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Retail Management: Setting up a stores inventory

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Setting up a Store Inventory with a POS system (continued from last month)

The main reasons a store will want to create their own codes is that the items in their inventory do not have UPC codes, or manufacturer product codes. Most stores will also create their own codes and labels if only part of their inventory is barcoded. Labeling with barcodes is also done as a method of identifying products sold in a specific store, important when similar products are sold by stores nearby and returning of items occurs.

While it is perfectly permissible to sequentially number the inventory items, creating a unique numeric identifier for the entire inventory beginning with, “1” and running into the tens, hundreds, or even thousands. However, if you are going to go through the trouble of printing barcodes and labeling, you might as well have the codes mean something.

If the code can be understood by visually observing the label, it would be possible to convey such useful information as: the department the item belongs to, the date or season the item was purchased, the manufacturer / designer / vendor, the type of item, style, color, size, etc. Typically, clothing stores code the season or purchase date so that clerks can locate older items and move them to sale racks quickly. Department codes, or aisle codes, allow items to be easily returned to the right location, all of this means less time spent on “house keeping” tasks and more time spent on productive customer service and selling.

Creating the plan.

In order for the code to be most easily read visually, alternating alphabetic letter and numbers are used to separate information; however, remember that letters take up more space so if the product code is printed it must be tested to make sure it will fit on the label. (Some POS programs allow use of sequentially numbered item codes and product codes, the item code is printed as a barcode to save space and the product code is printed as letter and numbers for visual identification).

The first step in designing you own product code is to determine the type of information that is useful. Then decide how that information is best shown. Some choices are obvious, dates and sizes are generally shown as numbers and thus are best kept that way. If there are a limited number of different possibilities that particular item of information is a good candidate for a simple numeric code. Thus if you have only 5 to 10 departments (more than 10 departments is generally considered too hard to remember and too complicated to use) or 10 vendors they could be 0 through 9, even sizes if they are small, medium and large could be 1, 2 and 3.

When you do use letters it is a good idea to keep them to no more than three (3) characters long thus the following is a representative plan for colors:

A completed code will look like this:

“ACC002MAN3YLO”

ACC = Accessories, a Department

200 = year and season

MAN = Manufacturer

3 = Size

YLO = Yellow Color

Printing the Labels

Barcode labels can generally be printed in one of two ways: a barcode printer or a conventional home or office computer laser printer. The dedicated barcode printer is a specialty or task only printer. Peel and stick labels are printed from a roll of labels. The rolls of labels are generally available in widths from 3/4” to 4”. The label printer is designed to sense the beginning and end of a label by either a “gap” or “bar” process. The gap method actually senses the light between the individual labels on the roll, the bar method “reads” a printed 1/4” black bar on the back of each label. Labels must be purchased as either gap or bar to coincide with the method used by the printer. The print process for barcode printer is either direct thermal or thermal transfer. Direct Thermal uses heat which serves as a catalyst causing a chemical reaction on special chemically treated paper. Thermal transfer uses heat to transfer a special ink from a ribbon to plain paper. The thermal transfer method is more expensive but lasts longer; average life is 3 years verses 1 year with the direct thermal process. The Cognitive Barcode Blaster is probably the most popular printer on the market and sells for $550 for the direct thermal process; and $650 for the thermal transfer.

A conventional laser printer can also be used printing 8.5” x 11” sheets of labels. For an initial run of all inventory items this works well, but printing small batches will waste the remainder of a full sheet as each print secession prints from the top left, across and down.

While the process of setting up a point-of-sale and inventory control system is time consuming, it is an investment worth it long term for increased accuracy, reducing shrinkage and developing better pricing, as more information becomes available on exactly what is selling, where and when.

Ways to Pull Customers into Your Store

In spite of all the technology available there's still only one time-tested way to help ensure the success of your retail business.

Get customers to walk through your front door.

Driving foot traffic to a bricks-and-mortar store may seem something of a lost art, but it's no less critical to the health of your business than it ever has been. Here are seven tips (three were from last month) to get your front door swinging.

Have a sale. Old fashioned? Maybe. Still, nothing beats the lure of something that's less expensive for a limited amount of time. And, while the idea of a sale may seem a bit blasé to some, technological advances have made sales events more potent than ever before. For example, if you maintain a database of customers, contact them via an e-mail newsletter to let them know of upcoming sales events and other promotions. To further boost foot traffic, urge them to pass along your e-mail to others. That's not only effective but exceedingly cost efficient, as you're not dropping money on mass mailings that only saturates the uninterested. "Offers that come with a sense of urgency are always effective to get customers to come to stores," says Irene Dickey of the University of Dayton 's School of Business Administration .

Host a seminar or workshop. Boosting foot traffic doesn't even have to involve a direct effort to sell a product or service. These days, education is every bit as important, as consumers want to know how to get the most out of what they buy. And that makes in-house seminars and workshops powerful weapons to build foot traffic. To illustrate: If you own an accounting firm, offer free tax-cutting workshops. Sporting goods stores can consider a variety of events, from strength training clinics to nutrition seminars. But, no matter the actual event, publicize it to the hilt. "Promote the event via in-store signage, fliers, ads and press releases," says Segal. "Home Depot does it and so does Williams-Sonoma. And look at how successful they are."

Follow up with your contacts. Even the best-planned promotional event is of little import if you fail to leverage the initial contact. Keep encouraging foot traffic by staying in touch with customers. Let them know about events that may otherwise attract little attention. Encourage them to pass along the news with friends and neighbors. "A great event is only half the battle," Smith says. "If you want consistent foot traffic, you have to follow up, then follow up some more. Send them offers, special announcements or anything you can think of to get them into your store."

Emphasize customer service. One advantage that a bricks-and-mortar store has over mail-order and Internet competitors is a personal relationship with customers. Special events can be terrific in building foot traffic, but what keeps customers coming back — and spreading the good word as they do — is the product knowledge and enthusiasm that can only be conveyed face to face. Things may be cheaper on the Web or via the post office, but getting to know your customers and what they value can trump those handicaps. And, in turn, can build a steady stream of foot traffic for the long haul.

By Jeff Wourio

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR:  We would like very much to hear from retail store/hospitality owners and managers.  We want to use this section of the newsletter to have your real world experiences shared with others and to be a kind of clearing house for great ideas in both the retail and hospitality industries. 

So please send us your comments, suggestions, thoughts and ideas to: info@point-of-salesystems.com or jas@charcola.com, you also call us at 310.379.3739 or mail us at:

Point-of-Sale Systems.Com
6033 West Century Boulevard, Suite 450
Los Angeles, CA 90045

To act as an inducement, if we use any of your input we will give you a $25, $50 or $100 gift certificate (depending on the amount of material you supply) from your choice of either Point-of-Sale Systems.Com or Charles Carroll Associates.  You can use the gift certificates to purchase POS supplies or get a discount from any accounting, tax or consulting services!

Evelyn, "Sit at Our Table" ( West Covina , CA ), a quick serve restaurant

Just wanted to drop you a quick line expressing my thanks at you guys averting a catastrophe. My daughter, Samantha, decided we need a new full size laser printer to replace the one we already had. (It was an old HP we brought to the store from home and it just gave out.)

She had gone to the office supply store the night before to get the printer and she planned to install it in the morning before our usually busy lunch time rush.

Sam unscrewed the back panel on the CREST POS system and unplugged the old printer, then plugged the new printer into the same usb port.

When she turned on the CREST POS she could not get the keyboard to work so she could not even log on to the system! She tried re-booting but it was no use. We were going to have a crowd of people in about 2 hours and only the old fashion pen & paper plus the old and slow telephone modem credit card swiper.

She called your office in a panic to see what you could do. In the past you guys have been able to log into the system to show us stuff, you could log in but still could not get the system to work.

In the mean time we prepared for the worst. Figuring the credit card modem would take a long time we made signs stating our system was down and asking customers to pay with cash.

Thank goodness you were able to get a technician to us in less than an hour! He diagnosed the problem as being an unplugged cord which Samantha must have accidentally caused when she installed the printer. He had us up in no time just as the rush started coming in for lunch! Quickly we torn down those silly signs!

So thanks for everything!

Evelyn

Letter from the Editor -

Just a quick note this month. I thought I'd bring you up to date on our most recent addition to our staff. Hiring is never easy, reviewing resumes, calling and talking to people, scheduling interviews, it is time consuming and difficult. But in the end it is worth it.

So we welcome Tara Radcliffe as our newest Customer Service Associate. Tara is a graduate of New York University and she is also an actress so when she is not helping us with point-of-sale watch for her on TV!

Tara Radcliffe

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