How to Digitise Your Own Retail Stocktakes

No merchant should be suffering in the pain of guide stocktaking practices. Digitising your procedure will save time, improve accuracy and permit you to keep on selling as you count.

Most retailers recognise:

  • The significance of accurate inventory data to retail excellence, and that a stocktake is a necessary process to accomplish this
  • the pitfalls of guide stocktakes
  • the advantages that digitising your stocktake procedures can provide in terms of precision, reducing time that needs to be spent by employees & ensuring that your shop can remain open and continue to make sales

An electronic stocktake involves your staff using barcode scanners (typically wireless) to record a count of your available stock and then uploading this information into compatible retail management applications so current quantities are available to all regions of the company.


Sources

https://www.connectpos.com/pos-review-connectpos-vs-lightspeed-retail-pos/

https://www.connectpos.com/pos-review-connectpos-vs-shopkeep-pos/

https://www.connectpos.com/pricing-options-for-different-pos-systems/

But, there are some very important considerations that you will need to make to develop a compact digital stocktake solution Your employees successfully adopt:

Choose the Perfect retail software

With the ideal retail software solution, you will have ready-made digital stocktake choices which were road-tested by other retailers, also guided step-by-step support to help you rapidly implement your new procedure. If your existing software partner doesn't offer this and you try to construct a procedure from scratch, this may involve far more complexity and time.

Your applications spouse should be able to give advice on suitable hardware which may make the inventory counting and data upload process as easy and efficient as possible for your employees.

Once data is ready for upload into a retail applications it needs to be in a position to be cross-checked by a supervisor / appointed employee before it's updated on your system. Managers should then have the ability to nominate items for a re-count, or take them into the last stocktake adjustment.

Once approved, stock data should then upgraded and made immediately available to all workers (including at the point of sale) across all areas so that they have a real-time perspective of stock availability and status. Software with an integrated eCommerce solution will also allow this live inventory data to be made accessible your internet customers. Employees need to be able to leverage this latest stock information, in-depth analytics functionality and workflow tools to make key business decisions and automate business processes.

See also:

Choose the Perfect hardware

You'll also have to appear at suitable scanning hardware that's compatible with your retail applications and meets your business requirements. These scanners will have to read the barcodes you use on your retail performance and ensure that the information is recorded in a compatible format.

Ideally, devices should be wireless with built-in memory which may be uploaded once counts are finished. Scanners with cables must be constantly connected to notebooks, which is a really inconvenient way of you and your employees!

Other factors to consider with scanners are:

  • How many scanners do you require? (A excellent electronic stocktake process enables multiple employees to finish counts and aggregate this into a uniform data-set)
  • Do you require rugged devices?

Develop a stocktake training program

Alongside the technical considerations above, it's critical you put together a very clear set of guidelines for your employees in your approach to stocktaking and regular training on how best to use the resources you have set in place. Without a plan, your employees will clash over the very same regions being counted and layby or screen stock could be counted incorrectly. A stocktake procedure has to be written in simple language with logical procedures. Employees will have to be shown the way to correctly use your chosen hardware, and how to incorporate this to your retail management program. This will ensure the counts are accurate and the labor costs spent on doing it are best utilised.

References

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