hide Long Lines

Retail store planning experts talk about the power of “inflow angles”. What this means is when a customer enters your store, carefully analyse sight lines to any queues - long lines early in the shopping journey can trigger an early walkway. If they see a long queue, many people looking to shop in your shop will not go in.

3. Entertain Waiting Customers

Don’t let waiting customers dwell on queue length. Distract them with something; banks often use a TV. What works in shops are items that are hot sellers. It is not the sales to just consider but the distraction value. A magazine that a customer can look through while waiting works, too.

4. Keep Registers Clear

A common complaint is when customers have already committed to queuing but see unused registers not being opened despite staff floating nearby not helping ease waits. Make sure your staff, top priority is to jump on a register when lines start to develop.

5. Scan Whenever Possible

Barcode scans are proven 3 times faster than keying in product codes. So ensure everything sold has usable barcodes - even make barcode labels for loose goods or frequently sold combos. Bundling items that often go together also minimises scanning actions at the register.

6. Integrate EFTPOS

Many of you do not use it for cost, but consider that you can save seconds on each sale by integrating EFTPOS into your point-of-sale system. Avoiding re-keying in amounts slashes transaction times and reduces miscues when switching between the terminal and register. It is also more accurate.

7. Cashier speed

When queues are long, having your fastest operators active becomes critical. Slow cashiers bantering with customers may be helpful for engagement at quiet times, but focus on processing transactions fast at peak times. Knowing checkout rates for each staffer also enables good roster decisions.

Conclusion

Even implementing a few quick wins here pays dividends through higher converted transactions and improved customer loyalty. Getting checkout queues moving faster is necessary for any retailer serious about sustaining growth. Reach out if we can help analyse your current state or provide advice beyond what was covered today.

Over the years, Coles has given us many tips for our software. I was blown away when they took us on a tour of their data centre and EFTPOS and Credit Credit card facility. 

Now shopping at your local supermarket seems simple enough - walk in, grab a trolley, and start filling it up. But have you ever wondered how supermarkets decide where to place products on their shelves? It may look random, but product placement in supermarkets is actually heavily dependant on strategic science designed to influence what you buy.

How Supermarkets Use Product Placement

Supermarkets hire experts to advise them on store layouts and product placement. These retail analysts use years of sales data, customer surveys, focus groups, and other research to determine optimal shelf configurations. Their goal is to place the most profitable and popular items where shoppers are most likely to see them or can easily grab them. This encourages impulse purchases and converts browsers into buyers.

Key Placement Principles

• Eye level shelves - Most sought-after items are placed at eye level where they are most visible. This includes popular branded items that stores want you to notice. This is called the buy level.

• End of aisle displays - High value impulse and specials are displayed at the ends of aisles to catch your attention.

• Kids height shelves - Colourful packets of sweets and biscuits are deliberately placed at kids' eye levels to tempt them.

• Bottom shelves - This is for the bargain shoppers as they will reach down for a bargain.

• Perimeter placement - Highly desired products are placed all over the shop, so a shopper has to travel all over the shop. 

Improving Sales Through Placement

Now small changes to product placement can lead to impressive sales lifts.One of my clients blocked off an exist to the shop, so his customers had to walk through more of the shop. It worked.

Checkout this video it might give you some ideas.

My last blog post about using POS system reports generated a lot of discussion. Many clearly use their POS System only as a cash register when it can offer so much more. A shop accessing their sales data through reporting can be a real game-changer. 

Detailed sales reports provide valuable insights that allow for better decision-making. With just a few seconds, you can access actionable information to boost profits.
 

Why sales reports matter

Now, one essential report every retailer should utilize is sales performance. Some key advantages include:

- Identifying top-selling items so you can focus on the best performers. Stock more of your winners.

- Uncovering slow-moving or non-selling inventory. Make room for new items by removing dogs. 

- Recognising sales trends over time. Adjust purchasing to match patterns in customer demand. 

- Pinpointing your most profitable departments or product categories. Concentrate inventory accordingly.

- Discovering when your highest sales occur. Schedule staff and inventory delivery optimally.

With these kinds of actionable insights, you can tweak strategies to maximize revenue. So, let me show you how to access sales-by-item reporting in your POS system.

The single most helpful report: Top-selling items

Now that we've covered why sales reports matter, let's discuss the #1 report every retailer should use regularly: Top selling items.

This report provides a ranking of your best-performing products based on sales over a defined period. Typically, we find the last three months work well.

Here are some specific ways the Top Selling Items report can help your business:

Optimise inventory levels

By knowing which products sell best, you can allocate more shelf space, budget and marketing resources to your winners. Likewise, you may choose to cut back on slower items. This report gives you the data to manage your product mix based on actual sales results.

Spot new growth opportunities.

When you run the report over different periods, you can identify rising trends. Newer products that are quickly gaining traction present opportunities to capture new growth. You may want to order more inventory or create a promotional display.

Analyse performance by department or category.

Comparing top-selling items by department or product category. This allows better inventory planning. For example, bottled water is topping sales in the beverage aisle. You can then adjust the beverage inventory and shelf layout appropriately so water is at eye view in front.

Assess seasonal impacts

The seasonal calendar has a big influence on sales trends. Run the report monthly or quarterly to see how top sellers change as you move through the year. This helps anticipate peaks and valleys in product demand.

Identify declining products

Just as the report highlights winners, you can also pinpoint slower products needing corrective action or discontinuation. By regularly reviewing the bottom half of your sales ranking, you can quickly address laggards.

How to run the Top Selling Items report

Now that we've covered the value of the Top Selling Items report let's walk through how to generate it in your POS system. I'll use our point-of-sale software as an example, but the process is similar across most platforms.

Here are the simple steps:

Go to Register reports.

Now select "Top N Stock Sales for a Given Period."

You will want about 100 items with the last three months of sales for the shop, and you will get a report that looks like this:

It's that easy - in just a few clicks, you have accessed incredibly useful data to boost sales and profits. 

Tips for getting maximum value

To gain strategic value from the Top Selling Items report, keep these tips in mind:

• Run it regularly - I suggest monthly. The more consistent you are, the better you can spot trends over time.

• Use custom date ranges - Look at the next three months of last year, so say 01/11/2022 to 31/01/2024, this will give you an idea of what is coming up.

• Do it by department - It is often useful to work by department, top sellers should be at eye height and right in front.

• Look beyond the top ones - You will often find much interesting towards the bottom of the list

• Make it actionable - Don't just run the report. Actually use its insights to do business decisions.

Key takeaways

Here are the significant points to remember about using your POS system's Top Selling Items report:

• Provides invaluable visibility into your top-performing products based on actual sales data.

• Helps optimise inventory levels, identify new growth opportunities and inform promotions.

• It can be segmented by period, department, product category and location.

• Simple to run - just select time range and run.

• Analyse regularly and act on trends to control costs, boost margins and improve overall business results.

Update: This article was initially written on 26/04/2022  and was updated to 1/11/2023

I was surprised to learn from a recent survey of Australian newsagents that fewer than half used the reports available in their point-of-sale systems, potentially costing them revenue. Running a small retail business is hard. You face rising costs, online competition, and slim margins. To succeed today, retailers need to use data to make smart choices.

A good computer system used adequately for information is said to be worth to the business 1%; if you want to see what that translates to the business, check out these figures I did for a hairdresser in a previous post here.

The figures were based on an ATO benchmark study

Bottom line: This business could get a 25% increase in profit with just a 1% improvement. That is pretty impressive.

And with our POS Software, you have the tool to do this sort of analysis free. Now, why are not many of our clients not doing this?

Know what products sell and when

Do you know your top 10 sellers but unit sales and profit?

Do you know what sold last year about now in your shop?

Do you know your most profitable product lines?

The computer does, and if you ask it, it will tell you.

Inventory

Identify Dead Stock

Slow-moving products tie up money and space. Sales pinpoint your "dead stock" for examination.

Forecast Needs

Use our advanced AI models to estimate future demand based on past sales, events, promotions, and other factors. This helps ensure adequate stock levels without excess inventory reducing stockouts while maintaining lean inventories.

Focus on Top Suppliers

Use the computer to identify your most profitable suppliers. See what is working and what does not work. This maximizes sales and profits.

Know Your Customers Better

Today's retailers' computers do collect lots of customer data:

• Purchase history from POS systems

• If you run a loyalty program, profiles and shopping habits

These analytics help turn your customer data into valuable insights for better decisions. 

Harness the Power of Price

We have reports that can identify your price points. This allows you to find out what sort of items sell in your shop to make optimal price points to maximize revenue and margins.

Refine Promotions

You can study how previous promotions worked in your shop. This avoids margin-busting promotions.

Personalize Messages

Powerful analytics delivers individualized content across channels based on interests, preferences, and intent.

Improve Delivery Efficiency

The POS System has a very effective delivery system for faster and more accurate routing.

Strategically Grow Your Business with POS Solutions

Our point-of-sale (POS) system is a strategic solution for growing your business. It provides invaluable insights through powerful data analytics, robust inventory control, customer relationship-building capabilities, and integrated employee management tools.

Gain Valuable Business Insights
Real-time sales reports give visibility into top items, busiest times, and buyer habits. Use this data to make smart inventory, pricing, and marketing decisions that boost profits.

Manage Inventory with Ease
Track stock levels, set automatic reorders, and receive alerts about low items. Avoid stockouts and overstocking by keeping the right products in stock for customers.

Build Loyal Customer Relationships
Capture customer profiles, transaction histories, and preferences to deliver personalized service. Nurture loyalty through targeted campaigns that increase repeat visits.

Optimize Employee Performance
Schedule shifts, monitor hours worked, and evaluate sales performance with built-in tools. Right-size staffing and recognize top performers to maximize productivity.

Unify Online and In-Store Operations
Connect seamlessly to major e-commerce platforms for centralized inventory and order management across channels. Simplify operations and gain a cohesive view of multichannel sales.

The Data-Driven Path to Growth

Today's complex retail environment demands more than instinct and experience. Advanced analytics decodes market trends, optimizes operations, and maximizes results. With data providing timely, actionable insights, small retailers can make strategic decisions with confidence.

The possibilities are endless, but retailers should start by identifying key problem areas and challenges. Next, explore potential analytics solutions and build a business case. With executive support, implement a few targeted applications first, then expand over time.

A strong data foundation is crucial. Combining analytics experts with retail veterans enables impactful business insights. Continual innovation and openness to new techniques keep retailers ahead.

The right strategy and technology provide an enduring competitive advantage. Analytics unlocks scalable growth unbound by human limitations. When embedded across operations, small retailers can compete at the highest levels. The future of retail success is quantitative. Facts and data lead the way.

Please start your data-driven journey today.

Skeletons emerge from closets, vampires rise from coffins, and ghosts roam the streets as Halloween creeps up in Australia as this largely American tradition, which has turned into a worldwide phenomenon, continues to gain popularity down under. We see that participation has risen steadily each year as Halloween gains mainstream acceptance. What was once seen as an American novelty has been embraced by Australians, young and old.

For Halloween, retailers need to be exact in their ordering. This type of stock can be tough to get rid of after Halloween. This is one of those holidays that interest the public in brief.

New research shows Australians are more eager than ever to participate in Halloween festivities this year. Total spending is forecast to reach new heights.

Millions of Aussies Catching Halloween Spirit

A spook-tacular 5.3 million Australians now celebrate Halloween, according to data from the Australian Retailers Association and Roy Morgan here. According to it, an extra 300,000 people compared to the 5 million that dressed up, carved pumpkins and went trick-or-treating last year. I have little reason to doubt it, as it was pretty accurate the previous year.

Halloween Spending to Hit $490 Million

Australia's total spending on Halloween is predicted to reach $490 million in 2023.

That's a bone-chilling increase of 8.1% compared to last year.

So where is all this money going? Aussies are splurging on:

• Costumes - 49% of participants purchase a new costume, spending an average of $31 each
• Candy - 39% stock up on lollies and chocolates to hand out on Halloween night, driving over $100 million in supermarket confectionary sales
• Decorations - over one third (36%) decorate their homes with fake cobwebs, skeletons and jack-o-lanterns
• Parties & Events - bars, restaurants, cinemas and more cash in on Halloween's popularity by hosting themed events

Aussie Adults Lead Halloween Growth

While children in creepy costumes may come to mind when you think of Halloween, Australian adults are actually driving this trend.

Australians aged 35-49 years old are the most avid Halloween participants:

• 40% of this age group plan to celebrate Halloween
• That's up 3% from last year.
• It equates to 1 million 35-49-year-old Aussies enjoying Halloween this year - a 190,000 increase.

Parents are helping boost Halloween's popularity by allowing and encouraging their children to join in the celebrations. Mothers and fathers enter the spirit by dressing up and decorating homes.

Beyond parents, young adults without children are embracing Halloween, too. It's becoming a popular date night and a chance to show off creative costumes.

If you want to know the sort of stuff the public is interested in now for Halloween, you should look at costumes, witches' hats, Halloween makeup, masks like Frankenstein and ghosts are popular nowadays, and as always, Harry Potter stuff. One of the pluses of Harry Potter stuff is that it sells well after Halloween.

If you want a quick and instant way of finding out what stock sold in your shop in previous years on Halloween.

Go to Register reports.

Now pick "Top N Stock Sales for a Given Period."

In the form, put in the following dates: 25/10/22 to 31/10/22. A report will come out with what sold over that week. 

As time is running out, could you do it now?

Taking a long-term view of our businesses can be very productive for making strategic decisions. Here I will show you how your point-of-sale (POS) software allows retailers like you to easily visualize sales data and gain valuable insights.

The fact is that industry trends are often misleading for individual businesses, so what you need is your information. Here is how you can do it in an instant.

Visualizing Your Own Sales History

To better understand trends in your businesses, we have written graphs that can generate images from your information. These take seconds to produce. This information can be used to help you see changes over time in your operations.

How to optimise your POS system for better sales performance

What we advise people to do is to examine their sales trends over 2 and 5 years. This timescale balances daily variations with long-term movement. Conceptualising this information in monthly periods also aligns with typical business planning, as most industry standards are for these periods.

Generating Graphs From POS Software

To make such a graph, you just need to go to Cash register reports > Sales > Sales dissection monthly sales trend.

Now select by department e.g. “Newspapers”,

The first time run a graph with five years. This gives you a long-term view. Examine this graph.

Now, much has happened in the last five years, much of dubious relevance to today's retail eg COVID.

Most businesses work in the last two years

Put in the last 24 months and click on “Generate”. You will get a graph. 

The great advantage of doing that is examining this year and last year for the same month. This gets you over much of the seasonality problems.

This picture is worth a thousand words.

Gaining Strategic Insights From the Long View

Taking just a few minutes here to view trends can yield hours of strategic thinking. The long-term analysis provides an invaluable perspective on areas like profitable products and the impact of external factors. Retailers can also benchmark their performance against industry reports. With POS software, informed long-term decisions become more straightforward.

In summary, our POS system equips retailers with an effortless method to audit sales histories and evaluate patterns extending decades into the past. This long view grants keen foresight into optimizing strategy amid fluctuating conditions.

Your point-of-sale (POS) system can give you crucial information that can help you drive your retail productivity, accuracy and profits. To do that it needs accurate information. Are you getting good information? One key retail metric (KPI) often overlooked to reveal how efficiently your POS system operates is the scan rate percentage %Scan.

Luckily, your POS Software can give you this and show you how to improve this.

Why the Scan Rate Matters

The POS scan rate (%Scan) shows the percentage of products scanned compared to the manually keyed-in at the cash register. A high scan rate translates directly into faster transactions, shorter checkout lines, and happier customers. It also results in fewer errors and less waste that hurt profits. Manually entering product codes is slower, more demanding on staff over a shift, and inevitably leads to mistakes. The industry standard is that cashiers make around one error for every 300 characters typed daily.

In contrast, scanning barcodes with a POS scanner takes just a fraction of a second and is a million times more accurate! The higher your scan rate, the more transactions you can process, lower errors, and provide better customer service. Better product information captured during scans also gives you valuable data for purchasing, promos, inventory and more.

Checking Your Scan Rate

Finding your current scan rate percentage is easy using your POS reporting. Go to the cash register reports, open the Sales section, and select "Dissection Sales/Profitability for a Given Period".

Go to the cash register reports.

Then go to sales.

Once there select

Dissection Sales / Profitability for a Given Period.

Now run the report with a year of data.

You will see a column with %Scan; the higher, the better. Looking through this list, the problem department is marked with a green arrow.

Run it for at least the past 12 months to see trends. The %Scan column reveals your overall rate across products and departments. Ideally, you want to see your scan rate consistently above 90% for maximum efficiency. Look for low percentages that stand out. While the overall rate matters, drill down into individual departments and product categories in the report. This allows you to pinpoint sections of your inventory that need scan rate improvements.

How to Boost a Low Scan Rate

If your scan rate is low, identify underperforming departments or products lagging in scanning. Then, focus on addressing the root causes:

• Missing barcodes - Confirm all inventory has scannable barcodes printed and attached. For any products without barcodes, quickly print and add barcode labels.
• Faulty scanners - Your barcode scanners may be aging or defective. The industry standard is that a scanner is built to last about three years, and then you have a bonus.
• Staff training - Cashiers may need refreshers on scanning techniques and procedures. Observe them on the POS and provide feedback to build good habits.
• Product database - Check your POS system to ensure the product database matches all items to the correct barcodes. Add any new products that are missing.
• Check items - Sometimes the barcodes are not clear, if so notify the supplier and consider using inhouse barcodes until this can be fixed.

Scanning Drives Retail Success

Improving your POS scan rates pays for your bottom line. It reduces wasted time and costly errors while increasing transaction speed and customer satisfaction. Make it a priority to monitor scan rates, identify underperforming areas, and address gaps. Turn your POS system into a competitive advantage!

Monitoring profit margins is crucial for any retail business's financial health and performance. It's easy for margins to erode over time as costs fluctuate if you don't keep close tabs. Leveraging point-of-sale (POS) data and reporting provides valuable insights into margins so you can take targeted actions to improve retail metrics and profitability. It is easy to take a product for whatever reason and market it, then keep handling it. The price, discounts and costs over time change and soon your shop is handling an item that has a marginal margin and you do not know it as its hiding in thousands of products. These low margins are almost always a waste of time and space.

Regularly Run Margin Reports

Finding these items

This is a report that I suggest you run "Quantity On Hand and Price Check".

It will show you your margins and the quantities on hand so you can instantly start to plan. So, it is a great place to start.

So here it is:

I suggest running this report monthly, as your margins require continuous monitoring and management control.

Make target-specific margin thresholds, like aiming for at least 30% across most product categories. Food should be around 50% margin, exceptions will often have to be made for high-volume staples.

Pay close attention to the margin changes over time, not just the absolute margin level but trends down indicate issues.

Take Action on Low Margin Items

When you spot low margins in reports, take steps like:

• Reprice the item if viable to get to your target.
• Discontinue the product if other actions don't make sense. Free up space for better options.
• Negotiating with vendors and being blunt with your supply can often help. Just tell the truth at these prices, I cannot handle these products.

Continuously monitor and Improve

This is not a set-and-forget exercise. You need to:

• Review margins frequently as the market changes. Promotions, competition and costs fluctuate.
• Leverage data to constantly test and iterate on retail profit improvement strategies.

Conclusion

Careful monitoring of product margins through POS reporting and analytics is vital for optimizing profitability in retail. But turning those insights into action is the crucial next step. Avoid over-indexing on margin alone, and embrace a comprehensive approach for profitable growth.

Recommendation 

If you don't already, I recommend retailers now run these margin reports to uncover low performers. It will take you less than a minute.

Our point-of-sale (POS) system can provide you with valuable insights to help track your business performance. Here are some key metrics that a POS system allows you to monitor:

Sales

Knowing what products are popular and seeing sales trends over time allows you to understand your customers better and optimise ordering. One newsagent said, "seeing monthly sales reports on my POS helped me know when to restock best-sellers."

Inventory

The POS automatically tracks stock levels, so you always know what inventory you have on hand.

Customers

Gain an understanding of customer buying habits and preferences.

Finances

Track profits in real time so you can make informed financial decisions.

With accurate data over an extended period, a POS enables analysis of important metrics like top products or peak trading times. This type of business intelligence can help take your operations to the next level.

Ensure Data Quality Before Analysis

Is your data accurate?

Accuracy means data is error-free. Check for mistakes in entry, scanning or importing.

Is your data complete?

Completeness means all relevant aspects are captured. Scan all items; record all customer and transaction details.

Is your data up-to-date?

Information should reflect the current business situation. Update stock, pricing and supplier info regularly.

Is your data consistent?

Adjustments like returns can distort numbers if not accounted for consistently. Your data should represent what's happening now.

Choose Reports for Your Goals

Some common reports include:

Sales Reports

Customizable reports on sales by date, time, location, product, category, customer, staff and payment method.

Inventory Reports

Stock levels by quantity, value, cost, selling price, margin, turnover rate and more. Compare across locations/suppliers.

Customer Reports

Details on who is buying, what they buy, purchase frequency, spending habits, preferences and segmentation.

Staff Reports

Performance by sales, service, product knowledge and KPIs. Compare across locations/shifts.

Customize your Favorite POS Software Reports

Do you have a favourite report that you run consistently but must go through several pages to get to?

Our users love the ability to create an intelligent list of the reports they like to run frequently, all in one place. All they have to do is locate their favourite report and highlight it. Then, right-click on the reports, adding them to the Favourites Section. Now all their favourite reports are in one page; no more going from one screen to another screen as their favourite reports are in one convenient place! If they want to take it out of favourites, all they do is right-click and remove it.

Our users have the unique ability to quickly design an intelligent list just for their reports, increasing their overall productivity as they instantly have their business information.

Review Reports Regularly

Regularly reviewing reports, such as monthly, helps track performance over time. Identify:

• Trends - Consistent increases, decreases or differences.

• Patterns - Recurring changes or similarities in the data.

Understanding trends and patterns reveals business strengths, weaknesses and opportunities.

Use Reports for Planning and Evaluation

With insights from reports, you can:

• Plan - Set SMART goals and define actions to achieve them.

• Implement - Execute plans and monitor progress using reports.

• Evaluate - Compare results to goals and identify lessons learned.

Data-driven planning, implementation and evaluation ensures continuous improvement.

In summary, following these steps of data quality checks, report selection, regular review and usage for planning helps turn POS insights into informed decision-making and business growth.

To make the most of your POS Software, you need to:

• Check the quality of your data before running your reports
• Choose the correct reports for your business needs and goals
• Review your reports regularly and identify trends and patterns
• Use your reports to plan, implement, and evaluate your strategies

Following these steps, you can turn your POS system data into valuable insights to help you grow your business and achieve your goals.

Generally, one of the quickest ways to increase sales in a shop, such as in a newsagent greeting cards, to computerise this department.

Shelf space is valuable real estate. Why pay high rent to store slow-selling items that do not sell? The key to increasing profits is to optimise. But how do you determine which items aren't pulling their weight and which ones deserve more prominent placement? This blog post will show you how to use your point-of-sale (POS) system reports to identify fast and slow movers. You'll learn proven techniques to phase out laggards while spotlighting your star products. By actively managing your products, I have seen increased sales by 50%!

Step 1: Pinpoint Slow Movers with POS Reports

The first step is finding slow-selling products that take up space and drag down your performance. Here's how to identify them:

Run the Slow Moving Stock Lines Report

This vital report shows you which items sell below a specified threshold over a defined period. Make a budget for what an average item should have, and then see what items are below that budget. 

In your POS system, go to:

Reports > Stock > Slow Moving Stock Lines

Now pops out a report, in this case. I notice that many people get stunned by how many show up. Now, review this report for opportunities to adjust your mix. Any consistently low performers are candidates for removal or relocation.

Strategically Remove Laggards

Once you've identified the worst sluggish sellers, it's time to cut the dead weight. Clear them off the prime shelves and selling areas. Consider these options to remove them:

• Put them in a less expensive area in the shop.
• Mark down prices drastically for clearance sales
• Return, if possible, to the suppliers
• Consider bundling these items with stock that sells.

Freeing up space is critical. Shelves packed with stagnant items hinder sales. Now, you will have room to showcase faster sellers.

Review Slow Movers Frequently

Don't just run this report once a year. Analyse regularly to stay on top of declining products. Act quickly before they become completely obsolete and worthless.

Newly launched products may need more time to catch on. But persistently slow items must be removed before they fester and consume valuable real estate.

Step 2: Give Top Sellers the Star Treatment

Now look at your top sellers - you want to make these items the stars of your shop! Spotlight them front and centre to maximise sales.

Find Top Sellers with POS Reports

Go to register reports and select the top stock report as marked with the red arrow here.

Now, check these items out. I suggest doing it twice, the first, 3 months and then 12 months. This will give you an accurate idea of what sells in your shop.

Allocate Prime Space to Top Sellers

Give your hottest sellers expanded space in high visibility areas:

• Studies show that double shelf space for absolute top performers increases their sales by 50%. 
• Place at eye level for maximum visibility
• Cluster complementary products nearby
• Use signage and displays to highlight top products

Let your layout reflect consumer demand.

Maintain Inventory of Top Sellers.

Nothing kills sales in your shop faster than being out of stock on popular items. Use sales data and forecasts to ensure an adequate inventory of top-selling products.

Step 3: Replace Slow Movers with High Potential Products

Now, the strategy is rapidly replacing underperformers with new products with promise. Some fresh merchandise will become new top sellers. You are trying to create room to trial new products by clearing out persistent, sluggish sellers.

Test and Measure New Products

When introducing new items, set time frames for initial testing. For example, pull products that don't meet sales minimums after three months. Be ruthless and pull out poor performers.

Analyze Sales Reports Frequently

Regularly review both slow sellers and top sellers reports, such as monthly or quarterly. This allows you to dig into the factors driving sales fluctuations.

Watch for Red Flags

Warning signs a product is declining:

• Slow sales velocity
• Excess inventory build-up
• Lower than average profit margin
• Frequent price adjustments or mark-downs
• Loss of visual appeal or damaged packaging

Don't let struggling products occupy space for too long. Quick, decisive action prevents more wasted time.

Trust Your Judgement

Even with perfect data, sometimes you need to trust your gut. Act on those instincts if a product "feels" like a loser or winner. You know your business!

Follow the overall strategies and frameworks, but go with your intuition when all else is equal.

Give your customers more of the products they want from you!

As a retailer, you need a POS system tailored to your specific challenges and needs. The right software should empower you to:

- Make data-driven decisions using robust sales reports and metrics on department performance. Identify high and low-growth areas. 

- Set sales, profit, and KPIs goals and monitor real-time progress across your business.

- Focus on growing your business instead of manual processes. The software needs to handle the grunt work.

- Gain actionable insights into customer behaviour and purchasing patterns through its advanced analytics and dashboards.

- Access critical data anytime, anywhere.

The right POS system becomes a strategic asset for retailers by tackling pain points like limited visibility into performance, inefficient processes, lack of staff motivation and engagement, and more. It should work for you, not against you, so you can focus on the big picture of operating a successful retail business.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) for retailers

Understanding your daily sales performance across all departments is crucial for any retailer. It would be best if you had visibility into which areas of your store are driving revenue and profitability. You must quickly identify low-performing departments or see any operational issues impacting your shop. 

That's why having a robust point of sale (POS) system like ours with detailed reporting capabilities is so important. The right POS software will help you quickly generate a dissection sales report to analyze critical metrics for each department. Do it now in seconds!

This becomes very powerful if you can get them today while the day is still fresh in your mind. The question here would be, "What financially actually happened today"

Sales data and metrics for retailers

Easy with our POS system.

Go to Sales

Now select Dissection sales for a given period (see the red arrow)

Now select the days you require

In this case, I will choose today.

Now pops out a report full of relevant KPIs details for that day, including numbers, sales profit, scan rate and much more broken down by departments.

And that is only the beginning.

There are many more KPIs listed for you to look at. You can also specify other dates to analyse more. For example, look at yesterday's sales for comparison while these details are fresh in your mind to increase sales, improve efficiency, and reduce costs. It will also help you to understand what's driving performance so improve your retail sales performance. 

Some of the Sales Data and KPIs Metrics Provided

The dissection sales report provides a wealth of data for each department, including:

• Number of sales transactions - How many sales occurred? Is your shop layout reflecting your current sales?

• Total sales revenue - Which departments are bringing in the most money?

• Gross profit - Where is your profit coming from now?

• Margins - What departments are bringing in good margins now? Can these departments be improved?

• Scan rates - Highlights barcode or POS system issues impacting scans. Where are the problems in either your or your suppliers' data?

Deeper Analysis and Comparisons

In addition to these KPIs, you also get valuable analysis from other reports in that section such as:

• Top-selling products by department - Know your winners and losers.

• Sales comparisons to previous periods - Easily spot trends and anomalies.

• Insights into results - How did promotions, holidays, weather, and other impacts on sales?

Using the Data to Improve Performance

With the level of detail in the dissection sales report, retailers can better understand what's driving performance and where more focus is needed. You can identify high and low-performing departments, operational issues, staffing needs, merchandising opportunities, ineffective promotions, and much more.

Let the data guide your decisions to improve staffing levels, inventory planning, marketing initiatives, and overall strategy in each business area. The POS sales metrics will point you to what's working well and what needs more attention to optimise sales and profitability across every department.

I was struck by this article here that showed how A/B testing can dramatically improve sales in a shop. Now with POS Solutions Software, such In-Store Tests are simple and quick to do. We did notably a set of tests with Mars Bars a while ago, but this will do as an excellent example of how it works. 

The Problem

When sales of chilled coffee slowed at Savita's convenience store in Manchester, the UK, she wanted to re-energize its sales without a major expense. With limited space and budget, she adopted this low-risk, high-impact solution.

The Approach

Savita decided to allow A/B to test two different layouts for her chilled coffee section:

This is how it works. 

First what you do is establish what we call a baseline, the A case.  So over a week, you measure how your sales are going. Often all we have to do is use your existing information as it is already in place, so we save a week.

Secondly, we make the changes to the shop and let it run for a week.

Now we measure the difference. If it does not work for some reason, we try something different.

In her case, what she had was 

Layout A (Original)

• Chilled coffee split across two fridges
• 6 facings
• Arranged randomly

She then made the changes and now had her B case

Layout B (Test Layout)

• The entire range consolidated into one fridge
• Organized thoughtfully by flavour profile
• 12 facings

She tracked sales under each layout for two weeks.

The Results

The test yielded the following results:

• Chilled coffee sales increased 200% with Layout B
• Customers appreciated the easier shopping
• Higher purchase frequency despite no traffic increase

The Learning

With a simple in-store experiment, Savita unlocked major growth. She learned:

• Consolidate products together
• Arrange thoughtfully by type
• Allocate enough space

The Takeaway

A/B testing can help retailers optimize merchandising and increase sales. But running in-store tests can seem daunting without the right tools.

That's where POS Solutions Software comes in. Our system makes it simple for retailers like yours to set up, run, and analyse A/B tests quickly. So you can try bold ideas risk-free and scale up what works.

Facts do not lie - minor tweaks can have a significant financial impact.

Let's discuss how your POS system can build your business with easy A/B testing.

Knowing how popular a product is now is hard and, ironically is often harder if you know the product.

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to measure public interest.

Step 1: Go to Google Trends

Click here

Step 2: Enter Product Name

In the search bar, type in the name you want to analyse. Then to compare multiple products, click "Compare" under the search bar.

For example, if you sell dolls, you could enter "Barbie Dreamtopia Twinkle Lights Mermaid Doll", "Disney Princess Dolls", etc.

I used the quotation marks around multi-word search terms so that Google Trends analyses it as a phrase.

Step 3: Compare Products

Once you've entered the keywords, Google Trends will show a popularity graph over time.

You can enter up to 5 different terms and see how their trends compare on the same graph. This makes it easy to see which items have the highest search volume and interest over time.

Here is my graph

The one in green would definitely be the one I would look at in more detail. 

Step 4: Adjust the Date Range

By default, Google Trends shows the past 12 months of data. You can change the date range using the menu on the right, for example, selecting "Past five years" to see long-term trends.

I suggest avoiding short-term searches as these products often show fads which, if they sell less often, means you are stuck with products that are hard to sell. Of course, with new product launches, a shorter range is necessary.

Step 5: Filter Location

You can filter the search data geographically under the "GEO" menu. I suggest using your state to get more specific localised data. Unfortunately, for some products without much interest, you may need to switch back to "Australia" to get enough information.

Step 6: Analyse Related Queries

If you go down the page, you will find other related search terms eg "Top" and "Rising" related queries. This gives insight into different keyword variations and searches associated with that brand. High search volumes for related terms will also show that this brand has good awareness.

Conclusion

Google Trends is a free and easy way to get data-driven insights on brand popularity and interest over time. You can gauge public awareness by comparing keyword trends, adjusting date ranges, and analysing related queries.

Negative inventory is when the inventory level of a stock item in your system shows less than zero. What it shows is that your records are inaccurate. The computer tells you you have sold more of this item than you had in stock.

This can, if not addressed, seriously harm your retail business in a few key ways:

> Reduces faith by you and your staff in your inventory management system. At best, you will waste time second-guessing inventory counts. At worst, it is an advertisement to your staff that you do not know your stock figures.

> It distorts your reports system-wide. These negative stock figures often get included in your information.

> It means you have no stock control on many items.

Common Causes of Negative Inventory

Negative inventory typically arises from these problems:

> Inaccurate manual counts at stocktaking, there is a lot to count, and errors do happen.

> Data entry mistakes by your suppliers coming through their electronic invoices or by people in your shop inputting stock quantities.

> Failing to enter invoices before selling makes problems.

So it is best to correct any negative inventory situations. Here are some best practices for controlling negative inventory:

Finding the negative stock

Fortunately, we have a quick and easy way to check stock quantities for what you have on hand.
 
Go to reports. There is an option for Quantity On Hand and Price check; click on that.

We exclude those items that have zero stocks. 
 
I suggest doing it by department so in this example, I picked the dissection (department) tobacco. 
 

Now outcomes a report listing the details of your item, looking at the quantities on hand in the column QOH, you may see items in brackets, see green arrow below, these are the negative Stock Discrepancies.

At first, you will find it a lot of work to fix it, but once done, it's relatively quick.

You should frequently check this report for negative stock values, say monthly.

Now audit these negative items to determine what went wrong in your inventory management system.

Conclusion

With proactive prevention and early detection, negative inventory can be handled. Leverage tools like our reports to stay on top of your stock quantities.

Let us know if you have any other questions!