Managing Your Retail Store Chains Effectively

If you’re a retailer with a successful store that’s contemplating starting a chain of stores you’ll want to take a long hard look at how you plan to manage your retail store chains effectively.

You already manage your inventory, suppliers, staffing, and a host of other intricate details in your existing store but whether you plan to open 10 or 100 chains of your store you are going to need an effective plan to ensure that what’s made your current store successful and well managed applies to all your other stores. After all you can’t be in all the stores yourself.

You’ll need to find the right location for each store you are planning to open. Shop around and then negotiate lease agreements with each leaser. If you are unable to reach acceptable terms then keep shopping. Be sure to evaluate the area for foot traffic and any other relevant factors for your business such as parking.

The most efficient method of staffing your chain of stores is to hire the managers and assistant managers directly yourself and then have them responsible for fulfilling the balance of staffing needs.

You’ll need to initially stock each store according to what you perceive will be successful. You will have no track record to base your decisions on but your store that is already operating successfully should be used as a starting platform as you already know which products move and which move the quickest.

Your biggest challenge is coordinating activity between all stores thus you will need a central warehouse for holding stock and distributing it appropriately to all your stores. You will also need an adequate inventory system that is linked to each stores POS system which should then be downloaded to the head office nightly.

This will ensure that store inventories are adjusted regularly and that new replacement stock is automatically scheduled for shipping when the inventory levels drop below the pre assigned quantity.

Each store manager must be accountable for maintaining inventory and inventory loss as a result of theft or improper recording through the POS. It is imperative that your store manager understand that if inadequate inventory control becomes an ongoing problem it is basis for dismissal.

Your inventory is your most critical element of managing your chain of stores. This is where you stand the chance to loose the most amount of money. Once you’ve established a proper inventory system you will need to ensure that POS access is assigned according to staffing positions.

For example managers should have access to all POS function including refunds and adjustments. Assistant managers will most likely have access to most functions but may be locked out of some areas. Full time staff and part time staff should have access only to areas related to processing a sale and each should have their own login in key so that inquiries can be directed to the correct party.

You will also have to assign budgets for each store. It is then the managers responsibility to ensure that budgets are met on a monthly basis and if they are not met to analyze why and present this information to you.

When you are running a chain of stores you are going to be very dependant on your managers. In fact depending on the number of stores you and the district they cover you may want to have district managers for each division. Store managers would then report to district managers who would be responsible for overseeing the stores in their district. Each district manager would then report directly to you at head office.

This is a very efficient and effective way of dealing with a chain of stores as it leaves you free to deal with urgent matters and you know that your districts are in the good hands of your district managers which you hand picked yourself.

You should be meeting with your district managers or managers at least a month. If the distance is too far to make a physical visit appropriate then a telephone conference call should be held. Schedule these calls for the same time and date each month and require that managers be on shift when they take place.

You should also make regular surprise visits to your stores to do spot checks on customer service, staff, and every other element of your business. If you have district managers they should be visiting stores on a regular basis but you still need to do surprise visits.

Remember when you run a chain of stores you’ll have to be willing to give up some control as it is impossible for one person to successfully manage that many stores. However giving up control doesn’t mean you aren’t involved in each store to ensure their success. After all at the end of the day it is your pocket book that is affected if a store is not performing well.

Setting up a chain of stores requires you to take small steps and to progress in a logical pattern so that you can maintain your structure. Chains are an excellent method of increasing your market share and your profits. So are you ready to run a chain of stores?


Deon Melchior is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit ArticleClick.com. Article Click is a free content article directory. This means that as a publisher you may reprint the articles that are included in our site, as long as the article is unedited and the author box is included with it's live hyperlinks.