In the world of retail, where store administrators are constantly juggling stock, sales, marketing, and employee management, simply having great products and competitive prices isn't the endgame.
The real key to success lies in unearthing efficiency improvements in every aspect, transforming challenges into opportunities.
The Challenges
Navigating the retail landscape means contending with tight profit margins and hefty upkeep expenses. To thrive, pinpointing and enhancing efficiencies along the sales chain, especially in tech, becomes not just beneficial but essential.
We'll delve into several common areas where you can optimize the tech side of your Shopify retail management.
Each of these challenges has a technical solution that streamlines your business and directly affects your bottom line.
Challenge 1 - Visibility into Daily Operations
For the ever-busy store owner, keeping a vigilant eye on every facet of the business can be daunting.
That's where technology comes in as a game-changer. By leveraging the right tech systems, you can automate the monitoring of employees, sales, and inventory, bringing everything into focus.
These systems don't just track data; they transform it into insightful monthly or weekly reports, helping you swiftly decode the story behind the numbers.
Staff Management System
Staff Management Systems like EasyTeam enable tracking of employee hours, salaries, schedules, earnings and commissions.
It's not just about tracking hours; it's about bringing efficiency to your staff's day-to-day activities. EasyTeam takes care of employee operations from timesheets to payroll.
Its most-used feature for retailers, the Shopify POS time clock, empowers your team to clock in and out with a simple click, leaving behind outdated manual methods like pen-and-paper.
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Sales Analytics
Then there's the power of Shopify's built-in analytics engine.
This tool does more than just count sales; it provides a window into what's selling, when, and how. It's about understanding customer behavior, peak times, and the impact of discounts and promotions, turning raw data into actionable insights.
Customer Communications
In the bustling retail world, keeping up with customer interactions can be overwhelming. Having a robust customer support system in place can be a lifesaver.
A store owner can only keep up with so many customer chats and requests. So, most owners install a Shopify-ready customer communication platform that provides reports and quantitative analytics of customer interactions at scale.
Using an all-in-one customer communication platform offers a clear view of customer queries and concerns, helping you stay ahead of the curve in customer satisfaction.
A few recommended communication platforms that sync with Shopify Retail, are Gorgias and Zendesk.
Challenge 2 - Keep Your Staff Happy
The connection between happy employees and a thriving retail business is undeniable. Satisfied employees mean lower turnover, reduced training costs, and a more efficient operation overall.
A few ways to keep your staff engaged are commissions, sales goals and bonuses for high performance.
Introducing commissions, especially for specific sales targets, can motivate your team. EasyTeam is a great solution to streamline this process, making it a win-win for both you and your employees.
Remember, it's not just about incentives; it's about making work processes for employees smoother. Integrating tools for task automation, digital time tracking, and efficient scheduling can transform an ordinary shift into a more enjoyable experience.
Less manual tasks make everyone happier!
Challenge 3 - Tracking Important Metrics
With Shopify, the metrics that matter are at your fingertips. It's a rich ecosystem that goes beyond basic tracking, helping you align your goals with real-world data.
From sales goals to marketing efficacy, product performance, and understanding which promotions resonate, Shopify helps you dial into what works and what doesn't, ensuring you're always a step ahead.
Keep tabs on your metrics on a weekly or monthly basis, with special attention to things like your marketing performance, the effectiveness of your promotions and if specific sales and discounts are working well.
Create a metric tracking workflow for yourself and measure your metrics diligently.
As you add more and more metrics to your tracking, you might choose to track profit margins, stats for each product category, how well are your staff performing, and inventory status. Most of these can be tracked with specialized Shopify Apps
Challenge 4 - Know Your Operational Costs
Understanding and managing costs – from wages and benefits, inventory, and shipping – is foundational to retail success.
Most businesses segment their expenses to Operational Expenses, COGS (Cost of goods sold) and administrative costs. In the context of Shopify Retail, OPEX and COGS are usually the most important ones to track.
Operational costs include employee wages and benefits, commissions and tips, utilities, storage costs, and more. While most of these can be tracked using Shopify’s dashboard, additional systems might be needed for comprehensive cost tracking.
Staff Cost Tracking with EasyTeam
Labor and employee expenses are often the most significant costs for retail businesses. By meticulously tracking your labor costs and employee-related expenses, you can gain a clear financial perspective and profitability.
With EasyTeam, you can view exact payroll numbers, including gross and net calculations, and timesheets and commissions given to employees. All staff operations processes are automated, from time tracking, wage calculation and payroll processes. This provides full visibility of your team.
There are also advanced metrics to track. For example, many store owners benefit from calculating revenue per labor hour and sales amount per employee per location. These can offer store owners a detailed insight into individual employee performance.
Inventory and Shipping Costs
Store owners can install Shopify plugins to track expenses related to shipping, returns, inventory, and other related costs. The specific platform to choose depends on your specific retail business.
These costs can include other expenses like handling, assembly, labeling and packaging costs, depending on your specific operations structure.
Final Thoughts
In retail, continuous optimization is the key to longevity and success. As a store owner, embracing tools and strategies that streamline operations and empower your staff can transform the way your business operates, setting you up for ongoing success in the ever-evolving retail world.
