Three lavenders, three prices, one code
Your centre sells lavender in 9cm pots for the front of a border, in 2 litre pots for the bench and in 5 litre specimens on the feature stand. The grower sends two of those sizes under the same barcode, and the specimens come from a different nursery. In the EPOS there is one lavender product with a price that suits the 2 litre, another called Lavender Large, and a note on the till screen telling cashiers to change the price for the small ones.
Saturday comes, the cashier is new, and the 5 litre plants go through at the 2 litre price. The stock figures say you have negative small lavenders and far too many large ones. The buyer reorders the wrong size.
How pot sizes get tangled
Most EPOS systems can handle size variants, but the setup in a garden centre grows by accident. Products are added in a hurry at goods in, named by whoever is on the office PC, and each grower's labelling habits are copied in. After a few seasons, the same plant exists in several forms that do not line up.
- One product carries several sizes, with the price changed by hand at the till.
- Pot sizes are written differently: 2L, 2 litre, 2ltr, 17cm.
- Growers use one barcode across sizes, so scanning cannot tell them apart.
- Size based pricing rules exist only in the buyer's spreadsheet.
- Bench signs show one price for a mixed bench of sizes.
Where the money leaks
Undercharging on larger pots is the obvious loss, and it tends to hit your higher value plants. Less obvious is the stock damage. When sizes share a product, you cannot tell which size is selling, so reorders drift towards the wrong one, and the plants you are short of are exactly the ones customers wanted.
Price reviews become painful too. When a grower raises costs on 3 litre shrubs, finding every product that is really a 3 litre shrub takes an afternoon of scrolling.
Giving every size a proper place
- We audit your plant products and group them into plant families with pot size variants, using a standard list of pot sizes agreed with your buyer.
- Duplicate and oddly named products are mapped to the right variant, and the changes are loaded back into your EPOS in a controlled import.
- Pricing rules are set per category and pot size band, so a new 3 litre shrub gets a sensible starting price from its cost.
- Where a grower barcode covers several sizes, we print your own size specific labels at goods in so each pot scans correctly.
- Bench signs print one line per pot size with its price, so mixed benches are clear to customers and cashiers.
- A monthly check highlights any new products added outside the structure, before they cause trouble.
| Issue | Current setup | After restructuring |
|---|---|---|
| Same plant, several sizes | One product, price overridden | One variant per pot size |
| Size names | Typed freely | Standard pot size list |
| Pricing | Buyer's spreadsheet | Rules by category and size |
| Shared grower barcode | Wrong size scanned | Size specific labels |
| Reorders | Mixed sales history | Sales by size |
We only restructure what your EPOS can support. If it has limits on variants, we work within them and say what they are.
Pricing days that take minutes
Once the structure is in place, a cashier scanning a 5 litre lavender gets the 5 litre price without thinking. Bench signs show each size on its own line. The buyer can see that the small pots sell out while the specimens sit, and adjust the next order.
When costs change, the buyer updates the rule for a size band and reviews the proposed prices in one list, instead of searching product by product.
Could your pot sizes be muddled?
- Cashiers override prices at the till for different pot sizes.
- The same plant appears under several names in your EPOS.
- Stock shows negative quantities on some sizes and surplus on others.
- Pot sizes are written differently across products.
- Price reviews by pot size take hours of searching.