Both POS (point of sale) and OTB (open to buy) are incredibly useful systems for retailers. What type of merchandise you carry will determine if you need one or both of these system. If you are selling merchandise that does not change very much from season to season and your suppliers will always have a big stock on hand, POS will do quite nicely for your reorders and your accounting. In those situations where tracking and refilling is your mainstay, a good POS system will serve you well.

However, if you are selling fashion merchandise that is constantly changing season by season and your vendors are asking for orders months ahead of delivery, having a good OTB system is critical to your financial health.

Now many POS systems suggest that they incorporate OTB, but most really don’t. A min/max report is not an open to buy. So, here’s what you should look for from your POS (or OTB) system to insure that you will generate the buying numbers you need:

  1. Is your buying plan in RETAIL dollars?

  2. Is your buying plan by merchandise DEPARTMENT?

  3. Is your buying plan for EACH MONTH for the next 12 months?

  4. Is your buying plan based on YOUR anticipated SALES and desired TURN RATES?

  5. Is your buying plan based on turn rates that have been ADJUSTED to reflect the sales impact of each month?

  6. Is your buying plan ADJUSTED to insure that you have enough merchandise to support your strong selling months, but also to make sure you go into your weaker selling months with a reduced inventory?

These are some of the questions you should ask of either your POS system or your current OTB system (if you have one). If you cannot absolutely, positively answer YES to the above questions, your system is setting you up for unbalanced, bloated inventory, excess invoices, poor turnover, markdowns and cash flow problems.

The one OTB system that answers YES to all of those questions, is the most accurate and accessible available, is supported 10/7, has no contract and is guaranteed to improve your buying, inventory position, turnover and cash flow is And our system can act as a mini POS system and will keep track of your retail dollar inventory in each department. So smaller retailers can function without an expensive, time consuming POS system until they feel they are ready for it.

You owe it to yourself to support your store with the system that will provide you with the most benefit. For OTB, you need

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