Are you buried in inventory and have no time to organize it?
Do you ever daydream of having an easy to use system to manage and maximize all the products you receive? Your store will function better if you are focused on providing excellent service to your customers. You can’t do that if you spend all your time entering donations into your inventory system and leaving your sales floor stagnate from not rotating items. Below are some easy ways the right thrift store POS solution can help you manage your donations and turn your production headaches into sales.
Be a sales associate, not a scanning coordinator
According to the Association of Retail Professionals, roughly one in five Americans will shop at a thrift store sometime this year. That is nearly twice the number of people who will shop at factory outlets. The resale industry in the United States generates about $17.5 billion in revenues yearly, with antique stores representing 13% of sales in those figures.
With the U.S. economy on life-support and run-away inflation hitting consumers hard, we can anticipate more shoppers will be looking for deals and secondhand stores. Make the most of the time and ensure you maximize your chances to boost your sales and revenue.
You and your staff can’t make sales if you aren’t in the front of house where you can help customers and provide the best experience for your shoppers. This cannot happen if you are in the back of the store trying to organize all the new products you’ve recently received.
You need a tool to speed up the process and get your products scanned and organized, and your staff up front quickly to be with your customers.
Easy Item Entry
Your business needs a thrift store inventory management system that offers you easy fill in the blank product entry. Manually typing in every field needed is a waste of your time and makes it too easy to make errors. Additionally, you don’t want to rely on your staff to determine values manually; your thrift store POS system should be able to show you all price points on screen. The system you choose should be able to determine the best price based on item quality and brand name, using a “good, better, best” scale.
An easy to use graphical interface is critical. Look for a system that allows you to use drop downs, quick keys, and field duplication to speed up your production process. Your system needs to be intuitive so you don’t have to spend weeks training new employees.
Product Tagging & Color Coding
A good tagging system is absolutely vital for a thrift store inventory management system. Good tagging will help you make sure you are rotating your inventory as needed. In addition, an exemplary system will remind you automatically when it’s time to rotate your stock.
What’s the easiest way to rotate your items? Use a color-coded system that syncs with your thrift store POS solution so you can easily move products around your store to boost your bottom line revenue. You have no control over the product donations you receive, but you do have control over what happens to those donations once you get them. For example, do they become an uncontrolled mess, or are they neatly arranged in your retail space to maximize your sales?
Inventory Synchronicity
Earlier this year, an analysis was done that predicted the resale market in the U.S. to grow 16 times faster than the broader retail clothing sector by 2026. The nature of this marketplace is already changing, with more and more thrift shopping being moved to online storefronts. The thrift store POS system you choose must link directly with an eCommerce solution that will allow you to capture your share of the billions of digital dollars being spent in the secondhand space.
Establishing this link between your eCommerce and your thrift store POS system allows your inventory to be updated in real-time and removes the fear of stockouts. Digital is the new retail frontier, and your thrift store needs to be able to compete where your customers are spending their hard-earned dollars.
You don’t run an inventory management business. You run a thrift store. But, whether you are for profit or raising money for another worthy cause, your business, your employees, and everyone who depends on you needs you to focus your time on sales. Make sure the thrift store POS system you choose helps you efficiently manage your inventory, quickly scans in items, and synchronizes seamlessly with your eCommerce solution. Work on a system that’s fast, easy to learn, and can grow with your business.
