The holiday season is a whirlwind for retailers. Stores are packed, promotions are flying, and inventory is constantly moving. With projected holiday sales hitting a record $973 billion in 2024, it’s more crucial than ever to have a clear picture of your business. This article will guide you through essential POS (Point of Sale) reports to leverage during the holidays. These POS reports will empower you to:
- Make data-driven decisions to optimize your strategies.
- Streamline operations and improve efficiency.
- Maximize profits and achieve your holiday sales goals.
Data Collection
Retailers must prioritize data accuracy. To achieve this, they need to ensure data collection processes are robust and reliable. Here are key steps to improve data quality:
- Staff Training:
- Clearly train employees on essential data entry tasks like inventory management and till reconciliation.
- Provide easy-to-understand instructions to minimize errors.
- Standardized Reporting:
- Implement consistent report settings across all systems.
- Utilize POS software features like saved report settings and automated email delivery for efficiency and accuracy.
- Regular Policy Reviews:
- Regularly review data entry policies with staff, especially if discrepancies arise.
- Refresher sessions help reinforce proper procedures and prevent future errors.
Sales POS Reports
A POS system with an analytics dashboard provides effortless access to ready-made visual POS reports, helping you stay informed and make quick, data-driven decisions.
- Daily Sales Summary: Monitor your store’s daily performance, identifying high-demand products and peak shopping hours.
- Top-Selling Items: Pinpoint your best-selling items to ensure they’re well-stocked throughout the season.
- Category Performance: Analyze which product categories are driving revenue and which may need additional promotion.
Inventory POS Reports & Inventory Management
It is always a balancing act to ensure you never run out of popular year-round or seasonal stock at peak times – without having a warehouse or stockroom full of items you don’t need. Empowered with the right knowledge and the right POS system, you can manage seasonal inventory levels without the acrobatics.
- Optimize Stock Levels: A replenishment purchasing feature in your POS allows you to optimize your inventory by calculating purchase orders based on historical sales data to minimize waste and maximize sales.
- Improve inventory turnover: Scientific purchasing is the industry’s most advanced suggested ordering solution that allows you to have the right products in stock, reducing the time it takes to sell through your inventory.
- Accurately Forecast Demands: Identify tops selling and items that are underperforming for potential discounts or bundles to clear them out.
- Track inventory movement: Monitor real-time inventory levels and identify potential stockouts.
Customer Reports
If you have a loyalty program integrated to your POS, you have valuable data at your fingertips.
- Loyalty Program Metrics: Track loyalty program engagement and offer exclusive deals to reward your best customers.
- Customer Purchase Trends: Pull performance reports that show customer count, sales per hour / minute and the type of payments used whether cash, Visa, MasterCard etc. This may help your determination of if paying for certain providers is worth the ROI.
- Targeted Holiday Promotions: Running a postal code report, if your store captures postal codes at the till, can reveal where the majority of your customers are located within your city. This valuable insight allows you to target your holiday advertising efforts more effectively in those specific areas.
Employee Reports and Training
Your data is only as good as your data collection processes. Here are a few ways to make sure that your employees are set up for success to perform their best in the busiest season.
- Sales by Employee: Recognize top-performing employees and provide additional support where needed.
- Employees Staffing: By reviewing the sales in your performance reports by time, you can spot your busiest hours and ensure you’re scheduling the right number of staff.
- Loss Prevention and Training: With the higher number of transactions over the holidays it is a good idea to look at your Transaction Log Viewer for transactions like Returns, Voids, No Sales and Paid Out for loss prevention. If certain tills have a higher number these transactions, employees may not be operating in the best interests of your business or require further training. Some POS providers will have an entire database of training videos to simplify the training process.
Financial Reports
Whether preparing the regular monthly financial report or completing a detailed annual review at the end of the calendar year, the right POS reports can make a world of difference.
- Gross Profit Return on Investment Report (GPROI: This is a crucial tool in managing inventory and maximizing the return on inventory investment. It reports on every dollar invested in inventory. The report includes the Sales, Quantity, Cost, Profit, Margin (as a percentage), Turn Rate, Average Inventory Value, and GPROI for each item.
- Discounts and Promotions Analysis: Evaluate the effectiveness of your holiday promotions with a Promo Mark Down Report. This report can be used to also analyze the cost of running the promotion.
- Cash Flow Reports: Using a consolidated Cash Report amalgamates the Daily Cash Report, the Tax Breakdown Report, and the Cash Balancing Report. It provides information about net sales and proceeds divided among different categories, as well as cash balancing data from the selected date range. Maintain healthy cash flow to manage increased expenses, such as seasonal staffing or bulk inventory purchases.
How Auto-Star Can Help
Auto-Star’s comprehensive Star-Plus POS reporting tools makes it easy to pull these reports and more. With real-time data and user-friendly interfaces, you can stay in control of your operations throughout the holidays. Our team is here to support you every step of way-ensuring a successful holiday season for your business.
