Accounting Tips for Streamlining Retail Businesses During the Spring Peak Season
Spring season is the time where retail blossoms and hits its peak. As the frost thaws and people go out more into commercial areas to dine and shop for the upcoming spring festivities, retail-based businesses across clothing, equipment amongst other things must be prepared to meet the surge head-on, therefore gearing up with their marketing offers from discounts, incentivizing bulk buys and the most attractive consumer offers such as bundles and fitting in with the trends that dictate consumer mood swings on consumption.
Accounting plays an integral part on the feasibility and ultimately, the commercial success of promotions such as item discounts and overall internal profitability by catering this mark down principles during the height of the spring time shopping frenzy.
Here are quality steps that you, the retail shop owner must consider before implementing spring sale promotions.
Research Trends and Customer Preferences
Trends are a strong indicator for consumer behaviour and areas where customers consider “must-haves” as trends are cumulative, observed customer purchases across a diversified set of product lines. These trends may fluctuate but the key of the game is knowing the peak and short upward spikes. Research plays an integral part of determining customer preferences leading to trends as your product lines are capable of riding the trendy wave of consumer spending. Insights on retail and valuable data analytics for consumer purchases are indicative of customer pulses on their purchase behaviour.
- Research what is trendy
- Know your customers locally and those that swing by such as tourists
In knowing these trends, you are able to talk with your supplies to make purchases that buck similar linear trends that customers will find attractive. This will set you up to offer trendy new items.
Supplier and Vendor Relations
Your product supplier or wholesale provider have a rapidly changing line of products in which they often incentivize for retail distributors to buy in bulk depending on consumer trends. As wholesale providers offer incentives, these incentives turn to marketable and profitable resale opportunities for distributors. Talk with your providers, negotiate a good strategic purchase plan that delves into opportunities as trends and high demand items.
In negotiating, there could be further concessions such as additional discounts and further bulk order incentives for distributors such as yourself. The more you place your retail business in a purchasing advantage with your suppliers, it becomes highly advantageous for your business as it gives you leeway to further make key price slashes on hot items or in demand products during the time where consumers spend the most.
Cash and Fund Reserves
High demand products often warrant high expectations by customers on their availability that further puts retailers on notice that these high demand products must always be in stock or its stock levels are constantly plentiful by replenishment or its sheer volume that are available in hand.
This is where it gets tricky for retail businesses are over-supply leads to unwanted products that may be hard to sell when the demand dwindles. On the other hand, short supply will affect customer expectations on your supply line and ultimately, your reputation as losing confidence in your supply line means customers can go elsewhere. In the middle of this tug of war between supply and customer expectations for having these elusive products on stock always, your cash and fund reserves are vital to quickly replenishing your inventory in these times of high demand from customers.
The unprepared will find themselves constantly scratching their fund reserves while the fully prepared have a bit more leeway and composure to replenish their stocks. Research, fund preparation and observing daily or weekly trends will help you get the right estimate for budgeting your cash reserves to make a necessary lifeline on quick inventory replenishment.
Hit the Books Often and Always
As the registry clanks often in peak season for retail, scratching and hitting your books daily and often is a strong indicative of your accounting & bookkeeping capability whether it be end of day or periodic such as weekly, monthly or quarterly.
- Book adjustment on cash flow
- Book adjustment on discounted rates
- Book adjustment on vendor short notice orders
- Book adjustments on bulk buy
In keeping pace with the hectic and fast paced accounting during the retail season of spring, JCSN Corp offers accounting and bookkeeping services to businesses in San Diego as well as businesses around San Marcos California for businesses in need of outsourced accounting and bookkeeping solutions.
JCSN CORP – ACCOUNTING & BOOKKEEPING SOLUTIONS
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