Cost-cutting Measures for Retail Businesses with a Shopfront

Running a shopfront (otherwise known as a retail shop) is hard in this day and age. Competition is rife online and people are comparison shopping while out looking for deals. Therefore, for a shop to stay in business and hopefully make a profit most years, control over costs is necessary.

Not every store manager is all that successful at managing costs and so it’s necessary periodically to implement some cost-cutting measures to move in the right direction again. Sometimes, this is the difference between turning a profit or staying in the red.

In this article, we make some suggestions for cost-cutting measures that will work anywhere in the UK, including here in Wales.

Look for Staffing Efficiencies

Not all shops run efficiently with the number of staff that they have. Sometimes, there are too few staff. Other times, there are too many.

Whilst employees will often grumble on the retail floor that they’re being overworked, it’s not necessarily the case. Not using the best method to get a task completed – because that’s the way it’s always been done, and no one has dared to try doing things another way – is commonly the culprit here.

Poor management of staff schedules and being informed late about absences can often mean not enough staff on a shift. This is a separate problem and one that’s frequently an issue in the retail environment. It’s necessary to have floaters who are happy to cover extra shifts at short notice or employ an extra hand so the store can manage with one person down.

Reconsider Employee Theft/Shoplifting Protection Again

Theft is a problem with shoppers and sometimes employees too. If the systems haven’t been updated in many years to address this issue, then it’s time to look at modern RFID tagging and other security systems that encourage honesty for all people in the shop.

Be careful about stock takes; it becomes much easier to properly assess what stock is being lost to shrinkage or shoplifting.

Also, consider any cash transactions and whether the cash till’s float is adding up correctly on the majority of shifts or if there are regular shortfalls? If there are, who’s operating that till? Look at the camera footage to see. Separate out who uses that till to isolate the person responsible before addressing the issue.

Cut Costs on Regular Bills

Regular bills like utilities are costly for shops. Whether you are running a corner newsagent, a retail shop or another business on the High Street, it’s important to get the costs down.

Usually, there’s some negotiation room when there’s the choice of two or more providers for a service. For instance, use a Utilities Bidder to get more competitive prices for utilities required at the commercial address. Do it once and save every quarter thereafter.

Also, look at other regular expenses to see if they’re still needed. Many industry magazines publish their articles online, making their trade publication less necessary than before. Not all other business subscriptions are necessary either.

Whatever type of shopfront that you’re running, the margins are often pretty thin. This means that any effort towards controlling the expenses can have a significant impact on the profits.