Stock control: balancing supply with demand

For many builders’ merchants, stock control represents something of a balancing act. Having too little stock on site will affect trade, preventing you from providing your customers with the products they’re looking for, while purchasing too much can negatively impact your cash flow processes. Striking the right balance between supply and demand, then, is crucial, but maintaining that balance throughout the working year can be severely difficult. Take a look at just three of the processes you ought to undertake in order to balance your stock this year. Could our retail software, built just for merchants, help you to do so?

Stocktaking

It logically follows that in order to have the correct amount of stock on site at any given time, one needs to have an accurate understanding of their stock levels. Accurate stocktaking will allow you to determine which items you have on your shelves, which items you have in the warehouse and to amend those levels following a sale. Over time, however, the everyday running of a retail environment will often work to confuse matters, as stock is misplaced, returned or ordered unintentionally. Maintaining a bearing on your stock levels under such circumstances will prove a challenge if you attempt to do so manually.

Retail management software designed specifically for merchants is prepopulated with your product files. This will allow you to keep a digital record of your stock as it is sold and replenished, helping to ensure that your stock levels are accurate at all times.

Point-of-sale data

Stock control isn’t just about ensuring that your stock levels don’t diminish too far, however. As we mentioned earlier, the balancing act hinges on maintaining enough stock to satisfy demand, and naturally, these levels will vary from product to product and store to store. In order to match supply with demand, it’s important to understand the buying habits of your customers, and for that you need point-of-sale data.

Information stored in a point of sale system, generated as transactions are processed through your cash desk, can help you to determine which products are selling well, which have diminished in popularity and which might become more desirable in future. By using a point of sale system to provide you with accurate point-of-sale data at the counter, you can work to better match supply with demand in future.

Forecasting for the future

Stock control is all about making preparations for the future, ensuring that your company isn’t caught out by slow periods or times of increased trade. Stock control software is designed to provide you with the data you need to forecast future market trends, alongside the ability to change your existing processes to meet them. By controlling your stock more accurately you can increase company profitability by reducing levels of dead stock and improving sales figures, all for minimal expense.

Stock control is an important aspect of any builders merchant, and our Trader retail management software solutions can help you to improve accuracy in future. If you’d like to benefit from what our software has to offer, contact us today to find out more about how we can help.