How to Dig Deeper Inside Your Reports

MANY JEWELRY RETAILERS today look at generic reports like aged inventory, top-selling SKUs or reports by vendors. While these reports are great, they only give you probably half of the big picture.

If you start looking behind this data, you’ll uncover more ways to improve your business. I will elaborate on three specific reports and how to do a deeper dive with this data.

1. Aged Inventory

Large chain retail stores consider an item to be aged when it has been in the showcase for 90 days. They believe if it hasn’t sold in 90 days, it never will — or they will never get the turn needed on the product. In the independent retail world, most buyers consider the aged product to be something that has been in the showcase over a 365-day period.

There are three additional components I want you to consider:

• Where is the product located in the store? Look at how traffic flows in your store. Do customers walk by this case, or is it in the back corner? If it’s wedding bands, are they near other wedding bands so that the line is centrally located?
• Is your staff fully trained and confident when selling the product? If not, that could affect the line’s performance.
• Have these SKUs generated special orders? Just because a SKU doesn’t sell doesn’t mean you must immediately return it. Maybe it generated a multitude of special orders, and you should just swap it out for the halo shape you have seen many clients order rather than the halo shape you have in the case.

2. Top-selling SKUs

Is there a cluster earring that is selling like hotcakes? Do you have the entire suite of jewelry to upsell your customers when buying the earrings (such as the matching necklace or bracelet)? If not, call your vendor and place an order. Better yet, when the product arrives, notify the clients who bought the earrings to come in and see the new matching pendant.

Another great report to run is your special-order reports. If you see a ring that has been special ordered five times in platinum, stock it. Maybe it hits a sweet spot. Or if you see a semi-mount special ordered 20 times, consider expanding this by offering it live with a complete center or order the semi made up for your top-selling center sizes.

3. Sales by Vendor

While it is great to run reports by vendor, I suggest you look at them as a whole. Think of your showcases as pieces of real estate. You have a blueprint of the case layout, so get that out and map it out by writing the vendor’s name on the case, its product within, and your initial investment. Now check your sell-through for the year and calculate your inventory turn. Believe me, you’ll love this exercise, because it can be quite shocking.