3 ways to help turn high stock levels into cash

One of the biggest challenges facing retailers right now is the huge volume of stock, many of them have gathering dust in warehouses and back up their distribution supply chain.

Thanks to the global lockdowns caused by CV-19, retailers are high on stock and low on cash. According to this report from the Guardian newspaper in the UK, retail analysts believe there could be £15bn worth of stock currently stuck in stores and warehouses. Now, with lockdown restrictions starting to ease, the priority is to get stock moving.

E-commerce has boomed during the pandemic but many retailers still see the majority of their revenue come through their store network - which have obviously been hit hard by store closures. Alongside reduced revenues, retailers are also having to deal with stock ‘blocking’ their pipeline. Because stores are closed, stock is backed up in distribution centres meaning they new product can’t be pushed into distribution centres.

So how can we get this stock moving, turn it into much needed cash and get the pipeline flowing again?

Here’s three ways to get started:

1. Diversify your stores

It looks like degrees of social distancing are set to be with us for some time and this is going to fundamentally shift the way stores operate. Some stores will need to become fulfillment centres, offering services like ‘click and collect’ or ‘curbside pick-up.’ We know from talking to our existing customers, many plan to take on additional space to help not only convert stock into cash, but to support the re-setting of their stores with the right seasonal offering. Instead of scaling back, scaling up is the best way to get stock moving.

2. Unify your sales channels

It becomes infinitely easier to diversify your stores and turn them into fulfillment centres by unifying your sales channels. By unifying the in-store and online sales channels you can sell and fulfill everything anywhere - and handle returns everywhere. Sitoo takes omnichannel one step further - enabling all sales channels to communicate with each other and exchange product, inventory, order and customer data in real-time. A unified view of your omni data makes it easier to manage inventory, orders and replenishment. It enables you to maximize your inventory availability, minimize your excess inventory, and, together with omni insights, make the right decisions at the right time.

3. Empower your associates

It’s your associates who bring physical retail to life. If this situation has highlighted anything, it’s how important associates are to making great physical retail a reality. This is why you should be looking at ways to empower them - whether that’s evolving and developing your culture or investing in technology - like, for example, a mPOS solution, workforce management software, or a task management platform - to make their liver easier when they return to work and your stores open again.

Throughout this current situation we’ve seen retailers who have invested in digital tools responding, reacting, and communicating instantly. It means they are perfectly positioned to adapt and evolve as the current situation develops - and if a second global lockdown happens later in the year, they are in a much stronger place to deal with it.

This is why, at Sitoo, we’ve put together a special package to help you accelerate your digital transformation and can get you up and running with it in less than a week. Find out more through the button below.