“Let me check in the back…” – one of your employees has just created certain expectations for the customer who now excitedly believes that in the “back” room (known by professionals as the stockroom) is the exact product he is looking for. This expectation had better be met, otherwise the customer may not return to the store.
How can you do that? Simple: make sure this “magic room” is impeccably organized, updated with the latest ins and outs in stock and…well lit.
Invisible to customers, but crucial for retail
Your store’s stockroom doesn’t enjoy much customer interaction. Access is reserved for store managers and employees. That doesn’t mean this space is not important. The stockroom is the central area of a store’s operations. This is where deliveries are received, this is where inventory is performed and this is where stock is stored.
With the right management, this storage room can become the solid foundation of your store. Incorrectly managed, the chaos in the warehouse will end up in the store itself. How many times has it not happened that during peak periods the customers in the store are disturbed by products newly brought to the store and which no longer have room in the warehouse?
How can you overcome this challenge? Apply these 3 rules below:
Rules for an effective organization of the stockroom
- Store bestseller products in front: support the team’s efforts to move quickly and place the most sought-after products at the entrance to the stockroom. This way they will avoid multiple walks to the back of the stockroom and wasted time for customers.
- What’s heavy sits on the floor: The heaviest products and boxes should be stored at the base of the shelves to avoid accidents and clutter caused by small items mixed with large items. This way you eliminate the risk of handling a heavy box on shelf 3 which, in free fall, also pulls those on shelves 1 and 2.
- Let there be light: how often have you thought about the lighting in the stockroom? Customers aren’t getting there so what’s the point? But a well-lit stockroom brings two major benefits:
- Your team needs light to work: good lighting creates a safe work environment and helps your team work quickly and efficiently (lack of light can lead to mistakes or slow down the pace of work);
- Good lighting prevents objects from going astray: it is very easy to lose objects if the light is poor. There have been cases where goods worth hundreds of euros or even thousands of euros have disappeared without a trace, only to turn up at general cleaning a few months later.
But in addition to these common-sense rules, a professional in-store inventory management solution can support efforts to streamline, increase sales, and improve the customer experience.
Dedicated solution for stockroom management
If your store’s inventory is still a static one that needs to be updated manually, then you need to get acquainted with the idea of flexible stock, constantly updated automatically, which also knows when replenishment is needed.
This solution is based on a combination of control measures (a certain product is approaching a critical threshold and a replenishment order must be placed) with transactions that take place in real-time (a product has been purchased and is immediately removed as a unit from inventory).
Thus, your team is no longer unpleasantly surprised by the absence of a popular product in stock, and no more confusion occurs when a product appears as available even though it has just left the store with its buyer.
Implemented in any retail space, the storage room management solution eliminates the frustrations of incorrect information (both from your customers and your team) and creates a space where interactions are helpful, relevant, polite and end well – a customer who found what they were looking for and will most likely return.
