Every year around this time comes a process that employers and employees hate alike. You’ve guessed it: it’s time to take a physical inventory. Why do retailers and their employees dislike this process so much? The answer is… a multitude of different reasons.
First, this traditionally arduous process usually takes hours upon hours to complete. Organizing, separating, scanning, counting, reconciling, searching… the process goes on and on. And depending on the size of your store and the amount of merchandise you carry, it can take much longer than the average retailer. It’s a fact, nobody likes to devote tons of time to this endeavor.
In addition, it’s an extra day’s worth of wages that have to be paid out to whomever you have trusted to help you keep your inventory count accurate. If you didn’t ask some trusted employees to help you count your merchandise, then you are probably doing it yourself. Unless you hired an outside company to count for you, and that can be a scary proposition!
And then there is the fact that after you have everything counted and reconciled you’re left wondering why these inventory counts are off. Are people stealing from you? Is there something wrong with the receiving process? Where are the errors coming from? How can I prevent this from happening again?
Luckily, RICS can give you the tools for reinventing the physical inventory process and alleviating a lot of the pains associated with counting your merchandise. Unlike many POS and inventory management systems, RICS gives you the ability to conduct partial physical inventories. You can conduct inventories based on Vendor, Class, Department, Color, specific item number, or even a custom entry you can create.
By breaking your inventory down into smaller groups of merchandise, you can transform the process and mindset of conducting a physical inventory as well as see improved results. By focusing in one class of merchandise at a time, you have trimmed your 8+ hour process into small sessions of 30-60 minutes. You can start doing a different class or category every month.
Your employees will thank you for asking them to stay one extra hour extra versus eight extra hours! This will help the costs associated with paying extra wages are spread out over the entire year, rather than once or twice a year. The mindset is changed from dreading a once a year process to a new norm of a small monthly duty. Accuracy will improve as you are on a cycle that involves counting everything more than once a year, rather than depending on your accuracy just one time a year.
Transform this process from something that is a cost of doing business to a way to put more money in your pocket. Improve your inventory accuracy, make better data driven decisions, and start fine-tuning retailing methods to bring you more success!
For more information on physical inventory and tips for making it an easier process, click here.
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