It’s time to prepare

by Marc Weiss

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The last three months have provided ample evidence of slowing retail sales. Our large database of managed inventories and planned revenues spans North American retailers in over 20 verticals. From luxury apparel and jewelry, to footwear, sporting goods and pet stores, their data is updated daily to monitor trends.

Slowing growth manifests itself in pulling back, on both the part of the customer and the retailer. The threat to a retailer is where…and how far? Pull back too hard and you will lose market share. Don’t pull back far enough and you can spend yourself out of business.

Of course, stores can still perform at double digit increases. But, to continue to build market share and take the necessary risks to grow, it requires attention to both old and new fundamentals. The new fundamentals are centered around the frequency of how you use data.

The time to manage - based on data - has never been more critical.

Here are some important action steps:

• Preserve cash. If there is a rainy day ahead, those that have it win.

• Mitigate all unnecessary risk.

• Do a thorough breakeven looking at all the elements of your current and future costs.

• Run a cash flow through the end of the year and see what happens with a 10% drop in revenue.

• Begin discussions with your landlord if you have a rent increase coming.

• Review compensation of your employees and work toward performance based compensation initiatives.

• If you do not have a financial budget, build one. If you have a financial budget, make sure it is updated by the fifth day of the month.

• Look at your sales trends weekly and make adjustments to on order and open to buy.

• Take advantage of margin opportunities.

• Play offense where the trends warrant it.

• Turn dead and underperforming inventory into cash Now!

We have built the tools that allow retailers to respond in any situation.

We are always available to answer your questions and listen to your concerns.

The Management One™ team stands behind you.

Onwards and Upwards!

Marc Weiss

CEO & President
Management One and Retail ORBIT