Shred the Spreadsheet: Aging Inventory & Predictive Aging

This month, we’re shredding one hell of a spreadsheet, zeroing in on a metric that every buyer uses to measure the health of the brands and products in their inventory: aging.

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You should treat all people with respect regardless of their age, but when it comes to inventory, we advocate for ageism. So let’s discuss how you measure geriatric products and ensure the fountain of youth reigns over your shelves.

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The Problem: Inventory Getting Over the Hill Before You Know It

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Smart and data-driven retailers are already making great decisions in how they manage their aging inventory, because they’re tracking it like their A1C. They’ve built the spreadsheet infrastructure out to track the age of products already, which is a feat to accomplish alone.

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With those formulas and pivot tables assembled, they assign a set of tasks to trigger once inventory moves into 30, 60 and 90 days on hand. They put in place protocols and SOPs based on that aging number, whether it’s to apply discounts or to shuffle the items to the front of the shelf, it can be any number of things.

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You can hear more about how Andrew Rodriguez of Sonoran Roots / Ponderosa Dispensaries sets these up in our latest Buyers Blueprint webinar here. 

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We’re sharing a comprehensive list of more tips below to help you sort out aging inventory before you need to exercise its DNR.

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This represents one of the best ways to deal with aging inventory once it has gotten old. That, however, is the problem.

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What if you could manage product aging proactively, rather than reactively?

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Most Retailers’ Solution: Reactive Aging

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The problem listed above assumes you, the buyer, have already conquered the spreadsheet problem to easily see your aging inventory numbers whenever you need them. 

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Couched in that problem is another problem, which is just how tedious and difficult a task staying on top of aging truly is. Even if you’re on top of the calculations, you have to export POS aging reports and update your spreadsheet daily to capture it all when you need it at your fingertips.

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Retailers have to track these numbers as accurately as possible just to end up having to be reactive once products get old. Tasks are triggered AFTER the inventory has reached the 30, 60, or 90 day marks. They react to the change in age by making adjustments and trying to get those things to move faster even as they’ve already matured.

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Products can become doomed (aged) without being given the chance to reach their full potential. Once a product reaches 30 days old, there’s no turning back the clock. 

Our Solutions: Aging Metrics in Happy Buyers and Predictive Aging

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So, before we solve for predictive aging, we’ve solved for aging in general. Rather than you having to deal with the tedium of the aging spreadsheet, Happy Buyers punches out those numbers next to all the other vital health-of-your-inventory metrics.

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Now you can see the aging numbers of any product, category, brand, store, and all your stores next to your run rates, days on hand, profit margin, and much more. Even groups of products like 1G Infused Indica Pre-Rolls across all brands now have aging reported. You won’t have to manage POS data exports, manual formula updates, or any of those other tasks to get to the number; it’s just there waiting for you, automatically updated every hour.

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Take a look at how we show aging in this short video:

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What Was That Again About Predictive Aging Though?

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We’re glad we could predict your next question. 

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Happy Buyers predicts the age any given SKU, category or brand is going to reach based on a bunch of intense calculations we do with our machine learning algorithms. We’re able to quickly analyze all the patterns in your POS data for you, sans exports.

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Here’s an example:

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You typically stock Wyld gummies, and you believe offering the most flavor variety is the best strategy. So, in a typical ordering cycle, you buy up a few cases of as many flavors as you can carry.

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Happy Buyers sees the new order hits the POS data and starts analyzing how well each SKU is selling. It notices that while most of your Wyld gummies fly off the shelf, particularly those elderberry sleep ones, the strawberry ones just don’t seem to move.

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Your average aging of Wyld gummies may look stellar, but those strawberry ones are predicted in Happy Buyers to be on your shelf for over 110 days. 😬

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Since you know that will be the case, you can be proactive in early collaboration with the brand to get that SKU moved as quickly as possible so it never reaches that ripe old age of 110.

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Tips for Moving Inventory Predicted to Age

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You have inventory predicted to age beyond an acceptable range, like the strawberry gummy SKU in the example above. What do you do next?

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Here are some ideas on how to proactively move SKUs before they get old, before you erode your margin into discounts, and before you rely on the brand to take the whole hit:

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1. Brand collabs for marketing or store popups
   Talk with your brands when you see a SKU that is predicted to be an aging problem. Right away you can work to get those strawberry gummies moving by engaging the brand in some co-marketing or having them throw a popup in store.
2. Bundle packages
   While that one SKU isn’t selling on its own, it may very well move if you bundle it together with some other products, either thematically or with other SKUs of the same brand (the summer gummy collection for instance) without having to apply a huge discount to it.
3. Retail staff training
   Just because an individual SKU may be new or unknown in the market doesn’t mean customers won’t buy it. Get your staff to pay some attention to the SKUs you can predict will move slowly and understand what makes them special that they can communicate. Get them to try it so they can use their own personal testimonials for it as well.
4. Deploy or update visual merchandising
   Some products are just out of sight out of mind for customers. Some flavors may feel uninteresting without some visual support. Those strawberry gummies punched out in front of a vivid picture of strawberries could nudge someone along to order it. Brands offer great posters, table tents, and signage you should leverage.
5. Rearrange shelf position for that product to increase its visibility
   That product may have moved slowly because it was hidden or in a spot easily overlooked. Shuffle up the shelf a bit, try moving that product around and follow the data to gauge the impact.
6. Targeted marketing using text, email and push notifications
   These marketing channels aren’t just useful for deal blasting. In fact, they are more useful the more specific you are. So hype up that product early, give it a dedicated campaign, and beat the prediction. And if you need an app, check out our homies at Digital Awesome, best in the biz.
7. Feature products using your Ecomm provider and website
   Whether you’re on iHeartJane or your own site, never forget the power of using it to push specific products. You can feature the product on your site to get it moving, as well as banner “ads,” featured product lists, or even AI budtender recommendations if you work with our friends over at Terpli.
   
   

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You won’t have to wait until your products hit 90 days old to do something about them any longer. Yay proactivity!

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We love the example Andrew at Sonoran is employing to strategically handle their aging inventory. How much better do you think other buyers will be at their jobs if they can shift from reactive thinking to proactive tactics through predicting the age of inventory ahead of time?

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With predictive aging, you can ensure your inventory that would typically age out might not ever reach its senior years. You can see the future and change it!

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So why don’t you hop in this DeLorean and disrupt the space-time continuum with us using predictive aging?

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Sign up for your free 14-day trial of Happy Buyers today.