Whether through human error, shoplifting or employee theft, any stock loss will always have a significant impact on your bottom line. It can be easy to feel somewhat overwhelmed at trying to protect your business from the impact of something that has so many variables too – will you ever be able to reduce that stock loss to zero? Sadly, probably not but you can take some big strides in the right direction.
Stocktaking is the first step and really does lie at the heart of getting to grips with where and how your stock loss is occurring. From there, it’s what you do with all that data that really matters; it’s no use gathering the information unless you are going to act on it. So many businesses try to tackle their stocktake alone but at a time when profit margins are most under threat from the impact of stock loss, do you really want to? There are a few things to consider before carrying out a DIY stocktake:
Do you have enough time?
An effective and thorough stocktake is a significant undertaking and it’s important to give enough time and resource to getting it right. You may need to rope in more staff to help, you may even need to close the store for a period of time if you’re carrying out the stocktake yourself. Either way you’re looking at losing revenue somewhere, whether from the store closure or reallocating the staff resource. Perhaps that money would be better spent on an external stocktaking specialist.
Are your staff trained for the job?
On the surface, a stocktake doesn’t seem like an overly complex job…this is simply not true. Carrying out a top notch stocktake requires skill, precision and experience – does your team have it? If not and your processes are a little sloppy you’re likely to have errors in that stocktake that could add up to an even bigger problem on your bottom line.
It’s so much more than just counting – what do you do with the data?
Of course stocktaking gives you a picture of what’s in stock and what isn’t but it’s also so much more than that. Done right, your stocktake will give you a keen understanding of your businesses trends, stock availability, any issues that could affect business, how and where your stock is getting lost, staff training gaps, security vulnerabilities…the list goes on. Once you know all of this, are you ready and able to tackle it?
If you’re currently working through your stock checking internally and would like to bring a little more experience to things, the Abacus team have been supporting retailers for decades and are ready and able to help. Give us a call on 01637 874609 or email info@abacusvaluers.co.uk for more info.
