How can etailers move out-dated inventory?
In a fast moving retail environment it is vital to keep stock moving to ensure that there is room for upcoming products and new trends that emerge. Holding stock will tie up capital and floor space in the warehouse and ultimately the inability to react to a changing market will cause the business to fall behind its competitors. Here Whichwarehouse cover a few of the best ways to keep the warehouse turning over that old inventory
Targeted promotions are a great way to encourage a surge in sales of a certain product. You can either go down the route of mass emails to existing customers, or try a social media campaign. You can also utilise previous sales data to identify potential cross selling opportunities. By highlighting customers who bought a specific item – for example size extra-large clothing, you can then direct them to extra-large items on sale when they go to checkout.
How can you avoid an overstock situation?
Of course the best way to avoid the requirement to move old stock is to avoid overstocking in the first place! As a fulfilment centre or a retailer it is vital to ensure a consistent and reliable communication method between the partners so that you can analyse the current inventory against sales demand.
Now it is not physically possible to track all the stock items every week without overloading your teams with information and it becoming meaningless. You need to prioritise the products based on the turnover of each line. Fast moving stock should be checked monthly or bi-monthly against sales and purchasing amended. Middle speed stock could be checked quarterly and the slowest moving stock on a bi-annual basis. Of course these need to be amended depending on factors such as how many lines there are, the speed of turnover for all items, and the staff resource available. So it could be every day, every week and every month instead.
To be able to monitor and react to changes in demand it is vital that you have a link in from the POS giving you SKU sales data so that you can identify those lines which are slow moving, or have stopped selling all together.
In the worst case scenario, where you have identified the lines that require action and tried to boost sales, but it is just not working, you can always turn to a stock liquidator. It is important to ensure that you select the correct liquidator who will not compromise your brand or your values.