Length Reporting: Powerful insights into trading measured products
Whoever said size isn't everything clearly wasn't a timber merchant. Because when you know – you know!
As a merchant trading in measured product, you will be very aware of the difficulties involved in length reporting products accurately. Whether it’s timber, steel or anything else that comes in different sizes, it’s a complex business getting accurate readings on exactly what’s selling through.
Well, we’ve got good news for you.
Merchanter gives you the ability to monitor and report by length of product. It gives the kind of detailed insights into stock movement, sales and replenishment that generic software simply can’t do, and really adds value for timber merchants, builders’ merchants and steel stockholders, or any other merchant trading in length-measured products.
Tracking product movement through the business
This reporting feature lets you see how products are moving through the business in detail. Every time a product is bought, sold, adjusted, moved or adapted, whether loose or in a pack, you’ll be able to see it. The power of having information like this at your fingertips is enormous, and as well as boosting sales, profitability, and enhancing stock profile and purchasing insight, can also save significant amounts of time and reduce waste. So yes – it’s pretty important.
Clever under the hood
On the face of it this is a simple reporting feature, but the complexities that go into building it are anything but. Most software (even the industry-specific stuff) doesn’t have the capability to let you consistently compare figures by length even when the products are in packs, or clearly see the patterns and trends in what’s going through the mill. This feature allows you to monitor and track all stock measured by length, whether loose or in packs, so you can see exactly how stock is performing.
What makes it such a powerful tool?
When you can see at a glance how different length products are moving through the business, you can make smart decisions about selling, replenishing and stocking those products. Looking at the sample spreadsheet below for example, you can clearly see that some lengths simply aren’t selling at all, while others are proving very popular.
That kind of information can help you not only know which stock to replenish first, but can also help you determine when you might buy in different lengths to process yourself. You might already know the headline numbers but being able to drill down quickly and easily to see the specific lengths involved makes it so much easier to streamline ordering and replenishment strategies, choose which stock to buy in, and price according to what’s selling through best.
The flex to fit your business
Whether you have in-house milling capabilities yourself or tend to trade in pre-prepared products, this tool will be invaluable. You can filter the results by date, depot, all stock, just mill out-turn, just loose, just pack, pack thickness – you name it, chances are you can quickly and easily filter the numbers to see exactly what you need to know to make the most informed decisions. Oh, and as if length alone wasn’t enough, Merchanter will also allow both width and thickness reporting, giving you the ultimate insight into your stock dynamics.
How you can get your hands on it
Current Merchanter users have access to this feature now, as part of recent system updates. If it's something you think your merchant business could benefit from, please get in touch to find out more.
There is no extra cost for this feature – as promised, with Merchanter, you get the latest version of the system as standard, including all the relevant features and benefits that suit your business. If you’re not yet using Merchanter and would like to see what all the fuss is about, why not register here for 30 days’ free access to the online demo system.
