When a new product had 50% out-of-stocks across all stores at a major nationwide retailer, this Alloy customer wasn’t concerned – at first. The most successful consumer electronics launches can lead to initial product scarcity as consumers clamor for the season’s hot new item.
But out-of-stocks stayed at about 25% even after supply caught up.
Using Alloy software to monitor daily performance post-launch, the Sales team could easily see the inventory management problem was hurting sell-through.
With a few clicks, Sales drilled down into the retailers’ sell-through and inventory for that product and uncovered a key insight: The popular item had a high rate of Buy Online Pickup In Store (BOPIS), but the way the retailer did their accounting, they were not tracking the decrease in store inventory from these online sales that were being fulfilled in store. Instead, they were attributing the sales to their “online warehouse.”
The retailer's ordering system, which was based on in-store sales, was not taking into account the store inventory decrease from these BOPIS orders.
As a result, it wasn’t ordering enough of the hot seller and regularly running out-of-stock.
The account manager explained the situation to the retail buyer, using the data in Alloy to convince them of the problem. They agreed to make replenishment adjustments to account for the inventory changes and trigger re-ordering to meet the demand of both in-store and e-commerce shoppers.
By quickly catching and addressing the problem, they reduced out-of-stocks to the low single digits. More importantly, they prevented ~$100,000 in lost sales from consumers wanting to buy the product but not finding it on the shelf.
The speed and flexibility of Alloy POS analytics enabled this consumer brand to make more timely decisions for new product success and inventory management.
ViewThe global confectioner mitigates waste, improves service levels and controls costs by connecting digital supply chain visibility with POS analytics.
Keep readingDuring COVID-19, Alloy customers are using real-time supply chain visibility and retail analytics to manage day-to-day and track channel & product shifts.
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