May Pro Shop: Retail Tips

may pro shop retail tips XPOS

With PGA Professional Duncan Driver

 

In the second part of our series, “XPOS Unwrapped”, we get to the bottom of inventory product management and the foundations that your retail business should have in place for a more profitable, and exciting future.

The average pro shop holds £40,000 worth of stock.  Every item is an investment, made by you, in a product that should make you money. But, how do you know it will?  It’s rather like placing a bet and here’s the key:  Without the right product descriptions in your database, you won’t know who you placed the bet with or if they actually won.  And, if you don’t know who won last time, then how do you know who to bet on next time?

Who knew there was so much more to retail than ringing a sale item through the till?

“When products came into the shop, we used to make up our own codes and input those into our database,” says Duncan Driver, PGA Professional from Lyme Regis Golf Club. “A Titleist Pro V1 would be recorded as ‘Pro V1’, and a glove might be ‘Footjoy Men’s Glove’. But this didn’t give us colour breakdowns, sizes or the other possible variations of a group.”

Manual entry of products can be a recipe for disaster, as Duncan discovered. “After each season, we’d have a lot of smaller shoe sizes left over, along with large-sized gloves.  We only had one code so couldn’t see the bigger picture.  During the last lockdown we started to use XCODES and it’s been a game changer, to say the least.  To start with, products are grouped into sizes and colours, and stocktaking is much quicker and more accurate”.

"Now I can show them what sells, and what doesn’t, and I’m able to make the right buying decisions based on what my customers will want.”

XCODES is a centralised product database built into XPOS and was designed to create stock items quickly and accurately. Good information in gives good information out, and, because everything is logged correctly with XCODES, there are no more duplicate records, misspelling or variations in name.  What’s more, with consistent data from XCODES, retailers get more accurate reports, helping them to make the right business decisions and ultimately, make more money.

“It makes things a lot easier and professional when you’re meeting with a sales representative,” continues Duncan, “Now I can show them what sells, and what doesn’t, and I’m able to make the right buying decisions based on what my customers will want.”

XCODES, the engine behind XPOS sales and stock solutions, is headed up by Mike Barbrook who oversees the team responsible for updating the centralised product database with essential data, including style and product numbers, barcodes, images and web descriptions. “The purpose behind XCODES was to make life easier for busy golf Professionals but it’s also here to unify data, so the information that’s going into a single pro shop, is the same data that’s fed back to the brands and buying groups,” says Mike. “It’s essential for everyone to work from the same information so we can cooperate with each other, go on to develop better products and improve industry standards.”

Before XCODES there were no standardised product codes so the team at XPOS created their own. The aim is that these will become industry standard across pro shops and buying groups.  “With one product item, we might have to speak to 3 people at the brand to get the barcode, colour and price.  With over 2 million products now in XCODES from over 220 leading brands, it takes a lot of work to maintain the database. We know it’s something that would not be viable for an independent retailer and it’s fantastic to be able to provide that service”, says Mike.

 

XPOS Caddie is the new app for golfers who love their pro shop. For more information on the app’s great benefits, including how to set up your new Reserve & Collect store, visit www.crossovertec.co.uk

 

×
×

×