Written by Josh Fisher, One Step’s Technical Services Manager
There are a lot of lessons we learn each year in business and one of the most important lessons to learn is that planning well leads to profitable business.
A good retail management system, with best practice procedures in place, can provide you the information you need to make great business decisions. Diligent forecasting with accurate sales and inventory planning can unlock the potential of an open-to-buy budget to help you meet incredible sales goals and fuel business growth by using your largest expense: inventory.
With all of the great inventory control and retail management systems available to help you figure out what is selling and what inventory you need to purchase and replenish, you can forget how important a timely and accurate vendor can be. After all, what good is it to know exactly what you need and when you need it only to not have it available when requested or to have it arrive later than expected? A bad vendor can ruin the best planning efforts and the most profitable plans!
Your inventory control system should be providing you indispensable information on vendor product margin performance but don’t forget to also grade your vendors’ performance like you would your own products. Use your inventory control system's purchase order and receiving features to show you what vendor products arrived on time and which do not. You can use that information to help educate your weaker vendors on how much their poor order fulfillment is costing you both money.
If you are using an inventory control system and plan your product inventory purchases to maximize sales profits, then you can’t afford to settle for vendors that can’t deliver accurately and on time.