Dated products are a cash drain that takes up valuable space. David Peters, Jewelers of America’s resident education and management expert, offers the following tips for saving costs on inventory:

• Computerize your inventory system and make buying decisions based on facts, not intuition.

• Do the math and determine which products and services are the least profitable.

• Consider cutting or reducing low-profit products and services.

• Reinvest saved money into high-profit categories.

• Consider purchasing inventory from jewelers going out of business.

• Buy manufacture closeouts when appropriate.

• Compare longtime vendor lines against new vendors for similar, lower-price options.