Let’s talk about what it means to be a buyer at a bookstore.

We’ll go over the things you need to do before you start buying for your store. Decide the personality of your store, create the right accounts, and prepare your shiny new point-of-sale system. Tips, helpful anecdotes, and an interview with the awesome Nathan from Batch for Books.

Learn the difference between frontlist and backlist, and the very different processes, strategies, and tools required to order both effectively. We’ll also dive in to the process and strategies involved in creating your opening inventory and talk about working with sales reps.

Sidelines, or non-book items, can be an important part of your inventory strategy. Learn why and how.

Being a Buyer is about more than just buying. A better name for this position would be “Inventory Manager.” This section will discuss what to measure, expectations for your POS system, the step-by-step processes for pulling returns and doing an annual physical inventory.

Keeping abreast of hot titles, what is moving, and what your customers are looking for is both critical and difficult. We’ll discuss places to watch and methods for tracking.

Your staff is, or can be, one of your business’s most powerful tools. There are very real and very useful processes you can put in place to make the most of your staff, get them involved, and track which employees might be candidates for more responsibility as you grow.

Just a few tools you can use to get a handle on your inventory.