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If you're in the business of Trading - especially in Retailing to end consumers, , chances are you have a handful of standout products that consistently outperform the rest. In the retail industry, these bestsellers are easily identifiable. They're the products that fly off the shelves with minimal effort. Unlike items requiring heavy promotions, discounts, or extensive marketing campaigns to gain traction, bestsellers move quickly because they resonate deeply with consumers.
These products are not only the backbone of a company’s sales strategy but also represent the core appeal of the brand. They are the “crown jewels,” A.K.A products that maintain strong demand regardless of market fluctuations, seasons, or external conditions. Their ability to consistently deliver high returns with little marketing effort makes them invaluable assets to any business. In fact, the success of these products often allows companies to allocate resources elsewhere, knowing that the bestsellers will continue to generate steady revenue.
In short, bestsellers are the lifeblood of the retail industry, effortlessly driving profits and ensuring a constant stream of revenue. Their performance requires little to no intervention, making them critical to the long-term success of any business.
You can only prevent your customers from enjoying your best-selling product by not having enough of it. This could be due to insufficient showrooms, online stores, or warehouse stock.
It's as straightforward as it sounds. However, to the dismay of many managers every year, they discover their best-selling products buried deep within one of their warehouses, lost among other, perhaps less important, items. A natural disaster occurs when these products have a defined shelf life, and the best-sellers are only found when the product is nearing or has already passed its expiration date.
This is when the marketing and sales departments and the warehouse department collectively invoke the famous quote by poet Milton, “All Hell broke loose…”
Depending on the peculiar situation of the business, most retailers will do one of the following:
Whatever decision they make as a retailer, they wouldn't have wanted to do so if they were aiming to grow their business.
Naturally, it begs the question - “How did the business get here?” But, of course, we are all human, and we make errors. The key is to understand how costly human mistakes can be. Sometimes, such errors can almost shut down a business.
The solution to the whole problem is as elementary as the problem itself. As a retailer, you must keep a close watch on your SKU (Stock keeping units) and always be aware of your product's shelf life. But more importantly, you must be acutely aware of what stock you own at any point in time and where it is positioned.
All it requires is discipline. If you make sure your company follows a strict process of entering each SKU as it enters your warehouse or store, either uniquely identify each SKU with a serial code or know exactly the number of items you will have for each item.
Once you have a track of the incoming goods, it is a matter of periodic review of your Inventory to ensure the goods are not hidden.
Let’s break this down.
First, you must have a tabulated list of your products with the entry date as the quantity against each item. Something as simple as this will do:
If you are using an Inventory System or a retail-focused ERP system, this will be available by default. You will have many more details about each transaction, which will help you further.
Once you have tabulated the details mentioned above, the next step is to periodically review the in-hand data against the shelf life data you will have for each SKU. You must teach this much-needed discipline in your organization to avoid disastrous situations.
Again, tracking your SKU against the shelf life will require you to have a simple table like the one below so that you can get this report periodically.
The sales and marketing team can then plan in tandem to take necessary action proactively to make sure there is maximum ROI against each of the SKUs that are being stocked.
This is the most basic practice that any retail-oriented business must follow to avoid trouble, all the more so in the current business climate, where one needs to maximize revenues rather than miss opportunities.
Do you need help identifying your bestsellers or generating detailed reports on product performance? Read about the leading retailer in KSA who drastically transormed their operatiosn by implementing a Retail focused solution here
With its advanced analytics and real-time reporting features, HAL ERP provides the data you need to track top-performing items and make informed decisions.
Get in touch with us to streamline your processes and optimize your sales strategy!
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