Recycling and resale go hand-in-hand. As a resale business owner, recycling not only serves as your greatest draw and differentiator for customers, it’s also an inherent and integral part of your inventory management process.
After all, repurposing peoples’ quality used items is how you stock your shelves and ensure a strong product supply.
Among Winmark resale brands, however, the vital role recycling plays in our business model goes beyond merely supplying our inventory.
Just as Winmark resale franchisees collectively save millions of quality used goods from landfills each year, we have also saved and repurposed more than two decades of valuable brand-wide inventory data and insights within our system.
Our proprietary point-of-sale (POS) system, aptly named our Data Recycling System (DRS), informs franchisees about the most effective buying, pricing and other inventory management strategies – based on more than 20 years of insights, and a proven track record of success for franchisees with our brands.
DRS Data that Strengthens and Streamlines Unit-Level Operations
Our robust POS and online reporting systems take all the guesswork from the traditionally arduous task of inventory management in resale.
Armed with real-time and historic brand-specific data, Winmark franchisees are able to accurately, efficiently and effectively price their products, while seamlessly managing their inventory.
Every item bought and sold – across each Winmark franchise location – is automatically logged within DRS at the point of sale (or purchase). The software also creates a unique tracking system for every item purchased, so franchisees can periodically check their individual store metrics and easily manage their inventory down to the individual SKU and SKI level.
With each item’s unique identifier, our franchisees can see detailed information about each piece of their store inventory, such as a product’s:
- Brand
- Color
- Size
- Style
- Condition/quality
- Demand
- Category and Subcategory affiliation
Data about the product’s lifecycle, from its original purchase date and cost to the date and final price at which it’s resold, are also tracked and measured.
This helps franchisees see which products and categories are most in-demand at their store, allowing them to predict future inventory needs and proactively manage, plan and optimize future purchases.
Laser-Focused Visibility at Every Level
In addition to offering franchisees greater inventory visibility at the unit level, the tracking system also provides our corporate team with invaluable, higher-level insights into broader consumer trends and product demand – from data spanning the entire franchise system throughout North America.
That’s because DRS has collected, compiled and calibrated inventory and transactional data, over the course of more than 20 years, from our vast franchise network. Today, that extensive network is comprised of more than 1,250 locations across the U.S. and Canada.
By analyzing reports from millions of data points, our corporate team is able to identify product and category trends over time and across markets. These insights into national consumer trends and demand, in turn, inform our marketing campaigns, inventory management processes and other system-wide strategies.
After identifying top-selling, high-margin items with strong demand, we give franchisees the tools to market these items, so they can attract more customers, move more inventory and generate more profits.
Each of our brand-specific, overarching and more long-term inventory management strategies is also created based on DRS analytics. These programs help franchisees effectively manage and plan their buying and selling process, so they are constantly moving product and turning inventory.
From clearance and markdowns to first-in/first-out backstock, merchandising, signage and floor sets, these programs vary by each of our five brand’s specific strategy – but they all focus on maximizing franchisee sales and profitability, with solid turns and sell-through rate.
The Price is Right: Strategies that Boost Productivity and Profit
DRS’ advantages extend even beyond its ability to inform unit-level product management and overarching brand strategy.
The price matrix within DRS further optimizes the efficient and seamless inventory management process for franchisees, while streamlining operations and taking the guesswork out of pricing.
Whereas most independent resellers need to research, appraise, price, markdown and individually track each and every item they purchase, DRS enables Winmark franchisees to skip this entire time and labor-intensive process altogether.
That way, they can focus on selecting the right products to buy, without the added burden of worrying about retail pricing.
Within the DRS price matrix, pre-configured costs and set pricing strategies help franchisees avoid hours spent researching a product’s fair market value. Instead, they’re able to immediately see the fair, accurate price they should pay for a given item, while also finding with the best price to resell that item.
While prices within the matrix are immediately available at franchisees’ fingertips, each figure has been determined based on careful, extensive resale market research, as well as years of historic product transactional trends and real-time data specific to the Winmark system.
DRS’ strong pricing model and comprehensive matrix – for both buying and selling product – helps franchisees efficiently build up their inventory, and price it to resell quickly yet profitably.
The Power of a National Brand with Historical Insight
Access to our brand’s historic and real-time data helps franchisees strengthen and streamline their inventory management process while taking substantial amounts of time, labor and guesswork out of the equation.
By analyzing past products’ age, turns, sell-through rates and more, franchisees are able to better manage their unit-level inventory and proactively plan for future needs – based on decades of data and trends.
At the same time, these insights help our corporate team guide franchisees on inventory management best practices for their specific store, based on their individual, unit-level metrics.
Meanwhile, we’re also constantly evaluating the ongoing and past national data available to us in DRS, which informs our broader, strategic and brand-wide inventory management processes and pricing guidelines.
With each working piece of our leading strategy, and guided by DRS, we’re able to ensure a hassle-free, profitable business opportunity for each franchisee in our system. DRS allows us to create a win-win scenario for our franchisees and our customers. We can pay our customers the maximum value for their used merchandise and our franchisees can benefit with a strong return on their investment.
To learn more about running a profitable, efficient resale franchise, backed by Winmark’s industry-leading tools and support, contact us today!