Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Why should I spend capital on such a system when
everything runs satisfactorily at the moment?
A. Experience shows that the benefits far outweigh the outlay, one client's retail
business showed a net profit increase of more than 20% which, having quickly paid
for the system, has provided extra income for the partners ever since. Technology
has been used by multiple stores to make inroads into the independent sector for
many years now. By making use of this technology yourself, via our system, you can
compete on more equal terms.
Q. What benefits can I expect?
A. There are many benefits, some of the major ones have been listed below, however
each business is different and will doubtless produce their own individual additional
benefits:
FINANCIAL SAVINGS:
- By minimising stockholding, this means capital investment is reduced and if that
reduces borrowing even greater savings can be made.
- By minimising shrinkage. Following a stocktake shrinkage can be instantly valued
and printed, this can then be used for tax deduction purposes. Vulnerable items
can be identified and action taken. Surveys have shown that staff dishonesty accounts
for more than 50% of all shrinkage. However, when staff are aware that every item
of stock is accounted for, such shrinkage can be dramatically cut.
- By maximising on discounts when ordering. A "what if" can be carried out in a matter
of seconds to allow you to always hit the required discount level.
- By always selling products at their correct retail price and rate of VAT.
- By ensuring you achieve the margins you require.
- By easy verification of suppliers invoices, identifying errors can save a surprising
amount.
- By never being "out of stock" turnover is increased.
These and other aspects of saving can easily and rapidly cover the system cost,
after which you are making those savings and therefore increasing profits year after
year.
TIME SAVINGS:
- By generating orders in seconds instead of many hours.
- By making the annual stocktake easy to carry out.
- By valuing your stock instantly, think how many weeks that normally takes.
- By not having to endlessly count stock for each order.
- By being able to deal with all aspects of stock centrally, pricing, margins, sources
of supply etc.
- By changing VAT rates, when they occur, in seconds.
- By no longer having to individually price goods.
- By not having to manually make notes of goods sold, for re-order purposes.The object
of the exercise is to allow the system to do your work for you in a highly automated
way with very little manual intervention being required. However the system is very
comprehensive and there are facilities which cover all aspects of the operation,
many of which only need to be used occasionally and others which can be used to
give an analytical insight if required.
Q. What will my staff be doing if they are not counting
stock?
A. Doing more profitable things such as:- Spending more time with customers, when
staff are counting they tend to ignore customers or spend as little time as possible
with them in their hurry to return to the count, this clearly has a major impact
on sales. Sprucing-up shop e.g. better window displays, refreshing displays generally.
Improving sales technique and improving product knowledge generally. If an excessive
amount of time remains it suggests staff can be reduced producing a dramatic financial
saving.
Q. My manager does the ordering, what will he do instead?
A. He would still generate the orders but much more efficiently all round, more
efficient use of capital, more efficient use of his time and more efficient use
of stock by ensuring only the right products are purchased and in sufficient quantity.
The time saved can be put to more profitable use as in the above examples plus the
various managerial duties such as staff training, promotion etc. where more time
will be available than previously.
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