TECHNOLOGY
“Make sure there is reporting and analytics with your system, so you can see what is selling and what is not, because the scanning software itself isn’t going to give you the data you need. However, combined with accurate reporting, you can get insights to make decisions on inventory,” he explained. Many back-office reporting systems today will rank items sold, making it easy to find which are performing the best and the worst. Chalberg noted that the KORONA POS system breaks down the entire database of products by letter grade to look at A, B and C products, and a report can be run for an entire store in just seconds. “Operators want to look at the top sellers and the slow sellers, along with those providing the least amount of margin, as well as overall revenue,” he said. “Then, compare their data with outside sources to see what should be filtered out to make room for new items.” The goal is to always be eliminating products that are not selling so that when new items are presented and available, there is room for them in the planogram, Nolan pointed out. Also, if there is extra space at some point, operators can always add facings to the top sellers. It is equally important to look at “anchor” products that are carrying a store’s revenue, Chalberg said, and know what items can be put on sale for the best results and what items can be paired with them that can be increased in price.
94 Convenience Store News C S N E W S . c o m
“Every month or two months, take a clean look at your product assortment, whether it’s energy drinks, water, salty snacks or candy, and make sure the 20 percent of your inventory that is making up 80 percent of your sales never runs out of stock. The only way to do that is with good data.” — Bill Nolan, Business Accelerator Team Another piece of the inventory management puzzle is a loyalty system. By tracking customer purchases, market basket data and more, c-stores can get excellent information on what promotions are working and what items to bundle together in the future, Nolan said. “This type of data can help in developing revenue, as most loyalty programs will give you market basket information that can be just as valuable as in-house data,” he said. “The idea is to link all the pieces together, [which] can have a significant impact on the profitability of the store.” Having the right product at the right levels means a store doesn’t run out of stock. Having the right product in the right place is about making sure top sellers are easily
