Five Minute Friday: Sitting Inventory Is Costing You More Than You Think

All right, so all you retailers out there, I need you to stop asking this question: what should I post today? I have a different, different take on this whole situation. Um, as you guys know, I like to talk retail. I love to talk inventory management, sell-through, all the things. But a lot of times I have people asking me, in, in especially in Retail Boot Camp Accelerator, what should I be posting? How often should I be posting? And I've got another question. I'd like you to think about it this way: What do I need to sell today? Yes, because there are those are two very different questions. What should I be posting about, and what do I need to sell? And if you're not posting about it enough, if you're not getting that information out there enough, no matter what it is, you're not going to sell it. So here's the question: Sarah, I don't know what to post. Let's stop asking that and let's start thinking: What do I need to sell today? What do I currently own in inventory that is just sitting around, it's aging, it's tying up my cash, right? Your inventory should determine your marketing. I believe that wholeheartedly. And for all of you that are finding yourself running ads and posting content and doing— trying to jump on all these trends about content, but then it's not producing a sale, I go back and look and say, are you pushing marketing to products that you actually hold inventory in, or enough inventory in to be putting the advertising dollars behind that? So couple questions. Here's some things to be thinking about looking at your inventory a little bit different. Number 1, what's new? Number 2, what do I have a lot of? Yeah, what do I have an excess amount of? And what needs to leave? Like, what am I over? What are we done with? And then start a new plan for that. So a few different things. Your inventory takes a lot of energy, it takes a lot of dollars, it takes a lot of floor space, it takes up your website real estate, all the things. So we need to— and I say we, not just you, but your content team— I really encourage you guys to get excited about it. Think about it in a new way. Think about it like your customers might be thinking about it, like they have never seen it before. So we don't wanna just take one picture. We don't wanna just post new arrivals. I don't even know what that means anymore. Like what is new? Is new within the last 24 hours? Is sometimes new on people's websites still has the last holiday season picture in the background? So I don't think people are buying into new anymore. I think we need to be more creative. So Ultimately, we need to give our inventory a job. You need to try it on, you need to show it worn 3 different ways, you need to build an outfit around it. Yes, obviously we're going to sell an email featuring it, we're going to pair it with something else that your customer already loves. These are all different ways that we're going to get more eyeballs on said inventory. So remember, is— did you just get it in? Is it exciting? Is it a hot seller? Is it high demand? That's gonna be a little bit different content than the inventory that's been sitting around and is aging out on your shelves, and it's just costing you time, energy, flexibility, freedom, a clear headspace, and all the things. So I, I want you to think about, um, your inventory not like it's just a product, and also think about your content not just like a task you got to get done. There's a strategy behind what you're posting about. So So next thing, what do you have a lot of? Now if you have a ton of this inventory tied up and it's tying up your cash, there's a whole— there's a big— a bigger difference between content you're going to push around something that you have 100 units of versus content that you're going to push out that you have 6 of, right? Because the time, energy, and effort it takes you to put that content together, how many places you're putting it, to move 6 pieces is a lot different than if you have 50 or 100 of them. So the first thing I want you to stop doing is just saying I'm putting it on sale. No, if you have a lot of inventory in something, you must have believed in it, you invested in it deeper, right? A little deeper than wide. So now we have to think about it through that customer's eyes, like what is it going to mean to them? How do we get it in front of them in a way that they're going to want to part with their dollars to buy it? Maybe they haven't really seen it, maybe they have— you haven't presented it in a way that's exciting to them. Yeah, you have to think like through their lens, their eyes, and how it becomes desirable for them. Like, uh, how can you pair it with maybe a more high-demand item? How can you show it in a fit video, a live? Like, if you're home decor and gift, how are you actually utilizing those things in a way that a consumer is going to look at it and be like, that's my house, that's my table, that's my next outfit to wherever they're going, whatever that might be? So increase that confidence in their buy, it doesn't have to start— always start with a lower price point. So I think this just really increases the desire for the purchase versus just catching their attention with a price, right? Because people are constantly marking down things. We still have to cut through the noise to help that customer understand their desire for having it. Okay, so the 3rd category of your inventory, this is where we can get into a little bit more of a conversation about the content you're putting putting out there about around pricing or promotion. So what is your inventory that you're done with? It needs to leave, it literally needs to find a new home. Yes, and every retailer has this, every retailer has this, but we can't constantly just be sale, sale, sale, sale, sale. It's kind of like the word new, it just gets diluted, nobody cares anymore. So that merchandise that's just been sitting around and taking up space taking up space on your website, on your, your floor, and your warehouse up here for months, right? We got to make a plan for that. So we've got to make that exciting again. Uh, magically want to make that, uh, like a high-demand item? Well, that's not always going to happen. So here's a couple ideas. When you're thinking about the content you're going to post, how can you bundle that with something else? How can you style it different? How can you rephotograph it? How can you move it to a new space, right? How can you feature that? Pair it again with that bestseller. This is something that is going to drive attention, and maybe they're going to be more— they're going to draw attention to the bestseller, but then see this complementing item that goes with it. Create that promotion around it. So when you're thinking about what do I post, don't just post to post. Post with a purpose. So if in this case we're marking it down and that's the right decision to make it move, that's fine, but you at least have a plan around that, that post, that strategy. It's not just a, ah gosh, Sarah said I need to be posting, you know, dropping 5 or 6 stories a day, I need to be posting on my, you know, on my Facebook group feed, you know, 3 times a day. It's more of a plan. It's more of a plan by you're looking at the products that you need to turn into cash fast and making a plan around it. So you might be, you might be listening to me and thinking, okay, that sounds great, but I have 100 SKUs. I have thousands of SKUs and I'm running a store and I'm trying to make marketing a plan and I'm not really sure how to do this. Well, here's the thing. Look at your aged inventory report, throw that into your BOSS, your Boutique Hub Operating System. You can throw it into, you know, your AI. You can use, you can use Sidekick on Shopify. You can use a lot of different tools to help you with this to make a plan for what needs to get posted when. And then communicate with your social media people, your social media team, or maybe that's you. Have a little internal meeting with yourself if you're your social person, and make that plan. Exactly what do I need to be focusing on today? Because if you let that high-demand item sit a little too long and don't get enough content out there around it, pretty soon that's going to be the low-demand item. Your consumers are moving on really, really fast. So we want to have a plan around the products we're promoting, we're posting about, and turn that into cash faster. But If you learn nothing else from this quick little video, it's to look at your inventory different. Don't look at your social media channels and just be like, I need more, I need more posts. You need more purpose behind your posts, and where does that purpose come from? Comes up— comes from where your dollars are tied up, and where's that? In your inventory. So you're gonna have high demand items, you're gonna have those items that, you know, are just kind of— they're there, they're in limbo land, and then you're gonna have those lower demand items. So what are some of those things that you have— are you've invested in, they're super excited about? What are those kind of limbo land? Maybe even some of those things you've already bought, you bought deeper in. You have a lot of those to move. So your, your strategy behind those products is going to be— has to be solid. It has got to be on repeat. You've got to be more consistent. You can go a little deeper in the dollars you invest in content like that. If you're going to do an on-location site for a photo shoot or lifestyle photos or something like that, or you're going to bring in models or Maybe you're going to use influencers to move some things like that because you have volume in those products where shoot it once but reap the rewards of it 50 to 100 times. So that's a little bit different than when— than compared to just that inventory that you just, you're ready to take a loss on but it's got to go. At that point, I like to say we're more concerned about cash than we are margin on moving those inventory pieces. So I hope that is helpful. This is something that, you know, as we're strategizing and going through it, um, you know, sometimes it's nice to just have a coach that you can talk through these things with and look at your inventory really unemotionally attached. I love that. I love having somebody look at things that, you know, are not physically or emotionally invested in the business or in the dollars tied to it, and they can look at things and assess the situation a little bit clearer. And anyway, that That and much, much more is what we do here at the Boutique Hub. But hopefully this was helpful, you guys. As you're looking at what you're posting, post with a purpose and look and think, where are my dollars tied and what do I need to clean up really, you know, quickly, fast? What do I need to be more effective in? What do I have on hand that I can utilize to turn into some content? And then look and say, are these, are these fresh items? Are they high-demand items? Do I have an excessive amount of these items? Are they just kind of the things that, uh, You know, or are they just things that are sitting in limbo, or are these the things that need to go away? So instead of what do I post today, it's what do I need to sell today, and then you can make your post and your content strategy around that and, and look forward, look at, look 1, 2 weeks ahead to start building out that content plan. All right guys, I hope that was helpful. Thanks for spending a little time with me. I love talking inventory and helping you move it quickly and turn it into cash. We'll see you in the hub.

Hey guys, thanks so much for listening to 5 Minute Friday. I love getting to hang out with you here on the podcast. As always, if you love this episode, send me a message, AJ Alderson on Instagram or @theboutiquehub, and I would love to chat with you, hear your feedback, and hear what you're doing while you're listening to the episode. If it was impactful to you, please share it with a friend or subscribe and leave a rating and review wherever it is you're listening to podcasts. You guys, I appreciate you being here. Thanks for showing up. Have a great rest of your week, and I'll see you next week on 5 Minute Friday.