Reducing breakability is also a key area that you should focus on in your small retail business. As you know, a lot of commonplace merchandise that’s sold on the high street is quite fragile and breakable: porcelain and china, glass, electronics. The list goes on.

Coincidentally, these fragile types of products typically carry some of the heftiest prices from suppliers, so being written off due to breakage could leave a noticeable dent in your margins.

Therefore, it’s important to ensure that when merchandising these products in your store, you take their safety as your number one priority.

For example, keeping glass out of the reach of children will ensure that they don’t mistakenly grab and drop them, causing a breakage and a loss. So keeping the more fragile products on the mid to high shelves should keep them less prone to being dropped.

Electronics should be kept securely, ideally behind the counter where only your staff have access to them. Not only does this reduce the chances of them being dropped and broken, but also has a side effect of them being less likely to be stolen.

As well as fragile goods, if you sell clothes or other fabrics, you could consider the option of enforcing a no food or drink policy in your store. This will help reduce the risk of this kind of merchandise becoming damaged and unsaleable.

However, despite how well you merchandise and place stock on the shop floor, there is always the chance customers will knock and bump into your shelves, causing items to fall off and possibly break.

So, perhaps think about upgrading your shelving units. Heavier, better quality shelving units won’t be as prone to bumps, further ensuring your merchandise stays unbroken and in place.