IMPROVEMENT OF THE INVENTORY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AT THE TRADE ENTERPRISE

Abstract

The article is devoted to the issues related to the inventory management at the trade enterprise working in the field of flower business. Inventory management is one of the key aspects of improving the efficiency of trade organizations, because, on the one hand, the trading business cannot function without stocks, and on the other hand – the share of trading stocks in trade enterprises amounts up to the half of all its current assets, i.e. there is a threat of financial resources of the enterprise to be frozen, and, consequently, of its efficiency to be lost. The article highlights the following objective reasons for the creation of stocks at the trade enterprise, especially in the flower business: unstable and difficult predictability of demand for flower products; the possibility of the delivery schedule disruption of fresh flowers, especially with regard to foreign supplies; the need for instant customer service, which largely determines the competitiveness of the company, considering that time plays a significant role in the flower business due to the short shelf life of the product; the possibility of obtaining discounts for a larger order quantity (many suppliers offer discounts to their regular customers for increasing the order quantity). Based on the analysis of ABC and XYZ methods, 4000 nomenclature items of the company’s products were divided into 5 groups. Fresh flowers were included in the AZ group, meaning that the demand for the most profitable commodity group A is spontaneous and difficult to predict. However, this product group is the main source of income of the organization in question, therefore, the management of this type of product should be placed greater focus on. The optimal order size for the most popular items of group A goods is calculated considering four variants of demand depending on the location of the flower shop and the time of order (public holidays or weekdays). The CZ group includes goods from the category of related products (packaging for bouquets and ceramic items). Regarding this group of products, the article proposes measures to stimulate sales.