- Details
- Parent Category: Retail Tips
Open to Buy Planning Help
Tip #376 - The Time to Plan is NOW
Dear Tip of the Weeker,
Summer is almost over and before we know it 2009 will be a distant memory.
On January 1st we wrote a Tip that encouraged you to take action and build your open to buy plan for the year.
Did you do it? Did you take action? Or are you surrounded by old, stale, merchandise, wondering where the money is?
This week we are re-running the Tip from January 1st to remind you how important inventory management is to your success.
It's not too late to make sure that 2010 is more profitable than 2009. But you need to set aside some time NOW to start putting together your 2010 open to buy plan.
And if you're procrastinating becase you think open to buy planning is too hard to figure out, or if you're putting it off becasue you simply don't know what to do... well, we're giving you the solution to those roadblocks at the end of the Tip. No excuses - just do it!
Managing expenses in the upcoming year is going to be a make-it-or-break-it activity for most retailers. But managing doesn't mean slash and burn, it means making careful and thoughtful decisions about when and where to spend your hard-earned cash.
Running an open to buy plan for your store is the most important expense management tool any retailer can have in their arsenal.
Why? Because your inventory is your biggest expense (and probably your biggest asset). You have to manage your inventory like your store depends on it - because it does.
Too much inventory means either high markdowns and low/no profits OR you have lots of old merchandise and no money to pay your vendors. In a recession with flat or decreasing sales, this is a short path to going out of business.
Too little inventory means you won't have the merchandise that your customers want. And in these tricky economic times you can't afford to send even a single customer to the competition for merchandise you should have in stock, but don't. This is a longer path to going out of business, but the destination is the same.
To be successful, you need the right amount of the right stuff at the right time. And that's what an open to buy plan helps you achieve.
Those of you with the Retail Mastery System have nearly a hundred pages and 3 discs giving you a complete step-by-step guide to understanding, creating, and then USING your open to buy plan. Opening up your Inventory Management Kit and getting started should be a top priority for 2010.
Wishing you great sales and lots of fun,
