A small size Kirana shop business which is also called a convenience store are generally situated close to residential locations or gas stations. However, they mostly deal with the selling of groceries and beverages plus domestic necessities. 

Due to the small space of this kind of supermarket that usually does not involve a warehouse, when setting and maintaining stocks, one needs to be meticulous. It is crucial to develop an empty warehouse inventory management system in such a way that order accuracy and good logistics enable you to keep the right amount of merchandise in the store, even with no need for surplus stock. The choice of assortment in this case, where the area is relatively too small requires that it be well selected. A management that ensures the store's profitability through a margin that depends on every shelf meter.

The assortment should be adjusted to meet the needs of customers who mostly visit the supermarkets. Nevertheless, surplus is a common phenomenon associated with inventory, thus freezing money. This also implies that the retailer has a strategic Kirana store and supermarket business plan to simultaneously manage the stock of different products under different characteristics such as seasonality, perishability, shelf life, and the like. It could be a major juggling act. It is quite apparent that there exist great disparities in the stock management of fresh dairy items, exclusive vintage items, and ornaments during the holiday seasons. 

Fresh and ultra-fresh categories demand a unique tactic in grocery store inventory control.

Demand forecasting and timely synchronization should be accurate since fresh products are sensitive by nature and they have extremely high risks for markdowns and write-offs when it comes to their disposal. In this case, when it refers to fresh products, the planning should be done carefully so as to ensure that even when there are small fluctuations in demand levels, the supply chain should also have enough flexibility to adjust to these sudden changes.

Therefore, for so-called ultra products, i.e., products with a short lifespan that must be sold within the day itself, 100 percent on-shelf availability indicates writing-off or providing the discount except for accurate forecast made especially in connection with the specific store for a definite day Hence, extremely high-level scrutiny is required on the right stocking line to ensure the ideal trade-off between overstocking and write-offs. A slightly milder variant of this is even faced by other fresh foods. 

  • The duration the product remains on the store shelf is considered as well instead of expiry dates customer disappointments, and write-off costs that otherwise would happen.
  • In the process of ordering, use of batch accounting should be done so that the whole process would be as accurate as possible. The buyer always looks for fresh items when there are two or more lots of the products at a time.
  • Consider the demand fluctuation as a day of the week. The demand for other stores or products may vary significantly between weekdays and weekends. Therefore, this implies that a single stock cannot be used for handling goods with a shorter lifespan such as perishable foods on every day of the week. The inventory level should rise and drop congruently with anticipated sales volume to achieve the correct balance between the loss risk and shortage risk.
  • Make the forecast even more accurate by following the goods delivery time slots, i.e. the range of the available deliveries per day.
  • Determine the optimum availability per product. Such a balance of inventories ensures against too many writeoffs and lost sales.
  • It is also important to consider all the basic factors: the need for calculation of safety stock, lead time, variability in demand forecast, multicommodity packing multiplicity, supplier restriction, and the necessity of supply.

Demand is extremely variable and often seasonally pronounced

This is done considering that some classes of merchandise and specific orders can demand buyers in different years. This will be so regardless of whether there are increased sales of ice cream and beer in the summer season, or increased demands for strong alcohol and cakes at Christmas times. This demands that the seasonal grocery inventory management system be prepared in advance to cater to the season without write-offs or end-of-season sales.

We also cannot fail to mention the external influences on consumer demand which are difficult to predict. These include, for example:

  • Abrupt change of weather conditions at the time
  • Major sporting or cultural events
  • The emergence of a couple of new public amenities close to him.
  • Such as the opening of competitor stores nearby.

Wastage of products and involvement with multi-dated products

Most contracts with suppliers include a minimum requirement of delivery and sale of goods though such data may not be considered while stocking, especially since in some cases it can change from one delivery to another and pertains to various items bearing identical names. Therefore, it would be advisable to design a tool, which factors in the parameters like expiry date, spoilage limit, and spoilage losses into computations. This will reduce costs through the determination of minimum adequate safety stock level and calculation of a value with the least total cost.

Theft, damage or fraud, supplier's or employee's mistake, or shrinkage of goods

The sum of all shrinkage constitutes a loss of inventory. This negative occurrence within the retail sector also has costs on the retailer which are likely to remain as long as the nature of the business exists and there would always be a human aspect. Per an FMI survey, the average shrinkage rate in a supermarket is about three percent of total sales. The majority of the losses arise from either inventory incorrect reporting in purchase invoices, falsification of sales records, or misplacing property. However, with the latest grocery store inventory management software and modern planogram optimization tools, one can considerably minimize the effect of this negative range on a business.

Conclusion

Keeping a close check on the Kirana store or supermarket business inventory is a crucial task to perform when managing your business successfully. Learn from the above-mentioned insights to prevent damage and loss of products.