The free Sapo mobile sales management application will help small shop owners better manage their business and minimize losses. Without careful management, the stores will have "virtual profits, real losses".
A recent study by the Planet Retail in 2018 published that global retail loss index amounted to 1.82% of sales per year, corresponding to an estimated global loss of $ 99.56 billion. This figure is nearly 21% of the estimated growth value of the retail industry. Therefore, methods to prevent loss have become the preferred strategy of global retailers.
Sensormatic Global Retail Loss Index is a survey result of 1,120 representatives of global retail groups from 14 countries, 13 categories, with 229,000 stores, accounting for 80% of the global retail market.
Comparing the global losses of stores across regions, the Sensormatic report says that the highest loss rates are in the US, accounting for 1.85% of sales; ranked second is Europe with 1.83%. The US - Latin region ranked third with 1.81% and followed by Asia - Pacific countries at 1.75%
Free sales management app that turns smartphones into POS device
The cause of loss is divided into 4 main sources corresponding to the following proportions: (i) Outside thieves (accounting for 34.34%), this situation usually occurs when customers intentionally hide goods, exchanging tag prices or product packaging; (ii) The second group of causes are errors in the process of working with suppliers (accounting for 24.28%); (iii) The third reason is due to internal frauds by employees, accounting for (22.95%), in which employees intentionally stealing goods or having confusion; (iv) Finally, errors are caused by administrative and accounting procedures(accounting for 18.43%).
In addition, the retail loss rate also differs across sectors. According to this report, the loss rate of drugs, pharmaceutical and perfume stores topped the chart with 2.12% of revenue; discount stores ranked second with 2.06%; Fashion and accessories stores ranked third with a 1.98% loss rate. Usually, smaller items are easy to be stolen and lost in the transaction process.
A free mobile sales management application that helps small shop owners to manage better, minimize losses
High loss rate, low profit margin, retail stores easily fall into the situation of ‘virtual profit, real loss’
In another report of the S&P500, retail industry has the lowest margins, especially for online retail stores, maintained at the rate of 0.5 - 3.5%. For example, Amazon has had a net profit margin of less than 2% per year since 2010; or Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world today, only achieves a net profit margin of 3% per year.
In Vietnam, retail store owners often only see gross profit by subtracting the selling price from the purchase price; other hidden costs such as staff salary, rent fee, inventory loss, etc are not always calculated carefully by the shop owners. “I usually purchase a package of instant noodles for THB510 then sell at THB610 , so the gross interest rate is usually at 15 - 20%. But I do not know the exact profit and loss the store earns, since I mainly manage business manually” said a store owner when asked. Manual management of sales activities is not uncommon, and there are even cases in which some store owners do not manage their sales at all. Ms. Tam, an owner of a toy shop, said: "My sisters and I split sales shifts, we trust each other absolutely, so we do not need to manage the business. As long as we make ends meet, then it’s enough. ".
Recently, Sapo (a company providing multi-channel sales management software) conducted a field survey with 500 shop owners with the following results: 18.5% of shops never use any tools to manage the store; 41% manage manually using pen&paper or excel; the rest 40.5% uses by sales management software.
In fact, stores that manage their sales manually or do not use any tools to manage, will face many difficulties in controlling revenue, P&L and loss of goods. Comparing the low profit margin of the retail industry at an average of 2-3% of sales / year to the loss of the global retail industry which is 1.82% of sales / year, unless they manage their business carefully, the stores are easy to fall into "virtual profit, real loss" situation.
To deal with this problem and increase profit margins for retail stores, shop owners should apply security measures to prevent theft such as attaching sensors to easily stolen goods, installing cameras, monitor, project TV screens in the store, using mirrors, alarms ... In addition, using sales management software combined with regular inventory check will help shop owners or managers to have a clear picture of how their businesses are doing and minimize potential losses.
With more than 10 years operating with the mission of "Making sales easier", recently, Sapo has just launched a free Sapo Sales Management Application on mobile. The purpose of this application is to help small shop owners to gradually familiarize themselves with technology in sales management operations.
"In less than 10 seconds, installing the free Sapo app on mobile will transform your smartphone into a compact POS device. Shop owners can record purchase order, manage sales, control inventory and customer list. Besides, more than 20 visual and vivid reports will help shop owners keep track of their business situation, profit and loss in order to make accurate decisions related to strategy.