There really is only one way to reorder stock for your business and that is by using your computer system as it is only this approach that removes human intervention from the process.
Walking through the shop and making a list is a bad move.
Letting a supplier order for you allows their business needs to be ahead of your business needs.
Ordering based on memory is not smart.
Yes, use your newsagency software to generate an order for you and follow this. You will most likely find that your inventory investment for existing categories declines and that your return on investment increases. This would be good news!
For stationery, ink and other products that we always turn over the same products, using the system not only ensures that we rarely are out of a missing item, it also allows us to hold minimum stock levels and order on the just in time principal. This also requires accurate stock levels in the system (which we check as stock is put out) and regular ordering (for stationery 2-3 orders a week for us and 1-2 orders for ink)
Brendan it is a surprise the number of newsagents with inventory management software who do not use it for this.
I’m just curious how the system works for stationery, when the pack qty’s and other data from GNS aren’t the greatest??? Something that is invoiced as a single item from GNS is actually part of a pack of 12, yet invoiced from DDO as a 1???
Subaru you can actually set different quantities based on various pack sizes and the software can order to the pack size required by the supplier regardless of what you sell in.
Subaru this Data Issue is one of the Reasons GNS do not and will not have any of my ink business (roughly 80 % of my annual stationary spend). This data issue has prevented me from using auto reordering with stationary as much as I would of liked. It works a real treat for ink and has no GNS Input there.
GNS new letter may impress some but it service, efficiency and accuracy that impresses me not a fancy wordsmith production.
It takes some work to set up Subaru but is worth doing. I also set lower prices for packs on most stationery products to encourage businesses and other high stationery users to come to us.
Well to add to it, I’m also an Officesmart agent as well.
But i also buy my ink elsewhere.
I just wish that the data provided by GNS would be more suited to mt store than to GNS’s interpretation of the way I should sell my product.
Some customers want a pack, but MOST want single products.
Also, if it scans out of GNS throght their cash and carry counter, the data provided should scan through my system after a DDO import.
I find multiple items that don’t every week.
When you open the ddo file as a csv, the barcode is in the incorrect column.
Not sure how it even works for them in the first place….
Gns are trying to be relevant, I agree there are some serious stock download issues that are real pain in the arse, we need a simple system to identify these issues and to report them back to gns, who I am sure would rectify them if they could get some feedback from us.