The Crystal Ball effect! Sorry for the lack of content from us since we joined the group, laptop issues over the weekend meant we couldn't interact as hoped in our first few days... but it got me thinking about how a Crystal Ball is often needed in this game when you're a retailer. The way this comes into effect is that new products (particularly locomotives) need to be order almost as soon as they're announced to secure an allocation, so a lot of the time it's up to the instinct of the shop owner to have a strong instinct for what will be popular and what won't and despite a long career in the business I still can't get in right every time! The other factor that comes into play with ordering is that certain manufacturers have a habit of cutting back orders (for example on one particularly popular product a couple of years back we had 34 on order and received only 20) so we're also dealing with a second guessing situation of ordering several extra than we actually think we'll say expecting to be cut back.... confused? Yeah that makes two of us! Also as a result of this I try to only sell 75-80% of what I have on order to be ready for any potential reductions we might encounter... one of my worst fears in the job is having to phone people with the news I can't supply their order... In many ways retailers are gambling on our gut instincts of what will sell or what won't! One good thing about this industry is that the product doesn't go off like it would be if we were selling groceries! A valuable lesson I learnt in this game came at the end of the 2010 British Grand Prix when a family were going round every stand selling official team merchandising stand trying to buy products for half price... They had some success but when they reached McLaren's stand the people there resolutely said no with the reasoning "there's another 10 races left this year to sell it at before we have to worry about getting rid of it.. which has always served as a good lesson to never chase my loses. On the flip side to this we do reduce some items that I've expected to be good sellers but for whatever reason it hasn't worked out and we're now looking to free up some cash or space and of course, the public love a bargain don't they so if our bargain page draws us a few new spenders then that's a bonus too! Anyway, that's a bit of insight as to what it's like for a small/medium size retailer pre-ordering stock. Hope it was of interest? If it was please say so in the comments below and I'll post more retailer insights in the future! If there's any subject you would like to hear about please let me know and I'll try and address them in the future too :)

Posted by Tony's Trains of Rugby at 2021-06-28 14:41:17 UTC