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Call Sales: +1 (833) 437-3835
Kristie Wright | December 24, 2020 |
The state of your product portfolio and efficiency of your supply chain are intimately linked. Your supply chain is the process through which you create, store, and sell your business’s products. If your chain is not transparent, optimized, and capable of being scaled, your bottom line won’t be where it should.
It’s crucial for all businesses to reassess and update their product portfolios continuously to keep their supply chains running at their peak.
By improving your operational processes at every level, you can optimize your system’s output. You’ll ensure your portfolio contains products that contribute to your venture’s sustainability and growth.
A: The first step to refreshing your product portfolio and streamlining your supply chain is to determine the strategic value of every product you sell. Your individual products should garner enough demand and profit to make them sustainable additions to your portfolio.
If any of your products aren’t working as hard as they should for your business, consider adjusting them, removing them, or replacing them with better-performing options. At no stage do you want to sit with dead stock you can’t move, that ends up costing you money.
A product’s basic financial value doesn’t paint a full picture of how much value it’s able to add to your operations. You also need to consider what your products do for your brand, and whether they work towards maintaining your good reputation among your customers. Change or scrap products that don’t bring in profits or enhance your brand in favor of more strategically selected items.
When assessing each of the products in your portfolio, you need to remember their complete profitability cycles. Start with gross profit margins, compare costs with sale prices, and look at your portfolio’s net margins to gauge where you can make improvements. Your updated product portfolio should include products that maximize your profits at every stage of the supply chain.
A: How each of your products moves along the supply chain is an essential factor in how many supply chain-related costs your business faces. Evaluate any items in your current product portfolio that demand too much time or money from your supply chain and consider removing them.
To optimize your product portfolio, assess the process from start to finish to gain a complete picture of your supply chain. Take special note of production bottlenecks and other issues that could cause delays, as well as unnecessary stages that waste precious time, and cost your enterprise money.
As a general rule, the longer your supply chain process takes, the more it will affect your profit margins. Each step along the way costs money, so the fewer steps, the more profitable the result will be.
Your business needs transparency in every link of your supply chain to ensure consistent operation, and to earn your suppliers and shoppers confidence. The more transparent your chain, the easier it will be to monitor its efficiency and make targeted changes.
A: Yes! Analyze every item in your product portfolio to ensure it offers customers enough value to keep them coming back.
When you created your initial business plan, you should have included market and competitor research that highlighted which products would sell well, and why. When assessing your portfolio you can conduct similar research, only this time you need to focus on your customers’ current desires and demands.
Approach your customer service department and assess compliments, queries, and complaints to find out which products you need to update or remove. You may need to scrap any items that attract regular poor reviews in favor of products that better meet the needs of your customer base. They’re the ones generating your primary income stream, after all.
A: There are many ways to approach integrating your product portfolio and internal systems with your supply chain. You should gear every part of your business towards keeping that chain running smoothly. If you integrate these systems properly, your operations will benefit.
Modern mobile technology can go a long way in improving and simplifying this integration process. Cloud-based systems like Revel allow you to improve your customer experience, diversify your revenue streams, and scale your business with renewed ease.
You can automate these tasks, along with many others such as checklist completion and data entry, on tablets and smartphones. This allows you to make product portfolio updates and manage inventory from anywhere in the world.
In short, automating your supply chain management protocols will allow you to develop a system that’s more efficient and transparent. Using technology to automate your processes is first prize, as it removes elements of human error, while creating detailed logs of all actions taken so you can learn and strategize as you grow.
Smart product portfolio management is the key to streamlining your business’s supply chain and ensuring profit margins are at a premium. Intuitive POS systems like Revel can help make your venture profitable and sustainable.
Revel’s innovative approach allows businesses to handle transactions, manage inventory, and enhance customer loyalty figures. The platform expands online ordering options, offers flexible embedded payment methods, and delivers strong ROI and excellent scalability. Its seamless integration and mobile functionality make for comprehensive operations and portfolio management, no matter your size or sector.
If you’d like to learn more about this pioneering iPad POS system and what it can do for your business, contact Revel for details. Effective product portfolio and supply chain management has never been simpler.
Kristie Wright is an experienced freelance writer who covers topics on logistics, management, and finance, mostly catering to small businesses and sole proprietors. When she’s not typing away at her keyboard, Kristie enjoys roasting her own coffee and is an avid tabletop gamer.
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