Inventory shrinkage tends to be a massive problem in the retail industry. One of the greatest causes of inventory shrinkage is food waste, generally because certain products expire too soon. This issue generally causes grocery store profit margins to decline. One of the best ways to prevent this from happening is to find methods that will reduce the number of expired products you end up with. Here, we will discuss the most effective ways to reduce inventory shrinkage from expired products.
Use a Point of Sale System
Your staff can fill your point of sale system with the proper data to show you the customer demand for various items. Inventory shrinkage often rises if you overestimate the demand for food products, as this, therefore, leads to overstocking. Overstocked items are unlikely to sell as quickly, leading to wasted product and money. Use the data from your point of sale system to review details such as the day, month, year, and impact of local events on purchases. Through this research, you can better estimate the likelihood of sales on specific products, making it easier to plan what you need to keep in stock.
Optimize Your Cooler To Move More Product
Many times, the way you display, rotate, and sell products out of the cooler will have a direct effect on the amount of product that expires. One of the first ways to deal with this is to apply the first in, first out method, which keeps the oldest product at the front of the cooler to sell first. Selling your oldest product first is imperative. Many times, customers like to look through products and find the one with a more distant expiration date, even though an item with a closer expiration is often still good. Reducing prices on older items to stimulate sales before the items expire might also help. Make sure your coolers are in proper working order as well. Using electronic shelf label solutions can allow you to check refrigeration levels to see if temperatures are off.
Educate Customers and Staff
Though this is one of the most basic methods, it’s still a highly effective way to reduce inventory shrinkage from expired products. Utilize signage to identify the details of certain foods that are prone to spoiling faster. You can use these labels to indicate where the food came from and how customers can use it. Digital signage is helpful in this area and can engage shoppers with this information to help further the appeal.
It’s best to discard any expired items through off-spec and outdated product destruction, which may cost more money on top of dealing with inventory shrinkage. So, implementing some of these methods to reduce product waste is one of the best ways to save your business money.