The 6 Rights of Retail, Part 1 - The Right Item | Radiant Systems

If I?ve learned one thing in my 28 years of working with retailers, it?s that in order to flourish in the retail industry, you must follow the ?6 Rights of Retail?.

1. Have the right item
2. In the right place
3. At the right time
4. In the right quantity
5. At the right price
6. With the right service

I didn?t invent these rights, but it?s become clear to me that they are retail?s holy grail. Get all of them right, and your business will do well.?In this 6 part blog series, I want to explore each of these rights and what they mean to a retail business.

Having the Right Item.

Running a successful retail business revolves around having the right items in stock. It sounds easy, but how do you really ensure you?re bringing in what your customers want?

You can rely on your vendors, but they are going to push you towards items they want you to stock. You can visit competitive stores and peruse their product line, but their customers are not your customers.

You can stay aware of what?s happening in your community. For example, maybe a new corporation is moving to town and relocating its employees. Depending on your business, you could start stocking goods they could get in their old geographic area.

In the end, each of these methods is a good way to make sure you are completely informed. However, you also want to be sure that your computer system is going to provide you data so that you can make the best decision possible about which items are the right items to stock.

Using Radiant?s CounterPoint pos and inventory management technology, you receive reports about which products are driving sales, letting you know which items are the right items for your business. A great point-of-sale system also has the ability to track lost sales. This is done by tracking products customers wanted that your business doesn?t offer. With this information, you?re able to build data on items you might want to consider offering.

As a retail business owner, you may have a hard time getting this information in an easy-to-use format. Look for a system that makes it easy for you to drop any of your data into Excel, Word and many other user-friendly formats. Finding out what items are the right items for your business is easier with simple reporting.

In summary, the best thing you can do is work to educate yourself on what items your customers want to purchase, and work toward having those items in your store in the right place, at the right time, in the right quantity, at the right price, and with the right service.

Stay tuned for the next blog for ideas on having the item in the right place.

Tags: Andee Williamson, CounterPoint, Retail

This entry was posted by Andee Williamson, Product Marketing Manager on Wednesday, June 29th, 2011 at 10:05 am and is filed under Retail. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Source: http://radiantblogs.com/blog/the-6-rights-of-retail-part-1-the-right-item/

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