During a seasonal slowdown, schedule a stock reconciliation, a review of names in product cards, preparation of data for an assortment review, checkout training, and care of the displays. Use your store’s sales history to decide when to do this work.
To organize the work, you can record in advance the scope of each task, the person responsible, the deadline, and the result to be checked. For example, the result of a stock reconciliation would be a list of checked items showing the actual and recorded quantities, with discrepancies marked.
Identify a quieter period from your sales history
Review sales at regular intervals: by day, week, or month. This analysis helps identify seasonality. Use your store’s data to determine a quieter period for the planned work.
Count products and record discrepancies with inventory records
It makes sense to physically count stock during a quieter period. Sales during the count may create additional discrepancies.
You can prepare a list of items for the team to count. Record the result as a list showing the actual and recorded quantity of each product. Mark separately the items whose quantities differ.
Clarify the names of product variants
Check whether the name in the product card makes it possible to distinguish between product variants. Add the distinguishing characteristics of the relevant variant to the name.
You can assign the review of a specific product group as a separate task. The result should be a list of cards with clarified names and cards for which information still needs to be collected.
Prepare data for an assortment review
To discuss product items, you can calculate the share of units sold in the total of units sold and current stock:
Share of units sold = number of units sold ÷ (number of units sold + current stock).
Assign someone to prepare a list of items with the number of units sold over a defined period, current stock, and the calculated share. State the sales period in the list. This data provides a quantitative basis for discussing the assortment.
Practice checkout operations
Practical training can cover processing an order, accepting payment, and looking up stock information.
You can prepare a training scenario for each operation and decide how to check that it has been completed. Record the training results in a list: which scenarios have been practised and which operations need to be repeated.
Check the displays on the sales floor
Routine display care includes straightening products on shelves, refolding them, and replenishing the displays.
For a work plan, you can specify a particular area of the sales floor and list the operations needed there. When checking the result, walk through that area and compare the completed work with the list.
Gather data to prepare stock for the next peak
Stock planning should take sales history, delivery lead times, and planned campaigns into account.
Assign the team to gather this information for selected product groups. The result could be a list of items showing sales over a defined period, delivery lead times, and campaigns to consider when planning purchases.
Record tasks and how to check them
You can use this template for your work plan:
- Task — what operation needs to be done.
- Scope — which products, cards, or sales floor areas need to be checked.
- Person responsible and deadline.
- Result — what needs to be submitted for review.
- Acceptance criterion — how to check that the task is complete.
You can track the number of items checked, cards clarified, and training scenarios completed to monitor this plan. Set the scope of each task for your store.
Stock reconciliation in Торгсофт
During stocktaking, Торгсофт compares the actual availability of each product item with the quantity in the records. You can use this function for a planned stock reconciliation. Read more in the article about stocktaking results in Торгсофт.
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