If you’ve ever bought shoes or clothes off-the-rack, you might have wondered how stores decide how many of each size they need to stock. The topic of stocking the right sizes is close to me since my shoe size was rarely ever available in the styles I liked back when I grew up. I also knew some people who bought clothes at the kid’s section since the stores back there never seemed to carry anything smaller than a “medium.”
Unfortunately, many newbie entrepreneurs don’t think much of it either. This infographic from Infographic Journal gives us a simple but informative insight into why size matters.
Stocking the Right Sizes:
Source: Infographic Journal
Technology allows data gathering in ways that weren’t practical for micro businesses a generation ago. With better data gathering, inventory management can help streamline your business and help it not only maximize profits and save space, it can minimize your impact on the environment.
Inventory management is not rocket science. However, its impact on your business can be severely understated, and many small businesses ignore its massive implications for their bottom line. Dead and unsold stock can tie up valuable space for years and depreciate as styles (and technologies, if you’re selling tech-oriented items) change. For many businesses that sell items like apparel or specialty medical equipment, for instance, stocking the correct size can be life or death for the enterprise.