How to Inventory a Flower Shop. You want to keep track of your flower shop merchandise so you know how much you have sold, how much you need to order and if anything has been stolen. Counting your inventory tells you a lot about how your business is doing. Use these tips to inventory a flower shop.
Hire an expert. Go to an inventory specialist and hire a team to count your merchandise. These specialists are trained to count inventory properly and they have special equipment to conduct inventories.
Bring your staff in to count the inventory. Put staff members in groups of two in each section or aisle of the shop. One person can count the inventory while the other person writes down the quantity. Pick a day or time when the store is closed for business so your count is accurate.
Use hand-held counters to keep track of your inventory as you count the merchandise. You can also use scanners to scan SKU codes on your items. Sort by SKU, color, size or item.
Count all items in your shop including flowers, bulbs, vases, stuffed animals, balloons and gift items. Count each item by hand and write down your quantities. Start at one end of the store and move systematically across the store counting each product.
Use an automatic method of counting inventory like receipt counting. Keep track of all your stock and subtract anything you sold. What you have left is an accurate inventory count, because it is the difference between what you had and what you sold.
Keep track of overstock that may be packed away or old stock that doesn't seem to be selling. Both of these types of inventory represent items that aren't making you money, so you might want the counts kept separate in case you want to stop stocking these items.
