ROI Payback

The Return On Investment model is based on well documented known savings to regular retailer scanning versus regular cash registers with hand entered prices. Additional savings unique to this system are a result of scanning information over and above regular retail cost savings. Return on investment is described as hard benefits and soft benefits. Hard benefits are savings that can be calculated, while soft benefits are more difficult to calculate, but have proven to have a larger impact on the bottom line by increasing sales.

• Switching tags are a common occurrence for Thrift Stores
• The S-Tag system has a detailed description of the tag, including department and item description, i.e. Ladies Jacket
• Reduces theft by customer’s switching low price tags to a higher priced item
• Each tag has a full description of the product, and the POS system will have a clear description displayed at the time of a sale
• In addition to the clothing tags, barcode stickers for furniture and miscellaneous items have a slit/perforation that prevents customers from removing a sticker and switching it with another item
• The stickers destroy themselves when removed

ROI Calculation:

A valid assumption could be that ‘tag swapping’ occurs 20 times per week, multiplied by an average of $5.00 = $100.00 per week or $400.00 per month

With cash registers the store manager’s ability to offer more creative special pricing incentives may be hindered for fear it will be difficult for cashiers to remember. This inhibits the manager to have control over promotions to clear inventory without fear of error.

• Eliminate reliability on the cashier to remember specials or deals and timelines, reducing pricing errors
• S-Tags barcode tagging software system will limit negotiating at the register only to staff members of management as cashiers will not be able to perform unapproved price negotiations since prices are pre-determined on barcode tags and cannot be overridden without a managers authorization
• S-Tags POS will aid tremendously in loss prevention since cashiers will also be unable to extend discounts to friends, family members, and acquaintances
• The S-Tags POS system will perform all promotions automatically, including start and stop dates. Cashiers will no longer be required to remember special pricing; cashiers will only have to scan the barcoded item and the S-Tags Thrift Store POS system will perform the discounts approved by management

ROI Calculation:

Promotional errors could cost as much as $250 a week or $1,000 per month.  The limitation of promotions could also be costly, but complicated to compute an accurate figure.

Controlling and overseeing production output is crucial to ensuring sales. Currently, most managers must rely on a hand written report from the production supervisor on the total number of items stocked on the sales floor. Knowing what product is being stocked and sold is a critical part of thrift success.   A target quantity of items to be placed on the sales floor each day is set by management to ensure sales and to keep a rotation of stock.  Having knowledge of the quantity of items listed by product categories put on the sales floor will allow management members to make key decisions on stocking specific areas or departments.

• The S-Tags Thrift Shop POS System will provide the store manager with accurate data of what was put on the sales floor by department, and in what categories, and at what price
• This information puts the manager in full control, with simple to read reports
• These reports also provide valuable information to draw conclusions to create an action plan for the production supervisor; an example would be: the store needs more Men’s jeans, more Children’s clothes, or pricing is too high.
• Quotas can also be set by department instead of total number of items; The S-Tags tagging system creates an accurate system of accountability, it is near impossible for production staff to submit inaccurate numbers
• Management decide pricing for all products, using Good, Better, Best and Exceptional or simply using price points for each product.
• The S-Tags system creates consistent pricing and allows management to review pricing success with sell through reporting.

ROI Calculation:

This example is a real report from a store using our system.

The report says 399 Child 0-6x Dresses price at $4.00 were placed on the floor and only 32 were sold over the past month. 8.02% sold.  399 Child 0-6x Dresses take a lot of valuable square footage. Staff time to price and to rag off again at the end of the cycle for an 8.02% return. 

A real cost saving decision can be made to rectify this situation. (This is only one of 5000 different items) How many other items is this occurring.

Upper management, along with store managers, are continually reviewing production processes to improve efficiencies. Efficiencies are a natural bi-product of our S-Tags system.

• Allow store management to streamline production by pre-sorting racks of clothing prior to price evaluation
• Employees distributing the rack to the sales floor are not making stops to all areas of the store as they only have one item type on the racks, in turn, the employees return quickly to help pre-sort the next rack
• Pricing and tagging clothing with the S-Tags Thrift Store tagging system is approximately 6x’s faster than manual handwritten price tags
• New POS price tags have clear and easy to read prices as they are not handwritten
• Cashier efficiency is increased dramatically since the new tags are barcoded.
• Greatly reduces ringing prices under the wrong department
• Integrated debit/credit processing increases productivity at the point of sale

ROI Calculation:

If cashiers are now on average 25% faster at the point of sale, it is viable to send a backup cashier home an hour earlier a day or have them come in an hour later since one cashier is now handling all of the flow of customers.

Reducing payroll by an approximate 14 hours per week at a rate of $10.00 an hour will produce a savings of $140.00 each week or $560 each month Or

A store using 4 registers could save the cost of one cashier wages per week? 40 hours X 10.00 an hour = $400.00 or  $1,600.00

Reporting information is another benefit of the S-Tags POS system, providing management data you’ve never had available in the past.

• Managers will be able to fine tune pricing, focus on stocking the most lucrative areas, and study promotions to determine which are the most effective, resulting in increased sales
• Production oversight and inventory control are maximized

S-Tags POS system will tell managers how much of each specific article of clothing in every department has been sold; there will be sub-departments, providing more detailed information. 

Example:

Men’s Jeans, Children’s Pants, Ladies Capris, Men’s Jackets, etc.  Having this data available allows the production staff to focus on the more lucrative departments and the departments where more volume is sold.

S-Tags also reports sales by price point.

It will report 100 pairs of Ladies jeans sold this week.  25 Ladies jeans @ $4.98 each, 50 Ladies jeans @ $5.98 each, 14 Ladies jeans @ $6.98 each, and 11 Ladies jeans @ $8.98 each.  In addition to sales by item price point, S-Tags will also report on how many Ladies Jeans were placed on the sales floor by price point.

Example report may look like this:

Store    Jan 01 - Jan 07, 2015

Ladies Jeans

Price               Qty sold           Qty prod                      Sell through %

$4.99               25                    75                                33.3%

$5.99               50                    125                              40.0%

$6.99               14                    35                                40.0%

$8.99               11                    11                                100%

From the multitude of sales reports that can be utilized through S-Tags, sell through reports are among the most valuable.  From a report like the ‘sell through’ pictured above, a manager could draw conclusions like this:

If 100% of the $8.99 jeans sold within a week, we could adjust the price higher.

If we only sold one third of the $4.99 jeans, are they priced too high? Is the quality of the lower priced jeans too low?

If we sold 40% of the mid-range priced jeans perhaps the price could be 50 cents higher, or perhaps this is the best price range for those jeans, With S-Tags thrift stores now have the tools required for price point optimization.

Customer satisfaction increases with:

• An accurate tallying of sales receipts, including detailed item descriptions of a customer’s purchases
• Accurate display of all discounts have been applied correctly with large, clear, multi-line customer displays
• The new cash registers will reduce long lines and wait times
• DataCandy frequent shopper and gift card points programs with rewards are a feature designed to bring customers back to the store
• Easier to read price tags with accurate size information makes shopping easier

The retail industry statistic states .5 to 1.5% of sales are lost due to cashier errors.

The basic cash register presents an opportunity for many errors. To list only a few:

1. Transposing of number as each item will require four to five key depressions presenting four to five opportunities to make a mistake
2. Entering the wrong amount tendered and gives the wrong change back
3. Missing a key depression, making $9.99 into.99 cents
4. Transferring debit amount from the small register display to the debit terminal incorrectly
5. If cashiers can’t read hand written tags they will rather put lower price as not to encounter an uncomfortable situation (unapproved negotiation)
6. Friends, family, acquaintances discounts: Cashiers acquaintances come in and get special pricing not authorized by management
7. Cashier not aware of specials are no longer on special
8. Misreading hand written price tags

ROI Calcuation:

According to industry statistics, below are some figures revealing what your store/s are potentially losing with basic cash registers:

Sales of $10,000.00 per week   X   .5 percent = $50.00 per week or $200 per month

Sales of $10,000.00 per week   X   1.5 percent = $150.00 per week or $600.00 per month

Save one cashier wages per week? 40 hours X 10.00 an hour = $320.00 or $1,280.00

ROI Potential Summary

Savings and Sales Increase Estimate in Total (for one store location):

*Results may vary per store dependent on a number of uncontrollable external factors