Liquor Store Inventory Management: How To Optimize Your Product Selection

Sync Your Omnichannel Selling

To maximize sales and keep up with competition, retail businesses should open up as many sales channels as possible. Many consumers do a large portion of their shopping online no matter what product they’re looking for, even if this just means seeing what's locally available. Liquor stores are no exception. Building an eCommerce website where customers can browse your inventory and make purchases will increase your exposure and improve local SEO. Working with a delivery service like Drizly or MiniBar can further expand your reach.

This type of multichannel system can only work if you use a powerful inventory management program that syncs all of your product stock numbers.  With a perpetual inventory omnichannel system, you are tracking every action in real-time. In other words, each instance that you scan in items from your wholesale suppliers, execute a sale in-store, process a return or deliver a case of wine, your system will automatically update to the proper count.

Power Smart Promotions and Discounts

No matter how perfect you try to engineer and plan liquor store inventory management, you are bound to have some items that underperform. Unfortunately, these slow movers can be detrimental to a liquor store’s cash flow and bottom line. Not only do they tie up capital, they also take up space on your shelves and in your coolers. If you sell craft beer, you will even run into problems with expiring products.

Not to worry. That's what promotions and discounts are for. By setting up well-planned sales, bundling products and doing in-store tastings, you can help move through this type of slower-moving inventory. Using your inventory management software will help show you exactly what items are lagging behind and what items are your best sellers.

In some situations, you can even use one to sell the other. For example, if you are entering the summer months and are having a hard time selling full-bodied red wines, try offering a bundled deal, like buy two bottles of rosé and get one bottle of red for free. Getting the full picture as to what is selling well, what is doing so-so, and what is lagging behind will equip you with more powerfully informed promotion and merchandising decisions to optimize your inventory.

Staying Informed Is Key

The most constant thread throughout all of these suggestions is keeping you and your staff informed about the flow of products in and out of your store. Knowing what is most popular at what times, reviewing patterns and predicting future demand will ensure that you have just the right amount of product selection for your clientele. Staying nimble and responding to customer demand will ensure that your liquor store inventory is well-stocked without dealing with waste and stagnant inventory.