Managing Out Stale Product
Keeping your redemption room up to date with new and versatile items may seem like a daunting task. You might have items with an abundance on hand, some that are just not being redeemed by your guests, or items that are no longer available to reorder. These items take up space in your redemption room for newer or faster-selling items and can affect your inventory budget.
Why does a product go stale? There are many reasons but here are three big ones:
1 | Overstocked items - this may have been caused by a mistake when ordering. You might have been intending to order eaches (single pieces) of an item and instead ordered inners. (Example: Item 320893 Pixel Swords come in an inner of 12, instead of ordering 1 inner of 12, you might have ordered 12 inners resulting in 144 Pixel Swords in your inventory).
2 | Guests are just not redeeming those items because they are targeted to the wrong age range, the brand might be outdated, the ticket value is too high, or the item might just be unpopular.
3 | Supply chain issues - you might have a few items still in inventory, but the item is not available to reorder, either it is out of stock or discontinued.
How do you know if an item is not moving? Your card reader system is a great tool to analyze the performance of the items in inventory. You should be able to pull a stock trend report that will show how often (or not often) items are moving. You can use this hard information as a guide to determine which items need to be managed out.
Each system is different and might have alternate names for reports but look for one that shows item performance over a period of time - 6 weeks should give you a good gauge.
Managing out is a process that can help alleviate the issue of stale inventory by using 1 or more of these 9 strategies to liquidate items.
Merchandising
1 | Create a Manage Out Section in your redemption area. Dedicate a small section of your wall to items that need to be managed out. Like our other Merchandising techniques try to group like items and use Vertical Merchandising with higher ticket-value items at the top and lower ticket-value items at the bottom. Merchandising Tip: Use inventory control clips for low inventory items, making the peg hook look full.
2 | Bargain Bins/ Treasure Chests - Use smaller bin items and mix them in a box. Mark all items to the same ticket value and keep the box by your Point of Sale (POS) for quick and easy access.
3 | Cranes + Merchandisers - Consider adding candy to your candy crane machines. Any balls or plush could be added to your cranes with like items. Peg items are a great addition to Merchandisers like Prize Locker.
Price Reduction
4 | Markdowns - Start markdowns at 25% off and then gradually increase until the items have sold out. Make sure your POS and the ticket labels are updated with the new ticket value and hang a SALE shelf talker on the item.
5 | WOGO - Win One Get One, when a guest redeems a prize, they can choose another prize from the Manage Out Section of equal or lesser ticket value for free.
6 | Mystery Box - Add mixed merchandise to an opaque bag or box and mark it at an attractive ticket price (start by adding up the ticket values of all items included and go from there). Your guests will get the enjoyment of “unboxing” their prizes. These can also be used in cranes.
Other Strategies
7 | Party Bags - Add mixed merchandise to fill out party bags. You can set up themed bags, such as Putties + Slimes (Emoji Splat Ball 2.5in Asmt, Glitter Putty Egg 2.75in Asmt, Alien Slime Tube Asmt, etc.) or Accessories (Compact Brush 3in Asmt, Cupcake Lip Gloss 1.25in Asmt, Heart Tiara Asmt, etc.). You can also set up a special bag for the birthday guest!
8 | Giveaways - Use some of the higher ticket value / larger box items as prizes for your staff. These could be used in raffles, as rewards for employees, or even as special one-off recognition. You can also use some for giveaways at school or community events, or tournament prizes.
9 | Donate - Partner with charitable organizations in your community. For example, here at R+, we provide prizes to Ronald McDonald House, and plush to our local police department for kids in scary situations. Local schools often accept toys for fundraisers or activities, and Women’s or Family Shelters are a great choice too.
Make sure you keep the inventory in the POS up to date. If you adjust the ticket value of an item in your redemption area, adjust it in the POS as well. If you remove an item in the redemption area to add to a mystery bag, put it in a crane, donate, etc., remove it from the inventory in your POS.
Here at Redemption Plus, we have a flexible return policy. Outside of any sort of food or candy, seasonal, custom-orders, or broken inners, we offer 90 days to return merchandise.
Just partner with your Account Manager to work out the details of the return. And of course, if an item is damaged or defective, please let them know and we will make it right.
Thank you so much for reading! Remember to access our Operational Toolkit at go.redemptionplus.com/operationaltoolkit for tools and resources, and tune in next month when Holly will be talking customer service!
Written by: Sammi Hager
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