What To Know About Inventory Shrinkage
What is inventory shrinkage? Inventory shrinkage is a common problem for retailers worldwide. It can result in a decrease in earnings and force you to change your accounting books, which would cost much more time and money. To tackle severe inventory shrinkage, you must first understand what it is, why it occurs, and what you can do to avoid it. If this happens, you must know how to make correct entries in your books to ensure proper inventory accounting. Causes of inventory shrinkage Inventory shrinkage can be caused by various factors, which differ between brick-and-mortar and eCommerce businesses. According to SheerID, the possible reasons might be: Theft from consumers Often known as shoplifting, this refers to the situation when someone breaks into your physical store and steals a product. Theft can be easily avoided by implementing locked cases, ink tags, or involving manual, psychical monitoring for smaller, less valuable objects, depending on the type of goods you sell (food, produce, etc.) Theft of employees Employees who have full access to all of your goods can be able to steal from your stock. With employee theft accounting for 42% of inventory shrinkage, you’ll want to learn how to avoid it (e.g., proper warehouse management and security) and how to deal with it when it happens (which we’ll discuss in a later section). Damage Damage is described as something that renders inventory unsellable, especially during transportation. Broken packaging, holes, tears, water damage, product expiration, and other issues fall under this category. Management errors Inventory shrinkage might be the result of management mistakes such as miscounting, incorrect measurement units, or other forms of human error. This is also possible with automated inventory control. How to prevent inventory shrinkage? The good news is there are various ways to avoid inventory shrinkage. Whether you are warehousing products or have your storefront, any combination of these methods can work. Set up object monitoring It’s not challenging to track goods, and it will help you determine if a piece of merchandise has vanished from the warehouse or the retail floor. Fashion stores, for example, have had great success with inkblot tag systems. Grocers can also lock their carts if they exit the parking lot’s immediate vicinity. Monitor inventory regularly You can do this in a cyclic pattern to cut down on time, but inventory tracking and management are critical. It’s better to using technology that can keep inventory counts updated in real-time rather than Excel, which is static and can not be synced to anything. Audits that catch you from balance If your workers, who are cheating on you, are aware that audits are on the way, they will have time to plan. In this case, it’s better to identify inconsistencies in the inventory counts more with a surprise inventory audit. Increased security precautions Installing cameras and surveillance systems in your shop is beneficial for brick-and-mortar stores. Clear garbage bags after every shift. This helps ensure no one places inventory in a bag that they carry home while claiming it’s trash.
Summer Sales Preparation For Online Stores
The seasonal pattern has a significant impact on eCommerce businesses. For example, retailers often experience increased demands during the beginning or end of the season. Specifically, summer sales have been shown to increase brand awareness and push consumers to a website, reducing the risk of a sales decline. We’ve put together a series of tactics to help your store boost sales during the summer slump. Decide on hot products to offer When planning your summer sales, it’s essential to diversify the product range by including seasonal favorites. You can check out the best sellers on the websites of major retailers, including Amazon and Walmart, to see what’s new this summer. Or you can simply type in the words “best seller” in the search bar to see what people are looking for right now. Then keep them in mind while determining the goods to apply a discount price. Another great way to increase sales is to use bundle goods. You may also use giveaways as part of your marketing plan. Create a coherent marketing strategy Prepare all of the materials needed for your summer sales in advance. You should pay particular attention to specials and consider any other deals you’d like to run during these months. To ensure that you don’t miss anything important, make a calendar with start and end dates. Then, for each promotion, devise publicity and promotional strategies accordingly. Update your store appearance The first thing to attract customers is to redecorate your store with a summer theme. For example, place hot summer items on your homepage to entice visitors from the first second they arrive on your site. If you have a blog, write articles that are relevant to the season and appealing to customers the most, such as: Top 10 summer dresses Beauty buyers’ top picks for summer Best summer accessories Using email newsletters and social media Have you ever wished you could master the art of email marketing? The best time to do this is during the summer. Pay attention to your content to avoid any mistakes regarding grammar or vocabulary. Then try different tips to incentivize subscribers to click on your call-to-action links. Besides, customers will come to your store in droves thanks to social media outlets. As many people go on holiday during the holiday, they use social media (e.g., Instagram) more frequently. As a result, you may hold a social media contest to gain more followers, boost your online reputation, and eventually increase sales. Ensure your shipping calendar Since summer is only three months long, customers expect their summer orders to be fulfilled as quickly as possible. Thus make every effort to reduce delivery times and never be late. Make sure your delivery information is clear and visible. To achieve a competitive advantage and entice the customers to make a purchase, consider providing free delivery for a limited time. Reduce product waste by collaborating with other businesses Collaboration is a good way to reach new customer segments and boost sales. For example, you could give a USD 10-discount to customers who spend USD 20 or more in your partner’s shop. Shopping cart abandonment is common, and e-stores do whatever they can to prevent it. Due to the seasonality of deals, this is particularly important in the summer. Customers who abandoned their shopping carts are doubtful to return. Increase performance with automation When the demand increases, it is likely that you’ll be overwhelmed by a bunch of work to be done at a time. In this case, it’d be helpful to install an automation platform. The app allows you to convert repetitive tasks into automated workflows that execute when needed. Some of the app features are: Auto-publish products Auto-categorize orders according to value, locations, etc Auto-segment customer based on demographics, spending, the total number of order, etc Auto-tag customers on CRM, email marketing, and delivery platforms Auto-generate reports & lists on Google Sheet Auto-notify of low-stock items, abandoned cart, or high-value orders Auto-detect and halt high-risk orders
How To Choose The Best BigCommerce Apps
BigCommerce is among the most flexible eCommerce sites for growing businesses, and it’s now available on your smartphone. The best BigCommerce apps allow you to manage orders, display customer information, and access key performance indicators while on the go. Many application providers offer Big Commerce integrations for download and purchase. It doesn’t matter if it’s the Microsoft Office Store or the Play Store. You can use freely choose the most suitable apps based on your requirements. How to choose the best BigCommerce apps? There are two types of apps based on the authentication method: single-click and connector. Single-click users use the OAuth Authorization Code Grant flow. Meanwhile, store owners must manually create and configure store API credentials for connector apps. The majority of the best BigCommerce apps begin with a small budget. This causes people to focus on “what can I get for free?” rather than “what is my budget?” Don’t get me wrong: there is some fantastic free software available. However, the primary consideration when selecting an app should always be “does it solve my problem while not adding to my workload?” Be truthful about yourself. How much are you willing to pay for increased efficiency, better usability, better reporting, or anything else you need? Setting a budget ahead of time helps make clear the amount of BigCommerce applications available to you. Finally, if a free app meets your needs just as well as a paid app, that’s fantastic! However, opting for a free app would almost always cost you more money and time in the long run. Consider one of my non-profit clients who uses a free features app. It seemed fantastic at first, but the data collected was purely useless. Every month, they had to export and import data into other systems, taking up a lot of time and resources. As a result, their consumer database became outdated, resulted in ineffective marketing and loss in sales. Factors to consider Reviews Product reviews are generally helpful in evaluating the quality of software. The more positive feedback there is, the more likely it is that the app works effectively. This feedback is generated by users, thus providing more objective insights into the product. Some companies might use it as a marketing tool. For example, they might aggressively request reviews from customers whose experience is relatively good. However, this is rather good in the sense that you have more clues to decide on the platforms. Description First and foremost, it’s critical to recognize that the product overview, video, and screenshots available in the Bigcommerce app store are primarily marketing tools. Take a careful look at it but don’t be naive. They are just pieces of information designed to pique your interest in their product. Keep in mind that you’re not searching for a good marketer; you’re looking for a good developer. Support Go straight to the help section after reading the description. The developer’s FAQ, website, phone number, privacy policy, email, and support address are mentioned in this section. Specifically, the FAQ is very beneficial in understanding a product you’ve never heard of. It might explain hidden functions, the difficulty of troubleshooting the app, and ensure that you can solve several problems independently.
