Salon Business Planning: Helping with Inventory Control
A phrase like inventory control can sound pretty cold and daunting. But first impressions aside, what it really amounts to is a stroll down memory lane: thumbing through some receipts and past orders.
Well, there’s also a dash of chemistry involved too. That’s the fun part though.
Calculating Your Inventory Needs
You don’t need to have a math degree or know how to wield spreadsheets like a wizard to pull this off. Simply take a look at the last year’s worth of orders you made to get a good idea. Then you can log them into a very basic spreadsheet that tracks two things: the month and the products sold/used in your salon for that month.
This system is quick and simple. Plus, it clues you into any potential seasonal trends that you may have overlooked in the past.
How much inventory do you need to last six months?
Once you’ve sat down with the receipts, you can easily take on this question above. Knowing the answer here saves you a lot of time and money going forward.
Also, and this is where the chemistry comes in handy, it’s smart to consider the following three things:
- Shelf life of Walker Tape products
- Storing our products to last
- Using all of one product before opening a new one
Shelf life of Walker Tape products: Stored properly (see below), our liquid-based products last six months, and our tapes last a year.
Storing our products to last: Here are basics to what we mean by “stored properly.” Due to various fancy chemical reactions, products are affected by light, oxygen, humidity, and heat. This is true across the board for any product out there.
So, to protect them from heat, store products in a cool, room-temperature controlled (60-80° F) place.
To protect them from humidity and light, stash them somewhere dark, dry, and well-ventilated.
Lastly, considering oxygen, make sure to always keep their lids tightly closed.
For product-specific storing guidelines, check out our overviews for liquid adhesives, tapes, hard bond adhesives, and removers.
Using all of one product before opening a new one: Oxygen begins to affect a product the moment it’s opened. This means it’s best to use all of one product instead of breaking the seal on several, partially used products.
Placing Orders to Save Money
Now it’s time to combine everything that you’ve discovered above and apply it to a savvy ordering strategy. Knowing your inventory needs for six months and the shelf life of our products saves you money. This can be true for every order you place from here on out.
Order More Less Often
Each order comes with shipping fees. Ordering larger quantities less often means you end up paying fewer shipping fees. This is especially true for international customers and when ordering flammable products (more on that soon).
But another great reason to go big with your orders has to do with your status as an exclusive Walker Tape wholesale customer. The more you buy, the greater the discount is, resulting in a lower cost to you per product.
To illustrate our point, let’s say you order 20 boxes of Sensi-Tak Select™ straight strips every two months. That amounts to six orders per year at a smaller wholesale discount with six instances of shipping fees.
However, our tape’s quality easily holds up for a year on your shelf. Plus, you also know that you go through 20 boxes every two months. So, you could turn six small orders into one large yearly order of 120 boxes. Using this strategy saves you money per box with the better wholesale pricing. It also eliminates five extra shipping fees per year on that tape alone.
Avoid Burning Extra Money on Flammable Fees
Every order with flammables gets treated like everything in the order is flammable. This leads your entire order to be marked as hazardous (HAZMAT), and you end up having to pay extra to cover the associated fees.
Instead of paying HAZMAT fees on every order, pack six month’s worth of flammable needs into one big order.
For international customers, if the cost of shipping flammables is outside your comfort zone, use our Find a Distributor feature for options closer to home.
Shipping Overview
As the saying goes, the devil’s in the details, and shipping logistics tend to be especially devilish. We’re here to make it all much easier.
When will your order ship?
Here’s an easy breakdown of our shipping timelines:
- Under $1,000 – Shipped in one business day (our current bold guarantee here is on pause due to COVID-19)
- $1,001-$10,000 – Shipped within 5 business days
- $10,001-$20,000 – Shipped within 7 business days
- $20,001-$99,999 – Shipped within 10 business days
- Over $100,000 – Shipped within 15 business days
If you’d like expedited shipping, we need to receive your order before 12pm MST. Otherwise, we’ll make sure to ship it out the next day.
How does international shipping work?
Long story short, regulations vary from country to country. Plus, most of our liquid products are flammable and must meet certain requirements. For shipments that include flammables, we use FedEx. For shipments without any flammable products, we also offer DHL.
Honestly though, if you want to bypass digging through the fine print of your area’s shipping details, contact our Customer Service team. We’ve created quite the amazing team who take caring for our customers to the next level. Whether you’re ordering online or by email, they can provide an exact quote with the shipping details all worked out.
