Why Inventory Management Systems are important for this holiday season?

Nov. 28, 2012 - PRLog -- As the holiday season approaches faster than ever, it is important to have all your items at the store organized and your inventory up-to-date. The National Retail Federation has estimated this holiday shopping season to increase sales by up to 4.1% compared to last year (http://www.nrf.com/). As shoppers look for the best fitting deals of the season, convenience stores are also under pressure to offer customers low prices on items, fast and convenient service, and enough inventory to avoid empty store shelves.  So how are millions of C-stores in North America preparing for this holiday season? And what tools can managers used to avoid costly disasters?

A good way to offer customers their favorite items at a reasonable price is through promotions and discounted mix and match prices. Contacting suppliers ahead of time will prevent discrepancies on prices and avoid inventory issues. In addition to having the right items at the right price, it is also important to have an excellent customer service. Providing all employees with the right type of inventory management system such as XPBM, will help to reduce extended hours of work doing paperwork and allow employees to be available for peak customer hours.

During our recent poll, most of the C-Stores are finding inventory management systems to be the most efficient way to operate during the holidays. With several transactions happening every minute at your C-Store there is no better way to know what is going on but to have a back office system that can present to you the most accurate information every minute. “Instead of waiting weeks for the end of month figures to identify problems, management can quickly pinpoint issues and focus on problems right away” Matt Robinson, Aldata. Not only are employees able to see accurate data on past sales and analyze daily trends, but inventory management systems also contribute to keep in track stock levels on products frequently offered with promotions or items moving quickly.  

Past research has shown that 46% of customers left for a competitor’s store after discovering “that the product(s) they were looking for during the holiday season were out of stock” Post-Holiday Shopping Survey 2011. Inventory management systems can also help managers and employees to improve customer service by providing customer with items they are looking for. With system in place “customers find what they want at the right time, in the right quantity and in the right location”; adds Matt Robinson “at the same time, retailers increase customer retention and boost sales because they have the tools” that help employees to stock items on shelves and based their decisions on past sales and purchase behaviour.

Whether you want a pc based inventory management system or a cloud inventory management application, it is indisputable the benefits of a system when it comes to this holiday season. If you are currently running a C-Store and don’t have a system to help you manage your store, we recommend you take action and get a system that can help avoid financial disasters during the season. For more information and tips on how inventory management systems can be beneficial to your C-Store please visit www.xsitesoftware.ca or contact David Cook at 1-888-346-0864.