Wrapping up a year in retail should be cathartic. Chances are, it will be a bit of work for your staff, too. Well organized inventory can speed up this process. Today’s tip will help you harness the power of our Margins Per Line report.
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Wrapping up a year in retail should be cathartic. Chances are, it will be a bit of work for your staff, too. Well organized inventory can speed up this process. Today’s tip will help you harness the power of our Margins Per Line report.
Hi Ciara,
Nice post, the part about default vs unit cost cleared up my confusion about margins not reflecting the cost and prices I’ve input. But how do you suggest finding out what items move fast vs slow? The turns report is a little helpful, but it needs filters – it gets bogged down by special order items which have an immediate turn. Also, the turns report does not show which items have NEVER sold. Is there anyway to generate a report showing items which have never sold?
And yes, margins are powerful! But, they make too few appearances on MerchantOS. As my business grows, this is my key frustration. As inventory costs are always going up, I need an easy way to make sure my retail pricing is delivering a target margin. Do you have any suggestions?
Hi Evan,
In your case I would suggest using the Inventory Reports- “Received” report. This report will allow you to select a date range encompassing all inventory received since the inception of your account. (For your account I used 12/01/2010- today’s date.) Then utilizing the “More Options” button select All Shops. Click the search button. If you use the blue header filter option titled “Received” you’ll be able to take a look from the top down of all items, and how they are selling/not selling based on the difference between Received and Remaining columns. Use our export button to move this information to excel or .csv file, where more filtering can be established.
I have two suggestions for you regarding margins and pricing.
First: Organize. Organize. Organize!
I find item type “Box of Items” is often over looked. Single items will be associated with a box price instead of the single item price skewing the overall margin.
Also, Categories are often under utilized. Having a clean understandable organization of your inventory will help aid in all sorts of ways, from more accurate inventory counts to being able to pinpoint what
inventory category is your best selling and also has the highest yielding profit margin.
Second: Check your “Assets” report often. This report allows you to filter by “Margin” easily. Items with a 0% Margin or a 100% Margin more than likely need to be adjusted in order to give you a more accurate picture of the health of your business.
I hope this helps.
Cheers,
Ciara