Is Your Demand Forecasting Solution Actually Leading to Profits? All retailers face the fact that demand forecasting products that move slowly and products that move intermittently during the year is required to grow profits. In fact 35-40% of most retailer assortments consist of slow and intermittent products, while this may be well known, it is […]
Have you noticed the number of stores with Easter products still on the shelf? The irony is the result of demand planning and replenishment systems that do not understand seasonal events. Easter last year was in late April and this year in March. Inventory systems bought late and planned the inventory around a different time […]
The number of retailers and wholesalers closing locations continues to grow. Today the customer wants new choices every month. In the old days we could change products and assortments 2 times a year and then later that changed to 4 times a year. The internet of things (IoT) has redefined what is new and more […]
“Big Data” is a buzzword that means just what it says. With the boom of handheld devices, online shopping, and the Internet of Things, retailers now have access to nearly infinite amounts of data regarding their customers’ shopping habits. Further, all that data requires the right resources to collect, sort, analyze, slice, and dice to […]
Does Your Forecasting and Inventory Replenishment Software Prevent or Encourage Fires? How often I walked into the corporate office of my former employer and thought ‘whew, is it HOT in here’? Knowing I was headed for budget and planning meetings that were going to steal my day with the end obvious result: wrong products and […]
There’s a lot of buzz surrounding the Internet of Things (IoT). With Nest Labs’ line of household connected devices and Amazon’s new Dash Button for reordering groceries, customers are getting used to more and more connectedness in their day-to-day lives. Retailers too are trying out ways to be not only more connected to customers but […]
Sometimes in retail, we feel like all we are doing is putting out fires. Little things pop up every day that are urgent but maybe not all that important. This store is out of that, this vendor short shipped something else, and your boss’s boss wants to know why sales were down in this class. […]
Put Down the Sales Reports Mondays are generally known in retail as “report day.” Sales and in-stock reports aplenty, sorted and summed by every conceivable angle land on every desk from the CEO on down. The point of all these reports is to find exceptions and actionable items. But sometimes it’s like looking for a […]