July Pro Shop: Retail Tips

 

There isn’t a golfer who doesn’t appreciate the seasonal nature of the sport. And, for Pro shop retailers, whilst the summer months are essential to your bottom line, they can also bring their own challenges.

 

Get Busier in July

Staying on top of stock levels is of paramount importance in July, and crucial buying decisions need to be made for next season's stock.  Smaller, regular stock takes will give you the clearest picture of your business and the confidence to make the decisions it needs.

Believe it or not, the busier you are, the more regular the stock taking should be. When you're up to your eyes in golf lessons, checking-in players, running competitions, managing staff, and overseeing a busy shop, it's too easy to lose track of what stock you might be getting shy of ... or what isn't selling.

If you're not already a customer, our innovative, intuitive app, XAPP, turns your smartphone into a bar code reader, saving you hours of stock taking time and meaning you can ditch the paperwork.  XAPP feeds directly into your XPOS system, updating your stock levels as you go along.

For a clear picture of your business and stock levels, use your XPOS system to run the right reports.  Go to Reports > Stock > Stock Listing and then look at Products.

 

Refresh for Balls

July is often the biggest month for ball sales, so it's almost certainly time for an in-store refresh to ensure balls are upfront and promoted. Think about remerchandising - Rearranging balls, and other products, around the store, to give the shop a refresh. Highlight items you want to promote, so that they're more visible within the store and will almost certainly be seen by customers entering the shop.

 

 

Customers appreciate the experience of something new. If your pro shop remains unchanged, and stock in the same place, month on month, customers won't notice your new-season stock.

What's more, the more you remerchandise in the shop, the greater the impact. And you'll soon be seeing big results.

 

Tips from The Open

Mid July sees the 147th Open Championship tournament, and this year, back at Carnoustie Golf Links.  This month, we caught up with the PGA Head Professional for a behind-the-scenes snapshot of life at Carnoustie during The Open, and to garner some of the secrets behind running one of the UK’s most successful pro shops.

In the interview, Colin talks about gearing up for The Open: including how the Carnoustie experience helps set it apart from other clubs; attracting a wider market to the course; how to manage stock for the pro shop in the lead up to championship; and getting the most out of his management team.

Colin is also a great advocate of XPOS and, having used it for over 5 years now, still believes it to be an 'outstanding' system. He says:

"XPOS is simple to use and has very much changed the way we do things. The system tells me in a second, what I need to know, whether it be a general picture of shop sales, or if I’m running out of a particular product.

We send sales information reports to our partners every week to let them know how they’re doing, too, and XPOS makes that simple. The reporting system is strong and it helps me manage my stock levels across the business. It's an outstanding system, really. Stock creation is quick and easy too, so it saves us hours of time.

A couple of years ago I started a VIP scheme for members, which has been super, and is easy to run from XPOS.  It keeps the members happy, makes us more profit, and gives us an engagement we’ve never had before."

 

Call us today to find out more about using XPOS to introduce a similar VIP scheme for your members 01454 418395