Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Optimal Product Mix For Planet Antares Vending Business

As a Planet Antares vending operator, you always need to be sure that you are offering the most successful product mix. If some employees are responsible for filling of machines, you need to make sure that they place the right products in each vending machine. You will also need to rotate the products frequently to offer a large variety to the customers. All this can be accomplished by category management.

This is a system that simplifies product selection at the route and warehouse levels and also enables you to control the machine menu. There are several products that only turn quarterly and this costs the company in terms of tying up warehouse space. This is the reason why experienced Antares vending operators implement category management.

Certain vending operators resist using category management because it requires a different way of selecting products from the traditional practice. The problem with the traditional product selection based on the hunches of the owner or route driver is that it is costing the operators more in sales and profits. Category management should be a preferred selection choice for Planet Antares vending operators as well as other operators.

Using category management can result in savings in three areas:

1) Higher profitability can result in increased location sales

2) Reduced cash investment in inventory from a reduced number of stock keeping units in the warehouse

3) Better labor efficiency and higher productivity

Higher sales for your Planet Antares vending business will be possible by selecting the fastest turning products. As the inventory level reduces, so will be the amount of investment in fewer yet faster turning products. By having lesser number of products to manage, you will have lesser burden of inventory as well as lower chances of error. Fewer stock keeping units bring about the benefit of larger volume purchases. This allows the vending operator to reach rebate targets at a faster pace.