There are several significant challenges when it comes to liquor store inventory management. Nowadays, the variety and volume of merchandise mean that liquor stores have a lot more to account for in their shops. The industry is a lot more complex owing to literally hundreds of types of spirits, wine, beer, and more.
Fortunately, we know ways to mitigate the difficulties through our proven diagnostic and inventory control methods.
Common Challenges in Liquor Store Inventory Management
Two of the greatest challenges facing liquor stores are:
- Keeping the shelves stocked.
- Preventing lost inventory.
Liquor store owners need to keep a consistent supply of high-demand items always in stock. This really boils down to keeping strong tabs on what you have, what’s running low, what seasonal demands affect your supply and keeping meticulous records of everything.
Preventing lost inventory is just as crucial. Lost inventory can result from theft, breakage, or just plain broken receiving processes. You’ll want to make sure you review this issue at least quarterly to identify any bad trends.
If left unabated, lost inventory is a huge contributor to business turnover. One of the best ways to solve this problem is to empower your employees to track and safeguard inventory as much as possible.
Monarch has an entire website section devoted to lost inventory prevention. If your business is experiencing major problems in this regard, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.
The Value of a Good Point of Sale System
You can counter many of these inventory difficulties by improving your level of organization. One of the best ways to do this is through a quality Point of Sale system in your store. This is your best chance to keep track of sales, bills, and invoices.
Many liquor stores attempt to do this but fall short due to staffing issues. Monarch offers solutions to this problem with our POS services that help by providing:
- Professional consulting on POS data review.
- Thorough investigations into the root cause of any POS discrepancies.
- Troubleshooting to find out what led to database inconsistencies.
- Help with several software options such as Intuit Quickbooks and Modisoft.
- . . . and much more.
The Importance of Knowing Your Market
The last big inventory challenge is the critical importance of thoroughly knowing your market. If you don’t understand your demographics and demand patterns, you’re bound to struggle to maintain inventory. While many business owners understand this immediately, without proper analytics, it may still be a struggle to supply the stores well enough to meet demand.
We’ve seen some very experienced and savvy owners who can keep their liquor inventory at proper levels. Best practices involve monitoring your fastest moving items and limiting your SKUs to what your customers want. Get rid of the SKU’s that don’t move. Holding too many SKUs makes it difficult to stock your high-demand items. Fewer SKUs are also easier to manage. When adding a new SKU, do so incrementally. Test the market by getting feedback from your customers before making the investment.
Whatever you do, don’t rely on your gut. Get a system in place, know your market, and stay ahead of the demand curve. That’s what keeps you in business.
Outstanding Liquor Store Inventory Management with Monarch
You’ll never go wrong enlisting the services of a proven consulting firm like Monarch. While many other companies can do physical counts and organize your SKUs, we prefer to delve deeper and identify the root causes of your problems. Our team knows the liquor business well, having provided inventory solutions for countless businesses since the 1980s.
There’s no reason you should lose money over unaccounted inventory. Let us help you get a firmer grasp of your expensive inventory. We serve many satisfied liquor store clients all across the Midwest.
If you’d like to learn more about how we can help with liquor store inventory management, call us soon for more information.
