Running a retail business often feels like juggling flaming torches. You’re the buyer, the bookkeeper, the marketing team, the customer service rep, and occasionally the cleaner too. Phew – it’s a lot, isn’t it?! While passion and hard work keep the lights on, the admin can really zap your energy levels.
But there is some good news; software is getting much smarter. Retail management systems like Velocity BMS can do more than just ring up sales. Velocity can take over some of the most repetitive, time-consuming tasks, giving you back hours in your week and mental space to focus on growing your business. Or just having a well-deserved sit down!
Inventory automation: Reordering, warnings and thresholds
Keeping the right amount of stock is an art, but Velocity can make it more of a science. It can track sales trends in real time and automatically flag items that are running low. You can even set up reorder thresholds, so the system prompts you (or goes ahead and places the order) before you’re out of essentials.
This helps avoid two classic problems: over-ordering and being stuck with too much of something that doesn’t move, or under-ordering and losing sales because you’re out of a customer favourite. With inventory automation, you’re not guessing or taking shots in the dark, you’re reacting to real data.
Sales reporting and analytics
Remember when you had to stay late after closing to tally up the till and make sense of what sold that day? Those days are fortunately dying out fast.
With real-time sales reporting, your system can show you what’s selling well, what’s not, and what time of day is busiest; all at a quick glance. You can track performance by day, week, or even down to the hour, and access historical data to make smarter business decisions. There’s no need to dig through notebooks or Excel sheets. The insights are just… there. And they’re actually useful too.
Customer communications: Loyalty, notifications, promos
Customers love a personal touch, but personal touches take time. That is unless you automate them! Retail software like Velocity can now handle loyalty programmes, send out automatic birthday discounts, and deliver bulk SMS alerts about promotions, delivery updates, or even simple thank-you messages.
It’s all customisable, and you stay in control. For example, want to send a “We miss you” message to customers who haven’t shopped in a while? Easy. Want to reward regulars with something special? The system can handle it too. You keep the human feel, without having to manually send every message.
Supplier orders and reconciliation
Ordering stock and checking deliveries can eat up hours every week, especially if you’re comparing paperwork, chasing suppliers, and double-checking invoices manually.
Velocity can automate the whole process. Purchase orders can be generated automatically based on stock levels or sales forecasts. Once the delivery arrives, the system matches it against the invoice, flagging any discrepancies. What used to take an entire afternoon becomes something you can check over your morning coffee.
What our customers say
One retailer shared how they used to spend hours every week creating stock lists by hand. Now, Velocity BMS tells them exactly what’s low and helps generate orders in minutes. That’s time they now use to plan their displays, talk to customers, and actually take a break once in a while.
What can you do next?
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the possibilities, start small. Here’s how:
Identify your top 3 admin time drains
Think about what tasks steal your time the most. Is it stock control? Reconciling invoices? Daily sales reports? Make a short list.
Request a demo with those tasks in mind
Look for a system like Velocity BMS that can show you exactly how it handles the tasks you care about most. A quick walkthrough can be eye-opening.
Set automation rules gradually
You don’t have to automate everything at once. Start with low-risk areas like low stock alerts or auto-reordering and build your confidence from there.
Whilst we sometimes who have clients who are hesitant to change, after a week of the product being installed and running, they’ll say; “Why didn’t we do this years ago?!”
Would you like to find out more about how Velocity could help your business? Talk to our friendly team today, we’d be happy to answer all of your questions and make suggestions.
