Our Specialist Sectors

Accounting For Online Retail Businesses

Retail accounting provides the support retailers need with processes, checks and record-keeping, whether they’re online businesses or physical stores. Using dedicated Xero accounting software, we give you the essential tools and expert advice to help your retail business to thrive.

FAQ's

Inventory management is a cornerstone of successful retail, for both e-commerce and physical retailers. Effective inventory management will ensure that you satisfy your customers, reduce costs and boost profits.

How do you obtain the information you need to do these things? With the services of an experienced retail accountant.

Inventory management is about having a system in place that works for you, tracking your inventory and giving you accurate, up-to-date figures. We can help you do this.

By integrating your sales and inventory data, you can see which products turnover the quickest, and which are lagging behind. This sales velocity metric helps you decide when and what to reorder, and whether to offer discounts and promotions on certain goods.

Unit economics is fundamental to the success of your enterprise. It consists of:

  • The cost in acquiring each customer, and
  • The revenue each customer generates for your business.

The ultimate unit in your retail business is your customer, and using unit economics you can measure their value to you.

There is your customer acquisition cost (CAC) and their lifetime value (LTV) – what they spend with you each time. This is the crucial thing: for your business to be profitable, your LTV must be more than your CAC.

The better this ratio, the healthier you are financially. Measuring unit economics accurately provides a clear picture of your financial health, and can be valuable when looking to attract investment.

Retail accounting will help you get your unit economics measurements right, and help you establish a sound unit economics model for your business.

For many retailers, the smooth and cost-effective import and export of goods is fundamental to their continuing operations and future success.

Coming out of the EU has added new layers of administrative complexity to managing imports and exports around issues of customs and VAT.

Things you will need to consider include:

  • Your EORI number (Economic Operators Registration and Identification)
  • Customs declarations

With dedicated accounting support, you’ll be able to navigate your way through these rules and regulations and make the right decisions for your business and your customers.

As your enterprise grows, you may well find you need to hire more staff, and with this comes certain legal obligations and commitments.

But it’s also important to manage the financial side of being an employer.

Payroll management is often complex when it comes to retail.

If you have workers on zero-hour contracts, variable shift patterns, or working part-time, then managing payroll can be a demanding task.

Your instinct is to focus on your customers, but you need to give payroll the attention it demands.

Here at Venn Accounts, we possess the know-how to provide professional accounting support that enables you to focus on what’s important – growing your retail or e-commerce venture.

We acknowledge that every business is different, which is why our personalised approach – carefully shaping what we do to meet your exact needs – has proven so effective.

However, we don’t shroud our methods in mystery. Instead, we place a high value on communicating in clear and unambiguous terms precisely what we’re doing.

We don’t compromise on that, whether it’s advising on inventory management, measuring unit economics, navigating changing import and export regulations, or making payroll work.

Get in touch

Operating from our London head office, Venn Accounts a traditional accounting firm. We are committed to ensuring all our clients are completely clear about what we can do for them, while fully supporting them every step of the way.

Contact us and speak to a member of our team about our annual account service.

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