As a shop owner, you’ll have undoubtedly invested a lot of time, effort, and money in your shop front and retail areas. If any of your customers were to take a look behind the scenes at your stockroom, would they still be impressed?
If the answer’s no, then it’s time to make some changes and improvements. Doing so will improve your shop’s productivity, keep your staff happy, and stop you from pulling your hair out. Here are five inspirational ideas for you to try in your retail shop’s stockroom today:
1. Install fixtures for permanent product storage
If your stock gets stored in your stockroom in a haphazard fashion, it’s time to make things more organised. One of the best ways to do that is by installing fixtures such as shelving and racking.
You can then allocate stock to different areas of your newly created storage system. Plus, your employees will find it easier to seek out products and conduct stocktakes. It’s also worth remembering that stock will be quicker to get for waiting customers as well.
2. Use roll pallet containers for temporary storage
When you and your team need to put out new stock in your retail area, you should all do so in a quick and efficient manner. Going back and forth to your stockroom is a waste of time and energy, so that’s why you should be using roll pallet containers.
The great thing about roll pallet containers is stock can get loaded into them from your stockroom. Those roll pallets can then get wheeled out with ease, negating the need for one or more return trips to your stockroom.
3. Start using systematic labelling
The products that you sell in your retail shop are undoubtedly labelled with price information. You may also have labels that entice customers with special offers. But, do you use any labelling behind the scenes in your stockroom?
If the answer’s no, it’s time to invest in a systematic and easy to read labelling system for your stock. One of the best things you can do for your stock labelling is to incorporate barcodes for each product type.
That way, when used with a point-of-sale (POS) system, you’ll find it easier to manage your stock.
4. Install some countertops in your stockroom
Venture into any well-organised stockroom or warehouse and you’ll notice one thing. There are plenty of counter spaces for employees to use. Countertops are useful when organising products from pallets into your shelving or loading into roll pallet containers.
Countertops also offer the advantage of giving staff the space they need to prepare any merchandise that goes on your shop floor.
5. Separate your stock into different zones
Labelling your stock when you load it into your shelving or racking is one thing. But, do you group those products in any particular way? If not, it’s worth separating your stock into different zones.
If you’ve got a large stockroom, you can also paint a line on the floor around each zonal area. Different colours will help you and your staff, especially new starters, quickly identify which area certain items get stored.
