A few weeks ago on this blog, we covered how to assess your store’s sales of titles with Canadian contributors. Today, we’ll look at other ways of assessing and analyzing your store’s performance with inventory — and these strategies apply to any title, Canadian and Non-Canadian alike.
This information can be easily found using SalesData, BookNet’s national sales tracking service for the Canadian English-language trade book market, if your store has been reporting sales to us.
Spot those slow movers with Inventory Performance reporting
The Gap Analysis: Inventory Performance report highlights items that are in stock, but not selling in your store, but are selling well in your comparison market — in this case, the All Markets. This can help you identify stagnant inventory that may benefit from being featured on your social media channels and store displays, or just faced out on a shelf so customers can spot them more easily.
To set up your Inventory Performance report, navigate to the Gap Analysis criteria page, then:
Select the middle “Inventory Performance” tab from the three types of Gap Analysis reports available.
Select your store as your “Home Market” from the provided droplist.
Select the comparison market you’d like to use as a benchmark. Both the All Markets and the Independents are great choices here. If your store has multiple locations, you can also choose to compare your stores to one another, to help you decide how to reallocate inventory across locations.
Before selecting the “Run Report” button, don’t forget to set your reporting period — we recommend a two to four week period to start with — and any optional filters, like a subject filter, to help you narrow your results.
In your results screen, you’ll be able to see a list of titles that are selling well in the comparison market, but not in your store. For example, in the above results, I can see that my store has three copies on hand, but zero sold, of a title that sold over 8,000 copies in the All Markets. The customer demand is out there, and the books are in stock, so maybe a feature in an Instagram post or a spot near the cash desk might help get those copies in the hands of readers who want them.
Leverage your LibraryData access!
All retailers who participate in our SalesData reporting receive access to the All Libraries data in LibraryData — a national aggregate of circulation in Canadian libraries. Since backlist makes up a significant amount of library circulation, these reports can help you spot some popular gems that might be worth featuring in your own store.
To find some popular titles from Canadian libraries, head on over to the Popular Books criteria page and get started!
In the “Aggregate” selection, be sure the “All Libraries” is selected.
Set your reporting period. Again, a multi-week period is recommended.
After setting the number of items to view, select your rank criteria. To see the most-loaned titles in the period, select “Loans”. Another great indicator of demand is selecting “Holds” for the most recent week.
To narrow the results further before hitting “Run Report”, be sure to jump down to the “Show Only” filters. Here you can filter to Canadian titles, filter by subject, or, to help isolate backlist — select a pub date range.
Your results will show a list of the most-loaned items in the period — a great list to check against your store’s inventory to see what readers have been checking out.
Looking to learn more about using SalesData at your store? We’re hosting a retailer webinar on May 12 that’ll help you learn all the tips and tricks you need to put the data to work for you! Register here for free, and don’t hesitate to contact us at salesdata@booknetcanada.ca with your questions — we’re here to help!
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