If you are starting a dollar store one of the biggest questions on your mind is likely associated with exactly how much extra dollar store merchandise to order.
This is an especially hard question where the everyday products such as cleaners, paper good, and many health and beauty items are concerned.
After all, you must have plenty of this merchandise available at all times.
Your shoppers will be quick to show their dismay any time these items are not made available.
The message will be clear as they turn to your competitors and make their purchases.
Yet the lower the inventory level you maintain the less money you have tied up, and also the greater the potential for high inventory turns.
All of this can mean there is the potential for your store to achieve greater profit levels.
Read on for some of the most important steps to implement this strategy for your store.
• Small, frequent orders are one of the keys to this strategy.
Success with this inventory replenishment tactic does mean you must know exact inventory levels, and the right safety stock levels of all key, most demanded items.
It also means you will need to be willing to do the extra work required to generate smaller merchandise orders, much more frequently.
• Reduce the lead time required between orders.
This requires carefully examining all of the steps involved in the ordering process.
It means you need to locate backup suppliers to take the pressure off whenever your primary suppliers are out of a critical item.
It also means an important part of your supplier selection is the ability to quickly process all orders you submit.
• A big advantage of this strategy is you can reduce the amount of back stock you must carry.
This means less money tied up in merchandise and much faster inventory turns for your business.
Small, frequent product orders will allow you to keep your stock room almost empty most of the time.
To further help this strategy work out a plan so all extra dollar store merchandise which cannot be displayed is stored right above the gondola location where it will ultimately be displayed as existing inventory is sold off.
It is possible to significantly reduce the amount of back-up inventory you maintain.
The key is generating small, frequent replenishment dollar store merchandise orders.
For this to work you must have suppliers that maintain good inventory levels of the everyday products your shoppers count on your to always have in-stock.
Your suppliers must also have quick through-put-time to process all new orders.
Finally, you need to have a dependable freight company which reliably picks up your merchandise and delivers to your store as committed.