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When first opening a dollar store it is so hard to determine just the right amount of dollar store merchandise to order. With merchandise costs so high you are hesitant to purchase too much. Yet not having enough inventory for your grand opening is a real turn off to customers and ultimately to your store sales. There are many different store start-up inventory formula theories. Yet how do you know which one is right? What is the right move when you are faced with this dilemma yourself? How can you go about learning to achieve the magical balance in inventory levels for your store? How can you go about learning techniques to create a fully stocked appearance for your store, even when merchandise levels are low? Rule #1) Order as much as you can afford. Spending up to $25 per square foot of retail display space is fine if you are selling at the dollar price point. Yet you don’t necessarily need to spend that much. Just remember you are entering a high volume business. What may seem like a huge quantity to you may not even handle sales of those items for one week. You are definitely safe to focus extra buying dollars on basic consumable dollar store merchandise items. Rule #2) When opening a dollar store be sure to learn techniques to spread merchandise. These techniques allow you to manage the appearance of your store as inventory levels fluctuate. Make striping the basis for as much dollar store merchandise stocking as possible. This simple process maximizes sales. It also makes inventory management much easier. As levels of specific items rise and fall striping makes it easier to cover shortages. Whenever inventory levels fall and there is no replenishment stock coming quickly, learn to use merchandise spreading techniques to cover for the shortages. Rule #3) Store excess merchandise right on the sales floor to create a fuller appearance. Add shelving across the top of gondola fixtures for back stock storage. Be sure to remove items from boxes – so the items can be displayed. This tactic offers many advantages. First you create a much fuller look for your store. Second you significantly reduce your backroom square footage requirements. Third stocking is easy. As items on display sell down, simply pull items from the top shelf to restock. Rule #4) Turn your vendors into your warehouse when opening a dollar store. Reduce the size of your orders, and increase the frequency. This requires you to work with vendors that provide a quick turnaround on your orders. Always have orders for core, high selling items prepared, ready and submitted on a weekly basis. Be sure your payment is submitted in plenty of time to guarantee prompt dollar store merchandise shipment. The downside to this tactic is running out of hot selling merchandise. To your dollar store success! Find out how you can open your own dollar store business.
Bob Hamilton is an entrepreneur, author, writer, business consultant and trainer.
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