By The Numbers: Give Your Store a BMI Test

Published

13 years ago

November 2, 2008

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[h3]Give Your Sore a BMI Test[/h3]

[dropcap cap=T]oday we’re going to give the average jeweler a quick BMI test. Yes, we’re checking for obesity by looking at the store’s height (inventory) versus its weight (sales excluding repair and custom work). In retail, this is known as the stock-to-sales ratio, and it’s that easy to work out: Just divide sales by inventory.[/dropcap]

In August, the average store in our survey had a stock-to-sales ratio of 1.2. That means $1 of inventory is producing only $1.24 in retail sales on an annual basis. This is not good. A ratio of less than 2 (each $1 of inventory is producing less than $2 of retail sales) means the store is in an at-risk health situation. Aged inventory is like blocked arteries — and could well be causing cash-flow and performance problems.

David Brown is president of the Edge Retail Academy, an organization devoted to the ongoing measurement and growth of jewelry store performance and profitability. You can contact him at [email protected]

[span class=note]This story is from the November 2008 edition of INSTORE[/span]

If you’d like to contribute your own data and receive a personalized KPI report each month, call (877) 910-3343 or e-mail: [email protected].

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Wilkerson Testimonials | Zadok Master Jewelers

Stick to the Program — And Watch Your Sales Grow

When Zadok Master Jewelers in Houston, Texas, decided to move to a new location (they’d been in the same one for the 45 years they’d been in business), they called Wilkerson to run a moving sale. The results, says seventh-generation jeweler Jonathan Zadok, were “off the charts” in terms of traffic and sales. Why? They took Wilkerson’s advice and stuck to the company’s marketing program, which included sign twirlers — something Jonathan Zadok had never used before. He says a number of very wealthy customers came in because of them. “They said, ‘I loved your sign twirlers and here’s my credit card for $20,000.’ There’s no way we could have done that on our own,” says Zadok. “Without Wilkerson, the sale never, ever would have come close to what it did.”