fbpx To adapt to the changes in today’s retail landscape, it is important to back your business decisions with data.  Knowing the right inventory performance metrics to evaluate and what they mean will allow you to make educated business decisions to improve your store’s inventory performance.

Make sure you’re evaluating these 3 important inventory performance metrics:

  1. Look at your Sell-Through – This is the percentage of sales to the inventory investment available for sale. The formula measures how much or what percentage of your total available inventory was sold during a given period. For instance, if you had two items for which you had received 10 pieces of both and had sold 6 pieces of both, the sell-through percent on both items would the same at 60%. But if one of these items had been in your store for 12 months and the other item in the store for 1 month, the second item is much more profitable for your business than the first, even though the sell-through is the same.
  2.  Evaluate the Return On Investment (ROI) of Your Inventory – For every dollar you invest in a product, how many are you getting in return. ROI analyzes inventory levels, sales, and profitability by comparing the investment in inventory required to generate those gross margin dollars. A high ROI indicates that you have the right amount of inventory, at the right time, for the right price. A low ROI may indicate that you are missing out on sales opportunities and leaving money on the table in the form of old inventory or excess markdowns.
  3. Understand the Gross Profit Margin (GP) of classes/SKUs/vendors – GP measures the percentage of your total sales dollars that are profit dollars. The GP percentage is relative to the cost of the item as well as the selling price. A higher GP percentage indicates that you are selling your product as close to the original retail price as possible. A lower GP percentage may indicate excessive markdowns for products driving down profitability.
Without the data, it is difficult to accurately know your success. The more insight you have, the better equipped you are to make informed decisions so that you can be a profitable retailer.   [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][minti_testimonial author=”Joey Pointer” company=”CEO, Fleet Feet”]”We rolled out an ecommerce platform and we wouldn’t have been able to do it without RICS.”[/minti_testimonial][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]At RICS, we support retailers integrating with new solutions to help grow their business. We’ve integrated with trustworthy partners offering e-commerce solutions, payment gateways, gift and loyalty solutions, EDI, Open-to-Buy Consulting, and more.  These reliable and trustworthy partners connect to RICS so you can keep up with the trends of retail technology. Click here to see learn more about the current integrations with RICS software.

USING THE RICS API

We’re excited and ready to help you integrate with RICS to meet your technology needs. Due to our current development initiatives, we won’t do the custom programming of the integration. Using your development team or a partner, RICS’ API can be accessed to create custom integrations. Our services team will work with your developers throughout enablement.

WE WANT YOUR INTEGRATION SUGGESTIONS

RICS is already integrated with tools and services to help your business perform at its best. However, there are always opportunities for new integration ideas! We’re open to exploring integration suggestions with your help. Implementation often doesn’t require custom development, but it does require a validation process to ensure the 3rd party adds value and is feasible using the RICS API. Our integration enablement process follows four steps:
  1. Client suggests an integration
  2. RICS enabled API access if the integration is purposeful and feasible
  3. RICS provides acceptable API usage guidance to client and integrated third-party
  4. RICS monitors to ensure API guidelines are met
Don’t hesitate to reach out to an Account Manager at any time to discuss initiatives like these. You can contact us at accounts@ricssoftware.com to start the conversation. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row] Interest in creating an ecommerce platform to sell inventory online is a popular topic, and more and more retailers are using ecommerce to propel sales. From single store locations to multi-store franchises, the appeal to have another “storefront” to sell merchandise is apparent. After all, with low overhead and the ability to have anyone, anywhere, at any time be able to find and buy your inventory, who wouldn’t want to capitalize on this? At RICS, we fully support our retailers integrating an ecommerce solution in order to sell more inventory. We have published a guide to help you get started, with the things you should consider before starting down the ecommerce path. After all, this is not a quick or inexpensive process, and every dollar counts. As a RICS client, the first thing you should do when considering integrating your ecommerce platform with your RICS inventory, is talk to a RICS Account Manager. There are many integration solutions for ecommerce with a variety of price tags and complexity levels and we can help you evaluate which is the right solution for you. Often times, RICS is brought in after an ecommerce solution has been chosen and there is frustration over additional costs that could have been reduced or avoided, had the conversation happened before. RICS is here as your resource – not just during onboarding and for the occasional support issue – but to help you determine what tools are in place and what is needed to help you grow and succeed in your business Here are the things we will explore when evaluating an ecommerce solution for you: What are you trying to accomplish with your ecommerce site? How robust of a solution do you need? Who will build the connector between your RICS inventory and your ecommerce website? Can one of our existing partners fulfill your needs? (this is often the quicker and more cost effective solution) Do you need to use someone outside of our partner network? What do the timeframe and costs associated with that look like? We want to find the right solution for you that is going to be most cost efficient and will increase sales and profitability. In order to do that, a quick conversation upfront as you entertain ideas like ecommerce or other major decisions that can impact your business will help make sure RICS is completely aligned with your business and help lead you to the right solution. Check out our guide to learn more about getting started with ecommerce. Don’t hesitate to reach out to an Account Manager at any time to discuss initiatives like these. You can contact us at: accounts@ricssoftware.com to start the conversation.