Megan Crabtree

Here’s How to Automate Tasks to Increase Profits and Efficiency in Your Store

From inventory to customer service, automating certain actions will help you take your business to the next level.

Published

10 months ago

July 27, 2023

Megan Crabtree Instore July 2023 Issue

A DOPTING AUTOMATED SYSTEMS, especially in the bridal space, can help retailers achieve a better turn on their inventory and improve profitability. Here are some reasons why you should be automating your bridal inventory, as well as practical tips for achieving success.

1. Always know what’s selling. Identify your top-selling inventory and automate reorders. This will allow you to easily replenish your inventory when you are running low on popular items without requiring your manual approval. Share your data with your vendors, so they can commit to running this weekly and automating the replenishment process, ultimately increasing your efficiency and profitability.

Once you’ve identified your most popular pieces, consider ordering a few variations to appeal to a wider audience. These variations can include different carat weights, diamond cuts, and gold color settings. Thus, you expand your customer base while minimizing your risk.

2. Increase sales. Input min-max levels into your POS systems so that automated reports will auto-populate for you when you are at or below your minimum levels. This will help you stay on top of your inventory and avoid stockouts, which can lead to lost sales and unhappy customers. Companies such as Lanham Forecasting offer formulas to automate this process and make it easier for you to manage your inventory.

Consider working with vendors who can assist you with bin stock and delivery commitments. This will help ensure that you always have the inventory you need on hand, which can help you reduce your lead times and avoid missing out on sales.

3. Provide an enhanced customer experience. Automation can help you provide a more exclusive customer experience by enabling you to personalize your marketing messages, offer personalized product recommendations, and respond to customer inquiries quickly. Having the ability to offer targeted promotions and discounts based on customer behavior and preferences will ultimately drive more traffic to your store and increase conversion rates.

4. Stay ahead of the competition. Automation can be used to analyze data from e-commerce websites and local competitors to identify popular products and trends. For example, you can also use automation to monitor social media and online reviews to identify new product opportunities and customer needs. This data can inform decisions about adding new items to your inventory.

Once you have identified potential new items to add to your inventory, you can further streamline the process of adding them to your automated systems. This can include updating your inventory management system and setting up automated alerts to notify you when inventory levels reach a certain threshold.

Automation can help your retail store become more efficient, effective, and profitable by enabling you to focus on what you do best: serving your customers and growing your business.

She Wanted to Spend More Time with Her Kids. She Called Wilkerson.

Your children are precious. More precious than gold? Absolutely! Just ask Lesley Ann Davis, owner of Lesley Ann Jewels, an independent jewelry store that — until the end of 2023 — had quite a following in Houston, Texas. To spend more time with her four sons, all in high school, she decided to close her store. Luckily, she was familiar with Wilkerson and called them as soon as she knew she wanted to move on to bigger, better and more family-focused things. Was she happy with her decision? Yes, she was. Says Davis, “Any owner looking to make that life change, looking to retire, looking to close, looking for a pause in their career, I would recommend Wilkerson. Hands down!”