In 2003, writer Michael Lewis released a bestselling book, Moneyball. It retold the story of Billy Beane, the general chief of the Oakland A s. The book accredited Beane with popularizing an approach to baseball management that relied more heavily on statistical research than scouting reports. That is to say, Beane was far more interested in the metrics of the game than any given player s potential for hitting home runs or taking bases. By most standards, his approach was outstandingly successful. And it offers several valuable lessons for retailers.
Independent merchants tend to have an enthusiastic grasp of their stores daily sales and profit. But, they rarely apply severe statistics research to their key metrics. In this piece, we ll take a cue from baseball and explore the metrics you should be following for your retail shop. I could also explain how to use those metrics to spot and track trends, and plan your inventory around them.
Important KPIs to Determine
On the surface, the most observable metrics to track are the quantity of people who walk thru your doors and the level of sales throughout the day. Unfortunately, both numbers are akin to home runs and bases nicked. While critical, they yield very tiny insight into what drives your store s profit.
You must identify the size of your average purchase order, number of items in each exchange, and the amount of transactions as a percentage of your foot traffic. But, even these metrics are just scratching the surface.
Attempt to decide if explicit assortments or classes are failing to contribute as a proportion of sales and profit. Are your margins deteriorating? Are you being made to mark down certain items in order to move the stock? Is your inventory in certain categories failing to sell through as customers opt for lower priced alternatives?
Your ability to adjust to changing dynamics in your retail store is contingent upon being able to research your numbers and track trends. Only then are you able to identify problem areas and plan in an appropriate way.
Tracking Trends And Strategizing Inventory
Like baseball players who log season after season of predictable performance, lots of your assortments will be perennial sellers. Week to week sales stats may change slightly, but fluctuations will sometimes be restricted to a predicted band (i.e. Floor and ceiling).
On the other hand, sales of some of your assortments and product categories might fluctuate wildly. This is especially true for premium items in a bad economy ; customers regularly abandon them for lower priced equivalents. The secret is to track these trends so you can tweak your inventory.
Review your vendors invoices to spot cost increases that are reducing your margins. Also, track your turnover and sell through rates for each product class. A declining sell through rate can quickly compel you into a situation where markdowns become your one acceptable option for moving the merchandise. Markdowns are expensive because they erode your margins. As demand declines for specific items, scale back your stock and allot your capital toward assortments for which demand is increasing.
Keep Your Eyes On Your Store s Numbers
As an independent retailer, your survival is essentially contingent upon your ability to conform to changes in your market ( e.g. Customer preferences, seller costs, etc . ). Too many retailers avoid taking a quantitative approach to their business. As a consequence, they fail to establish benchmarks, which leaves them unable to identify important trends that impact their bottom line.
Get into the practice of tracking the metrics that lie underneath the surface of your retail business. Just as Billy Beane helped popularize probabilistic research in managing baseball teams, learn to closely investigate the numbers that affect your store s profit. By doing so, you ll be able to not only survive, but flourish among your competitors.
Author Resource:-
G.A. Wright specializes in high-impact http://www.gawrightsales.com/ sales events that bring in enormous customer numbers and attract huge audiences. Check out our website for more information: http://www.GAWrightSales.com
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