Money Saved: How Proper Inventory Management Drives Revenue
In whatever industry you find yourself in, the ability to be profitable rests on a great product and sales flow and a back office that closes gaps where profit leaks out. If you run a cannabis retail location the line between lights on and lights out is thin at best. In this article we will share three action items you can do today to build inventory management and operations systems that maximise sales profitability and consistency.
Exciting And Challenging Times for Cannabis Retailers
The Bad News
There’s no sugar coating how difficult cannabis retailers in the Canadian legal industry are having in finding financial sustainability. Even stores with broad appeal are closing or on the brink of doing so. On top of this is an economy facing headwinds and consumers looking to maximize every dollar in their cannabis budget. The kicker is having to adjust to a nascent regulatory environment that is still experiencing growing pains. But despite this uphill path, there’s lots of reasons to be optimistic.
The Good News
The good news is that we are only a few short years into cannabis legalization both nationally and internationally. While the path is currently rocky, cannabis retailers that adopt effective operations management systems can optimize every dollar of sales in the short term, and take a clear runway to long term, multi-decade success. With that said, let’s dive into a few easy-to-implement operations management strategies that you can deploy today to keep more of the sales you and your team work hard to generate.
Operations 🫱🏼🫲🏾 Sales
When sales and operations are humming in any business there’s likely an energy of growth and forward momentum. A lot of cannabis brands are great at one or the other, but those shops that can have sales and operations working in harmony will be difficult to compete against. While there are great technical and consultative solutions to support this process, it’s the people processes and internal culture that are needed to create harmonized operations and sales flows. To get the ball rolling here are three tactics you can use to begin this process.
Connecting Point-of-Sale (POS) With Inventory
If you’re not already working with a seamless front-to-back office connection with your POS and inventory systems, money is being left on the table. In addition to double-tasking (an annoyance to both you and your team), gaps in the financial accountability chain can leave you more vulnerable to fraud. We recommend finding a solution that is both easy-to-use and technically sound.
Dashboards Are Your Friend
We are probably preaching to the choir but in 2022 and beyond it’s essential to have a data display that shows sales trends leading to positive and negative outcomes for your business. You may have heard the metaphor of a firehose and a teacup, where data is simple, clear and accurate it can be valuable. However when you have too much data or too many data portals, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and over budget. When you can see the various overlapping processing of your retail operations in one place it will point you in the direction of more sales and a tighter financial ship overall.
Building a Culture of Accountability
The truth is that data and systems are only part of the inventory management puzzle. What these processes make possible is hiring and retaining a team that takes pride in the integrity of the data, inventory and financial success of your business. Again no easy win but with patience and determination you can build a culture of accountability. A combination of incentives and hiring a team committed to excellence allows you to harvest maximum return on your investment in inventory, operations and people systems.
What’s Next For Cannabis Retailers
The next few years in the Canadian legal cannabis industry is sure to be as wild a ride as the past few years. Even as retailers and producers face seemingly insurmountable challenges that would level most “regular” businesses, we are deeply optimistic about the future of this space. Whether you’re in a services or product based sector, job one is creating a loyal flow customer base. Job number two is building systems and processes that nourish the various aspects of your business vital to its long term health and success.
What else do you want to know about inventory and operations systems management?
We are eager to get dialled in and create content that is actionable, relevant and effective. If and when you have questions about inventory, operations and how to drive more sales, please reach out to Count Canna’s team and we might incorporate your question into a future blog post.
