Ensuring Maximum Impact In-Store: Post-Holiday Check-Up
The holiday season demands a lot from your inventory. Between big-time shopping days, like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and December 21/22/23, products can move off the shelf quickly – and there might not be enough in-store staff to keep up.
With the busy season coming to a close and the new year settling in, it’s tempting for brands to slow down and take a breather. However, that may not be the most effective use of your time and resources.
Instead, it’s in your best interest to conduct post-holiday check-ups of your inventory. This is particularly important for brands stocked at pay-per-scan retailers where accurate inventory levels are even more necessary.
Here’s what to take into consideration:
1. Accurate Inventory Levels
We recently wrote about a phantom inventory trend that is making manufacturers think they have more inventory in-store than they actually do. This can be caused by many circumstances, such as inaccuracies in the retailer’s inventory tracking, staff mistakes, retail loss, and more.
However, phantom inventory is a problem that can’t be known about or solved remotely. You need to be in-store to truly know what is happening with your inventory and what the actual levels are.
2. Are Your Products Actually Making It Onto the Shelf?
The Storesupport Canada team visits a lot of retailers so we can tell you with confidence that there is a widespread issue that happens way more frequently than it should.
Product simply doesn’t make it from the storeroom to the shelf.
With many retailers being busy and/or understaffed, there might not be as many in-store resources to ensure that your product is being sufficiently re-stocked. And when customers don’t see your product on the shelf, studies show they are more likely to buy a competitor’s product – or leave the store entirely.
Again, this is only a problem you can truly know about if you are in-store and seeing empty shelves.
3. Are Products Priced and Displayed Accurately?
Another common issue we see when products do make it to the shelf is that there might be inaccuracies in the pricing or a missing tag.
Additionally, sometimes brands provide signage and other display items for their products and they are either set up incorrectly or not at all…
There are also times where the inventory might say that you have product left in stock, but that product is damaged in some way. It might have been returned and put back out on the floor, opened, or have another issue. While technically there is still product left, it might not move as quickly.
The only way to truly know what is happening with your inventory in-store is to be there yourself. You need to be checking stock levels frequently and making sure that your items are actually making it to shelves in the way you intended — particularly after the busy holiday season.
Or, if you can’t be there yourself, send a trusted partner in for you – like Storesupport Canada!
We offer national retail merchandising services that include inventory management, display setups, mystery shoppers, and more.
Contact us today to make 2020 your most lucrative year yet. Call 1-877-421-5081 or visit www.storesupport.ca.
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