Guides and ideas for running a shop: point of sale, stock and the numbers that matter.
Turnover, GMROI, dead stock, stockouts, sell-through, accuracy, shrinkage and holding cost: each formula, one rand example for all eight, and which KPIs are the same number.
RFID counts a rail of stock in seconds; barcodes cost a fraction. Worked in Uganda shillings, RFID costs a boutique over 20 times what it saves, while reusable tags in a hire store just pay.
A POS runs the sale; an ERP runs the business. One credit sale of cement in Lagos traced through both, a decision table by trade, and five tests that show when an ERP earns its cost.
Every sale on the buyer's record, and every record at the till. What data should flow, a Lusaka shop's capture rate worked out, when a separate CRM is worth it, and the steps in ArmPOS.
A shop that prices at a 25% margin can keep 17.5%. One Dar es Salaam shop's month in TZS, leak by leak, with where each loss lands in the books and the report that finds it.
One stock figure for the website and the counter. The oversell gap worked out for a Johannesburg shop, seven methods with their formulas, and how returns and syncs keep the count right.
Fourteen inventory optimization strategies for a retail shop, each paired with its measure and the point at which to act, then one shop's monthly scorecard in cedis.
One decides how much stock to hold across the business, the other runs the work inside one building. A Dar es Salaam delivery followed through both jobs, and a table of symptoms that tells you which to fix first.
The seven warehouse steps, each with the record and check that stop its usual mistake, the USAID method for sizing your store, four measures worked on a Kampala distributor's month, and when a WMS is worth it.
What an inventory list should include, a template with its spreadsheet formulas, and a worked Nairobi example in Kenya shillings, ready to import into ArmPOS.
Many stock differences are records that missed a movement, not theft. A cause-finder table, a worked example from a Lagos mini-mart and the ArmPOS records to check first.
Stock that will sell for less than it cost is cut to its net realisable value. A Lagos phone shop's quarter-end test line by line, the entry, the reversal a quarter later, and the steps in ArmPOS.
