Author: Increff

Categories
Smart Merchandising

Are your Business Decisions Hurting your Bottomline? It’s Time to Rethink.

Offering excessive discounts during the sales season can be quite tempting to clear ageing inventory, however, discounts not only slash profit margins significantly but, if done without the right strategy, can impact your brand image. Once customers get used to low price points, they can become reluctant to buy at full price and end up waiting for the clearance sale to make their purchase. This behaviour impacts regular cash flow, and brand reputation, and dilutes customer trust in the genuineness of the price. 

A good pricing model paired with an effective discounting strategy helps maximize business growth and promote sales without hurting the business. Here are some discounting techniques to make your business more profitable.

  1. Flat discounting vs Slab discounting

Applying a flat/blanket discount on all products can shoot up discount payout dramatically, affecting profit margin by treating them all the same. Rather than offering flat discounts, brands can give higher discounts on selected assortments, e.g. seasonal items or refurbished items, and earn higher margins on good inventory. This kind of slab discounting helps brands earn better margins by discounting the products right based on their true value. Increff Merchandising solution is designed for flexible discounting, it allows retailers to adjust prices on a daily basis, based on fluctuating customer demands. 

Case Study: Ideal store-level discounts to reduce sales loss and maximize margins by 6%

  1. Gift-with-purchase (GWP) & Purchase-with-purchase (PWP)

Offering a free gift with purchase is an effective cross-selling strategy that helps customers get excited at the prospect of saving money and getting a higher value for a bundle of products. Offering customers an option, e.g. “buy two, get one free”, can be a smart way to reduce discount pay-out and clear more stock. Another sales promotion technique, PWP, offer discounts only on the purchase of a second or third product. This is to entice customers into buying a threshold of products to avail of the offer. 

Both strategies ensure that products are not devalued or the brand reputation is not diluted. However, if the discount is not well planned and executed, there is a high risk of giving away expensive stock which could cause serious losses to the brand.

  1. Right marketing strategy during discounts

Expiry dates and limits on discounts help build a sense of urgency that urges customers to make the purchase before meeting the deadline. It’s difficult to ignore compelling CTAs, or calls to action. Statements like ‘Exclusive offer to the first 30’ or ‘Get it NOW before it’s GONE’, are persuasive strategies to raise a sense of scarcity that pushes customers to take immediate action.  

Right visual merchandising

Attractive store-front and catchy window installations, in-store displays, racks, eloquent signage, point-of-purchase displays, etc. can be good techniques to attract customers. Once inside the store, eye-catching story displays, appropriate lighting, attractive interior designs, easy-to-navigate store layouts, etc. help create a delightful, customer-friendly environment. Increff Merchandising solution considers business constraints of planogram and operating plan to design a store plan. A well-planned store encourages customers to spend more time in it, thus exposing them to maximum merchandise and boosting chances of sales. 

  1. Spread out the discount period

To accommodate the rush and avoid system glitches, it’s best to spread out the discounting period. Brands often struggle with a sudden spurt in customer footfall due to a lack of floor space, staff, or the right technology. The same is true for online shopping where a sudden spike in web traffic can cause server issues, or create bottlenecks in the supply chain. Rather than offering discount sales for one or two days, it is highly recommended to extend the period to a week or more and avoid operational nightmares. Integrating a robust technology solution for inventory and order management can help brands avoid order cancellations, delays in order fulfillment, and poor customer shopping experience.  

Blog: Build an ideal High-Low pricing strategy to improve margins

  1. Reward loyal customers

Instead of offering the same discounts to existing customers, it is far better to personalize offers and add value for loyal customers. They are the business builders: they buy more, pay premium prices, and bring in new customers through referrals. Realizing the benefits of loyalty requires an admission that not all customers are equal. In order to maximize loyalty and profitability, a company must give its best value to its best customers. Offering gift coupons, discount vouchers, and loyalty points to buy groceries or other fast-moving products from a partner brand, or getting a healthy discount on frequently purchased products like milk, vegetables, and cereals can encourage customers to buy more.

  1. Offer discounts to first-time buyers

Customer acquisition can be a formidable challenge. Apart from offering rewards and offers to loyal customers, it is beneficial to prioritize first-time buyers. By taking them through the rabbit hole of your offerings, brands can encourage first-time buyers to try new products. This strategy has successfully been used by fashion brands such as H&M and Bloomingdale’s in the form of offering 10% off on the first order. 

  1. Track your promotions

Track your marketing campaigns to know how effective they are. Online Analytics module in Increff Merchandising solution helps you understand the changes in page views and conversion rates, through which you can understand how effective promotions were. You could take appropriate calls to retain, increase or discontinue the offers on the products.

  1. Do smart buying

If your core idea of discounting is to get rid of excess inventory and make space, do smart buying in the first place and avoid the clutter of excess inventory. Increff tool helps you create efficient buying and reordering plans that will let you keep the optimum level of inventory. With this, you will also suffer fewer stock-outs and sale losses connected to the same.

Final thoughts

When creating a discounting strategy, avoid having a one-track mind. Instead, mix and match your options and use ample creativity to boost sales, reduce pay-outs and enhance the customer experience. Make discounting decisions 2 times faster with Increff Merchandising solution, Markdown optimization module, and sell more at the right price. 

Categories
Smart Merchandising

Optimize inventory distribution this holiday season with Increff MS Pro

As an established brand/retailer with a healthy spread of brick-and-mortar stores, in-season planning involves optimal inventory distribution to all points of sales. In-season planning can be categorized into, new season allocation, at the launch of the season, and mid-season replenishments and replacements. Planning involves budget allocation, trend analysis, past sales analysis, etc, which gets half of the job done, but the incorrect distribution leads to a failed season.

There are a lot of factors like store capacity, variety of options, depth of the style/SKU, grade of the store, assortment mix, etc. that are involved in optimally distributing the available stock across multiple points of sales (PoS). Incorrect allocation leads to overstocking, understocking, and loss of potential sales which affects the top and bottom line.

After the new season allocation, the inventory has to be replenished based on the current sales trends to keep the sales momentum going. The health of merchandise and identifying the right stock for the right store are major factors that have to be considered during the mid-season.

Read: Seasonal Inventory Management: New Season Allocation and Mid-season Replenishment

Since the whole process involves a lot of resources, time, and accuracy, new-age solutions like Increff Merchandising Solution can automate the process by reducing the number of resources required, the time taken for completing the process, and increasing the accuracy.

USPs

  • Attribute Group-based new style allocation: Existing styles can be allocated based on their historic performance at the stores, which is not straightforward for the new styles that don’t have any sales history. MS Pro uses attribute group performance for new style allocation.
  • Style-Store Ranking: Placing the right inventory at the right PoS is very important in catering to customer demand. MS Pro uses style-store ranking based on the historical performance of the style at the store and allocates the inventory to the best store followed by the second best, and so on.
  • Maintaining inventory health: Inventory health plays a major role in the Rate of Sale (RoS). It is observed that the styles that don’t have important sizes available at PoS are unlikely to sell. MS Pro maintains inventory health by identifying the key sizes of a style during distribution.
  • Individual PoS analysis: Every PoS, both online and offline, has a unique customer base and the behavior of the different points of sales is different. Grouping the PoS in clusters and analyzing clusters is not as effective. MS Pro considers each store to have an individual identity and defines the right assortment and key sizes based on past performance in that store for optimal inventory allocation.
  • Maintaining fill rates at stores: Fill rate is the maximum inventory that can be stocked in a store. MS Pro maintains optimal fill rates at the store by using the planogram as a constraint.
  • Seasonality-based assortment: Seasonality is an important concept in retail, especially in fashion as certain products have demand during a certain period. Eg., Jackets, sweaters, and other winterwear apparel are sold mainly during winters and have low demand during other seasons. MS Pro helps define the assortment plan based on the ongoing season.
  • Rollup-based allocation: The allocation of the inventory is done at different levels when the right amount of data points is not available at any level. Eg., for any style, the data at store-AG is not available, a few rollups are done at the store-category level or store-category-subcategory level, and allocations are done at that level.

Read: Retail Assortment Planning: Creating a Winning Product Mix & Depth in Store

 Impacts Delivered

  • 13% increase in-season full-price sell-through for one of the largest celebrity brands
  • 25% revenue growth and 4% improvement in margin for one of the largest lingerie brand
  • 13% reduction in inventory brokenness, for a leading formal wear brand
  • Reduction in inventory holding from >120 days to 80 days for a leading lingerie brand
  • 90% reduction in stock allocation & buying process for all the brands
  • 13% improvement in stock health season on season, though regular replenishments and allocations for a leading formal wear brand 
  • 45% additional sales from the same set of styles with 34% reduction in brokenness through Inter Store transfers for a Global Men’s Casual-wear Brand
  • ~21.5% reduction in inventory quantity for a targeted increase in revenue by 17.3% for one of the largest health and beauty marketplace 
Categories
Smart Merchandising

Recover from post-pandemic data & sales loss with smart merchandising

The Economist, in 2017, referred to data as “new oil”, the one ingredient every business needs to drive the world ahead. Covid, classified as a “black swan” event, shook the entire social and economic status quo, and further emphasized the importance of intelligent data analysis and smart decision-making. Brands and retailers had to take a fresh look at strategy and planning. Digital sales channels took precedence over offline stores enabling brands to take an omnichannel approach. Planning an efficient supply chain, to get the right product at the right time to the right person, became imperative.

Data analytics helps make strategic business calls and design processes, thus building supply chain efficiency, and fostering innovations. Businesses need to rely on data analytics to make quick business decisions in weeks, rather than months. 

Increff smart Merchandising Solution – MS-Pro and MS-enterprise, is making strides in data analytics as diverse data is processed by patented algorithms to produce downloadable reports that can be visualized in UI.

  • Descriptive data analysis is provided through Business Intelligence dashboards. Here, dynamic performance analysis can be done with visualization techniques over historical data.
  • Predictive analytics is used to identify past sales, revenue, discounting, sell-through, and other factors from past data to predict future behavior.

It helps in accurate demand planning and distribution to ensure the right products reach the right customers at the right time. A 10-20% improvement in demand forecasting can reduce 5% of the inventory cost, which as per McKinsey and Company, contributes to up to a 2% to 3% increase in revenue.

Read: Maximize Store Performance with Optimum Assortment Planning

The pandemic influenced how people perceived and purchased products which were reflected in the drastic switch in brands with fluctuating demands. This dynamism was important to capture with data analytic tools so brands can identify buying patterns and capitalize on them.

Increff smart merchandising solution is designed to adapt and grow with the changes in the market.

  • Results can be produced season-wise or period-wise depending on the purchasing and distribution pattern of the brand or retailer. It occupies budget crunches or expansions and optimizes accordingly. 
  • Dynamic data-churning help cut down the length of production cycles and adapt to quick changes in the market.
  • It gives the option to pick and choose an analysis period where a considerable amount of data is available. Data gaps can be identified while analyzing the data from similar seasons or sales periods that can be used to replace them.

Read: Intelligent Inventory Management of Apparel, Seasonal & Short Life Cycle Products with Increff Merchandising Solution

  • Ability to measure a set of attributes to track the performance of particular products and forecast demands accurately. This can be derived from the few basic sets of data, available with all brands. From here the tool can churn out right from planning to distribution to online analytics.
  • The UI is clutter free and designed to create easy access for everyone. Easy usage cuts down man hours to a few minutes and enables the team to have maximum flexibility.
  • Tools account for spikes and ridges in sales and smooth out any irregularity, thus making the results more accurate and avoiding false positives due to any season-end sales or extreme dips due to temporary shutdowns.
  • Modules such as regional utilization and Inter-store transfer help to cut down on logistic time-cost and increase efficiency in supply chains. This would help your business stay afloat even in sudden supply chain disruptions. Tuning Inter-store transfer with the tool will eliminate human delays as well.

Intelligent Increff Merchandising Solution helps retailers put their best foot forward when it comes to planning inventory and allocation. The adaptable and dynamic nature of the tool helps brands cope with the natural data loss, similar to what happened due to business shutdowns during the pandemic, and take calculated decisions for steady business growth.

Categories
Business Technology

5 sure shot techniques to reduce costs in the retail supply chain

Creating a highly competitive retail supply chain depends on how well you’re able to control/reduce your costs. Incurring unnecessary costs can mean that your processes aren’t efficient enough, your funds are blocked in too many fixed assets, or your supply chain isn’t performing at an optimum level. These factors could pile up costs, impact margins, affect your competitiveness, and eventually make your business falter. 

Keeping costs under control is therefore one of the most essential aspects of supply chain management. Let’s look at 5 sure shot techniques that can help you reduce your costs:

  1. Localize fulfillment

Transportation accounts for about 40 to 50 percent of logistics costs, and 4 to 10 percent of the selling price of final products. Reducing the distance between your warehouse and customer clusters is, therefore, necessary to control overall costs. The closer your warehouse, or fulfillment center, is located to your customer cluster, the quicker fulfillment will be, which also means a significant reduction in fuel consumption. Regional Utilisation (RU), the idea of fulfilling maximum orders locally, is one of the topmost solutions for cost management in supply chains today. 

RU becomes even more effective when coupled with new-age merchandising solutions. Powered by data insights, this enables brands to conduct Pincode level analysis to place the right products at the right warehouse, or store, as per demand in a particular market. Shelving the right styles and size combinations can boost regional sales significantly while saving costs on logistics.

Download e-book: What is the hype around Regional Utilization?

  1. Rethink warehousing!

As a brand expands, operating from a centralized warehouse can raise distribution costs and impact business quite significantly. In fact, as per Logistics Bureau, up to 12 percent of companies are unprofitable after distribution costs are taken into account.

This can be tackled with Distributed Warehousing which enables brands to expand into other regions, and support efforts toward regional fulfillment. Fulfillment of orders from various local and widely distributed warehouses is quick and cost-effective. 

Technology solutions like Increff Cloud warehousing allow brands to rent out spaces based on regional requirements. This means investment in warehouse infrastructure is not required and brands are able to convert CAPEX into OPEX thus controlling their overhead costs. In recent times, this has been further augmented with the rapid rise of 3PL players with whom brands can partner for renting warehousing spaces and adding value to the supply chain. 

Read: 6 Reasons to outsource your warehousing operations

  1.  Manage manpower costs

Costs incurred due to human labor is another significant portion of your expenditures. These include their wages, training and development costs, costs incurred in hiring additional/ad hoc labor during peak season sales, and adjusting manual errors committed by the workforce. 

With new-age WMS and merchandising solutions, brands can successfully avoid a lot of unnecessary labor costs and reduce errors in decision-making. Simple UX/ UI facilitates easy training which is extremely useful during crunch times when the technically skilled workforce is scarce or expensive. The ease of use increases the fungibility of staff and maximizes the use of the available workforce.

Automated solutions ensure continuous, seamless workflow with minimum decision-making errors. Digitizing inventory through serialization allows easy scanning of individual pieces of inventory for efficient tracking and reduces training time to 5-10 mins. This minimizes efforts and costs related to elaborate training and development of the human resource operating the system.

  1. Make data-backed decisions

Holding on to obsolete inventory can add up to 25 to 30 percent more to the unit cost of your products. Besides, the capital tied up with this inventory could account for about 15 percent of opportunity costs. Obsolete inventory is mostly a result of the inability to forecast demand accurately.

However, new-age merchandising solutions backed by relevant data enable brands to create product assortments with the right styles and sizes. This helps them meet the customer demand perfectly, without causing problems of overstocking or under-stocking, both of which impact costs, the former causing wastage and the latter calling for in-season redistribution. 

New-age solutions facilitate analysis of future demand over a time horizon of the next season or business year. Analyzing past sales data helps create a favorable estimate of the upcoming season stock requirements so the right quantity can be placed in the right location. Manufacturing the right quantity as per demand avoids overproduction, unnecessary expenditure, and resource wastage. 

Read: Maximize store performance with optimum assortment planning

  1. Use multiple channels for order fulfillment

Last mile connectivity is known to be the costliest part of the supply chain and accounts for about 53 percent of the total shipping costs. This calls for transforming order fulfillment through omnichannel retail, which is a fluid vision of fulfillment that allows customers to receive their orders in the faster possible time. 

Fulfillment options like Buy-Online-PickupIn-Store (BOPIC), store fulfillment, curbside pickup, home delivery, etc. are getting popular. Conversely, a customer visiting a store who is unable to find the desired product can make use of the ‘endless aisle’ online option to purchase it and get it delivered at home or the nearest store. This doesn’t just offer immense customer ease, but also allows brands to resort to the most cost-effective fulfillment option.

Cost control is the first step towards business process efficiency and with the above-given tips, brands can simply rule the roost among their competitors. Effective cost control has great benefits for not just the business stakeholders, but also the environment and society at large.

Categories
Technology

7 Biggest supply chain mistakes & how to solve them

You could be one of the most seasoned merchandisers and yet you could fall for some common supply chain mistakes. Often these result in inflated costs, poor workforce management, sub-optimal processes, delays in fulfillment, and lots of confusion and errors. It is necessary that these mistakes are brought under the scanner and fixed before they leave a severe dent on the business growth.

Below we discuss 7 common mistakes that need immediate attention. 

1. Choosing too many tech vendors

Mistake

It could be quite tempting to implement multiple tech solutions from different vendors, considered experts or specialists, at multiple stages of the supply chain. However, this can result in creation of silos, and a lack of coordination among different processes especially if there are separate screens to track the progress of each stage. Multiple dashboards require extensive coordination and great resource time in management, it affects inventory visibility and reduces clarity, leading to a fragmented workflow.  

Fix

Instead of installing separate tech solutions to monitor individual processes e.g. OMS, WMS, Returns Management, etc. within a warehouse, it is beneficial to find the right tech partner with a single comprehensive solution to ensure seamless workflow and inventory accuracy. A single view of inventory provides one source of truth and ensures transparency within the warehouse to boost efficiency by making coordination between different arms of retail operations easier. 

2. Inappropriate use of data

Mistake

Making the maximum use of data is crucial to take accurate supply chain decisions, cutting costs, and ensuring the right products reach the right customer clusters. Inaccurate analysis or working manually on tedious Excel worksheets can lead to incorrect interpretations and missed sales opportunities.

Fix

Install algorithm-based, intelligent merchandising solutions that automated decision-making to minimize human intervention, offer quick decisions, and ensure accurate merchandise planning, buying, and allocation. By drilling down analysis to the individual store level, decision-making becomes highly granular and accurate. This also enables brands to shelve the right stock at the right store in the right quantity, thus avoiding over or under-stocking and capturing sales effectively.

3. Ill inventory health in stores

Mistake

Fashion brands are especially sensitive to the health of the inventory in stores because the demand changes rapidly with seasons and trends. With expanding business requirements, brands could overlook the importance of keeping the right stock, in the right quantity, at the right location, and at the right time. This leads to problems like aging stock, leftover stock, and inadequate size and style. Stock brokenness can lead to the unavailability of popular styles and a significant loss of sales.

Fix

Ensure you conduct an accurate demand forecast for the upcoming season and regularly replenish the stores to meet in-season demand spikes. Pull back slow-moving inventory to make space for better-performing styles. By maintaining the health of the inventory, you also minimize the possibility of running out of popular styles. Investing in good inventory management software enables you to minimize human errors, streamline merchandising, and maintain a healthy inventory.

4. Poor cost management strategies

Mistake 

A number of poor management practices can lead to an unnecessary increase in costs. This starts with the overproduction of goods which overshoots the estimated market demand causing overstocking, obsolescence, and wastage. A mismatch in supply and market demand can cause wastage or shortage, and subsequently a rise in transportation costs due to in-season redistribution. As brands expand their territorial footprint, ordering from a faraway centralized warehouse can become costly. Likewise, investing in warehouse infrastructure where you hope the demand would increase, also means unnecessarily blocking precious resources.

Fix

Use data-backed solutions to accurately forecast demand for a particular customer cluster. Merchandising solutions can help you stock the right styles and sizes for each market, ensuring zero wastage. With distributed warehousing and collaboration with 3PL partners, you can avoid investing in warehousing infrastructure, and convert your CAPEX into OPEX. Likewise, with regional utilization brands can ensure that most of their orders are fulfilled locally, and transportation costs are reduced dramatically. 

New-age technology solutions like Increff Cloud Warehousing, enable automation and offer a simple UX/UI to avoid the need for costly and time-consuming training. This increases the fungibility of your manpower and reduces dependency on expensive skilled labor. 

Read: How Distributed Warehousing Benefits E-commerce

5. Single delivery service

Mistake 

Brands that focus only on one sales channel (say a website or social media) and develop myopia for all the others are likely to face the heat of intense competition. This is because customers are increasingly looking for quick fulfillment and ease of delivery from multiple points of contact with the brand. Brands which are unable to rise up to this new trend are likely to become irrelevant as omnichannel begins to dominate order fulfillment.

Fix

Create a walled garden of brand touch-points and experiences around your customers. Adopting omnichannel fulfillment and the latest fulfillment practices such as BOPIS, curbside pickup, or in-store pickup, enhances customer convenience and satisfaction. Omnichannel is also a cost-effective practice as it enables the brands to choose the most economical option to deliver goods to the customer.

Read: Faster Omnichannel Order Fulfillment is the Future of Retail

6. Inefficient returns management

Mistake 

Brands could commit the mistake of ignoring their returns management as an auxiliary function of their supply chain. This can cause delays in returns logistics, slowing down of resale, stockpiling and obsolescence, or in-transit damage. Lacking the data about the reasons for return or the most repeatedly returned items could lead to regular repetition of past mistakes.

Fix

Have an automation-based returns management solution in place that will streamline the entire returns process. It enables you to sort and grade the returned goods, resell the good stock, and redirect the refurbished stock to the secondary market. This minimizes waste and enables brands to earn maximum value from the returned goods. Serialization enables 100% tracking of inventory and capturing the exact reason for returns in the barcode. Repeatedly returned products can be easily quarantined, analyzed, and removed from circulation to prevent unnecessary expenditure.

Read: E-commerce Returns Analysis: Solution to the trillion dollar returns problem

7. Excess discounting to clear stock

Mistake

Discounting could seem like the easiest way out to clear the stock at the end of the season, or during periods of slow sales. However, excess and indiscriminate discounting don’t just impact your margins, it also affects your brand image. Excessive discounting dilute the reputation of your brand and your customers may find it hard to trust the pricing of your products in the future.

Fix

Increff Markdown optimization solution enables brands to offer the right percentage of discount, just tipping the balance towards conversions, and preventing an excess drop in margin. This depends upon the ongoing performance of an item and the status of its inventory.

Read: What is High-Low Pricing Strategy

The mistakes discussed above could cost your business dearly as the intensely competitive marketplace of today leaves very little room for inefficiencies. Brands, therefore, need to plug all the possible loopholes and ensure the highest possible efficiency in their supply chain processes.

Categories
Business Warehouse Management

10 Unrealized Benefits of Serialization

Itemized serialization pays rich dividends to your business by optimizing processes, making inventory 100% traceable, minimizing human errors, and increasing transparency throughout the supply chain. Here are 10 unrealized benefits of serialization for the brands:

  1. Inventory accuracy and traceability

Serialization detects and prevents duplicate scanning of items thus ensuring 100% accuracy. Since all the information is stored in the barcode, it is very easy to trace its journey within a warehouse and through the supply chain.

2. Easy tracking of user and machine actions

Since barcode scanning allows capturing 100% data in the system, in case an incorrect step is taken by a staff member it can be easily tracked. Brands can get down to the exact item barcode which is faulty, and the staff member that has made the mistake. This makes error mapping quick for training purposes and helps identify loopholes in the processes. This is not possible to record on SKUs as the number of items having the same barcode are many and zeroing in on the exact faulty item is difficult. 

Read: Perfect warehousing solution for higher efficiency and inventory management

3. Automate processes to reduce the resource time investment

Rather than using lengthy spreadsheets or approximations for taking crucial warehousing decisions, serialization enables easy automation of processes. Consolidating multiple steps helps reduce manpower and handle repetitive tasks more efficiently allowing managers to focus only on important tasks. It avoids costly errors and consequent business losses.

4. No need for wall-to-wall audits

In an SKU-based system, conducting wall-to-wall physical verification of the items require all operations of the warehouse to stop in order to avoid recounting the same items. This is not an issue with itemized serialization as each item has a unique ID and is perfectly mapped to the bin. With real-time inventory sync, in case there is any change the barcode will ensure it gets captured in the system. With 100% bin level inventory accuracy, regular wall-to-wall audits are not required.  

5. FIFO and FEFO for order picking

By having all the information accurately stored in the barcodes, brands can prevent piling up of aging inventory, obsolescence, and wastage. As the product expiry date of each item gets mapped to the barcodes, brands can use the First-In-First-Out (FIFO) algorithm to push out those items that entered the warehouse first. This method is widely used in industries where inventory is prone to obsolescence, such as fashion. 

Likewise, the expiry date of each item being stored, items expiring first are sold off first by the First-Expiry-First-Out (FEFO) method. Companies dealing in perishable products such as packaged milk or pharmaceuticals mostly use the FEFO method.

6. Location Adherence in Picking

In a scenario where an SKU is distributed among several bins and the whole SKU is represented by a single barcode, the picker may pick the items from any bin thus impacting bin level accuracy. SKU-based order picking will either not specify which bin the item needs to be picked from, or the system will not prompt an error when the item is picked from a mapped location. This can lead to inventory mismanagement, obsolescence, and errors in counting. On the other hand, when picking is done by following the individual barcode of each item, the picker will pick the item from the bin specified by the system. This ensures the inventory count is accurate at all times, there is no need for regular audits, and there is 100% traceability within the warehouse. 

Read: How to make picking and packing more efficient for B2B and B2C customers

7. Effective price analysis with the possibility for daily margin adjustments

Processes get interrupted whenever prices are revised in the stores. With serialization, brands can keep track of their cost prices and sales prices dynamically for different items. Margin adjustments can be made at individual style and piece level. Given the fact that the inventory is completely digitized, brands can easily adjust the prices of their stock depending upon the demand and location. 

8. Efficient returns management and processing

Serialization allows brands to link each returned item’s barcode with its reason for return. This makes for great insights into why customers are rejecting the products and what corrective measures must be taken. Repeatedly returned items can be quarantined for a thorough quality check, to understand the defect. Rather than creating new SKUs, serialization of inventory enables brands to send the exact item back to the vendor in RTV (return-to-vendor). As soon as a serialized item is returned, it can be made live immediately (depending upon its condition), expediting re-commerce and increasing the chances of resale. 

Read: E-commerce returns analysis – solution to the trillion dollar returns challenge

9. Easy SPF (Seller Protection Fund) claims to process 

When the exact reason for return is mapped to individual pieces of inventory, along with the image, it is easier for marketplaces to file a claim with brands for the rejected item. This ensures quick reconciliation with the brands.

10. Simple UX/UI for faster order processing

Serialization helps digitize the warehousing process and allows brands to use handheld devices or Bluetooth scanners for scanning items. This eliminates chances of human error and enables working with an automated system accessible through a simple UX/UI. All of this precludes the need for costly high-skilled labor, cuts down on training time, easy cross functioning, and ensures faster order processing.

As is clear from the above pointers, serialization lies at the very heart of automation in warehouses and is the first step toward making supply chain processes more efficient, cost-effective, and highly competitive. 

Categories
Smart Merchandising

4 Myths on Store Sales Maximization

As the marketplace becomes increasingly competitive by the day, store managers are dealing with a tremendous amount of pressure to maximize sales, meet targets and boost profitability. In the last couple of years, the conditions created mainly by the pandemic have only added to that pressure and compelled brands to explore new options and innovative practices. 

But these have also given an impetus to a lot of myths surrounding supply chain management, four of which we are going to bust in this blog. So let’s get started!

Myth 1: Keep 100% inventory in stock to fulfill any order that may come

This could be one of the most tempting ways to ensure no sales opportunities are lost, and customer satisfaction is maintained at the highest possible levels. But having all your inventory in stock will raise your carrying costs sharply and may also result in a lot of stockpiles. 

The way forward instead is “rightsizing” your in-stock inventory and leveraging the services of your trusted suppliers for delivering on time. The future of profitable supply chains in fact lies in how well you are able to balance between in-store and Just-In-Time (JIT) inventory.

By building shorter supply chains, you can make your business continuity plans more robust and avoid disruptions that are typical of long and winding supply chains. Another crucial factor is your ability to integrate and coordinate with local and last-mile partners. These not only understand the immediate customer cluster better but also make a lot more logistical sense for your brand.

Read Case study – Lenskart boosts store revenue performance by 23% for JIT & OTC merchandise with the right allocation and on-time replenishment

Myth 2: Calculation in Excel is easy. The new-age merchandising tool can be complex & time-consuming

Well, this statement is highly illustrative of your inertia to grow and evolve as a brand! Excel is great for storing and manipulating data and generating forecast reports. But it is a generic tool that will seem too primitive for the growing challenges of today’s marketplace that demands automation, specialization, and speed.

New-age merchandising tools may appear rather formidable or complex. But in reality, these are exactly the opposite. The great thing is, that these do not work on a rip-and-replace model and can easily be accommodated into your pre-existing systems. These are highly adaptable and operable as plug-and-play solutions. 

Read: The cost of human error in merchandise planning: MS excel vs new-age Merchandising solutions

Myth 3: Discounting will increase sales & help earn more

Discounting could be a good short-term ploy to get the aging stock off your shelves and make room for fresh products. But using it indiscriminately could be rather counterintuitive and harm the stature of your brand in the long run. More immediately, it will reduce your margins and have serious implications for the overall profitability of your products.

What you really need, is to be able to use discounts in combination with data-based insights, from new-age merchandising solutions like Increff Markdown Optimization. These help you figure out what percentage of discount to use at what time and which store locations, so as to boost sales while maintaining healthy profit margins.

Read: How dynamic pricing strategy can help retailers

Myth 4: Forecasting the right width and depth is sufficient to improve inventory turnover

For starters, forecasting can give brands a foundational idea about the expected sales and demand patterns for the upcoming season. But in a fast-changing marketplace, a lot of in-season changes could upset even the most elaborately designed plans. 

For instance, fashion brands being highly influenced by cultural dynamics could suddenly experience a spurt in demand for a certain style, after a movie release. Likewise, a supply chain shock due to strikes, conflicts, or calamities could put significant pressure on some parts of your supply chain network.

Dealing with these dynamic market conditions in highly disruptive times requires you to think on your feet, rather than putting your supply chain on auto-pilot mode. New-age merchandising solutions allow you to do exactly that, by giving you insights into in-season changes in demand. Responding to these changes using inter-store or inter-warehouse transfers can be highly effective when backed by real-time data from across your network.

To sum up!

Sales maximization is obviously the most sought-after goal for every brand. But in the hoard to achieve their targets, brands could often fall for unfounded myths and unproven strategies that could hamper their growth or cause serious damage to their reputation. To keep evolving in the face of fresh challenges, formidable competitors, and volatile market conditions, brands need to keep an eye out for the latest technologies, cutting-edge processes, and robust strategies. 

Categories
Technology Warehouse Management

Who Says Automation is with Robots? Think Beyond!

While robotics has a significant role in automation, it is not the only way to achieve it. Robotics consists of robots/ machines substituting human labor, automation brings together machines, software, and upgraded technologies to perform tasks that are otherwise performed manually. In fact, investment in robots is a rather expensive affair! New-age warehouse management systems are smart and affordable to introduce automation in your warehouse.

Many fears of job losses are associated with the idea of automation. However, these fears are largely unfounded as automation merely seeks to supplement and empower human effort. By taking over critical decision-making and manual labor, automation boosts efficiency in processes and enhances accuracy many times over.   

In this blog, we bring forth the vast number of ways in which automation is reshaping the tasks and functions of supply chain management, and turning warehouses into incredible high-tech facilities!

Serialization of inventory: Serialization and barcoding allow effective tracking of inventory in the warehouse. It allows auto-mapping of inventory located at the time of picking, thus saving significant time and manual effort in searching for the same. Some activities are clubbed together and consolidated with serialization, thus making the process faster.

Much of our supply chain efforts revolve around seamless communication in mapping and locating the stock. Items can be easily scanned using wireless devices such as Bluetooth scanners, smartphones, handheld terminals, and barcode scanners. Wireless devices enable an easy workflow as the staff can conveniently carry them around to read barcodes and capture data in the central repository. 

Read: E-booklet on Benefits of Serialization

Simple UX/UI: Solutions offered by Increff are easy-to-use and cost-effective owing to their user-friendly UX/UI which doesn’t require any specialized or prolonged training. Besides, in case of any errors by the staff, the system automatically blocks the user from advancing further, unless the wrong entry is resolved. This eliminates any chances of errors creeping into the system, which could snowball into costly mistakes right across the warehouse and beyond. 

Holidays and end-of-season could be strenuous for employees but a simple and user-friendly UX/UI can go a long way in reducing stress. An easy-to-use UX/UI permits collaboration and sharing of resources during peak hours to maximize manpower utilization. A user-friendly UX/UI ensures zero dependencies on skilled labor, so it’s easy to recruit extra hands in the time of need. The training time of 5 minutes, makes the system highly cost-effective and adaptable. 

Automated pick-list generation: Picklists can be generated basis channel and SLA priority. There’s no need to put the same styles or SKUs in the same bill. Serialization identifies barcodes and bins, to automatically generates picklists for wave-wise picking. The picker can then perform wave picking to save time and effort. Each item is picked and scanned. In case the picker chooses the wrong item, it will be automatically rejected by the system. This helps reduce errors in picking.

Read: The Next Big Thing in Retail; Automation in Inventory Management

Put-to-light storage: To save time and boost efficiency while storing the products on the warehouse shelves, light devices are used to direct the operators. This semi-automatic technique enables the operator to ‘put’ the items in the right pigeon-hole where the light flashes. 

Infinite scalability: Serialization enables the warehouse staff to perform chaotic putaway. All the items are brought to the same sorting table. Barcodes are then scanned to read the order-related information after which the items are sent out on their respective routes. Chaotic putaway and storage allow maximum warehouse space utilization, and deal with remarkably huge volumes!

Seamless returns management: Barcoding captures all the information of the returned products, especially their order history and reason for return. The reason for returns can be analyzed to find the most regularly returned items (which also have a greater likelihood of being defective). Analyzing customer buying and returning patterns can provide insights to design future strategies to curb returns. Besides, visibility and traceability of returned items are essential to avoid losses and delays. This is again made possible by the serialization of each item.

Eliminating paper processes: Increff is an efficient multichannel, web-based WMS and order fulfillment system that offers a real-time (less than 15 seconds) order inventory sync feature. Serialization and barcode scanning eliminates paperwork within the warehouse and every step gets recorded in the system. Manual errors can be traced back to the warehouse worker and adequate corrections can be made to prevent such errors in the future. 

Automation is finding a tremendous application in the field of warehouse management. It has opened up new vistas for businesses, making them more proactive while handling their inventory and ensuring a high standard of service to customers. Despite all these outstanding features and futuristic benefits, automation-based solutions are highly cost-effective in terms of their upfront costs, training and development, integrations, and up-gradations.

Categories
Technology Warehouse Management

5 Myths on Warehouse Inventory Management Busted

Warehouse automation is fast becoming one of the essentials of supply chain management. But there are some very common myths that have been making rounds in the industry and believe it or not, even the most seasoned professionals may fall for them. In this blog, we clear the air around some preconceived notions surrounding warehouse management systems. So let’s get started.

Myth 1: Automation is suitable only for large brands and retailers

Larger and well-established brands definitely require a robust automation infrastructure, as they simply cannot operate their mammoth business processes manually. But this doesn’t mean that the smaller brands can afford to do without automation. 

Strategic planning in today’s highly competitive business environment requires a highly data-driven approach right from the beginning. There’s very little margin for error, especially for brands just coming into the industry and up against formidable competitors, both new and old. 

Fast-changing business environment especially demands that brands receive a continuous stream of real-time inputs and leverage automation to make well-informed decisions. Automation also boosts the efficiency and accuracy of business processes like picking and packing, thus enabling the smaller brands to save on some precious resources.

Read: Perfect Warehousing Solution for Higher Efficiency and Inventory Management

Myth 2: Adopting advanced warehousing means we must completely change every process

A drastic change in technology can significantly hamper the ongoing warehouse processes. When migrating to an advanced WMS solution, many brands are in fact apprehensive of bringing their warehouse processes to a halt.

These fears are entirely unfounded. New age warehousing solutions are often on plug-and-play rather than the rip-and-replace model. This means there is no pressure on brands to suddenly upgrade to a new system and do away with the old processes. The migration with solutions like Increff WMS is smooth, gradual, and well-planned, causing absolutely no disruptions to the ongoing warehouse operations. 

Read: How to choose a warehouse management system?

Myth 3: Automation means robotics

The word ‘automation’ instantly conjures up images of a massive assembly line with robotic arms fixing parts into automobiles. But that’s a very narrow view of the idea of automation. In reality, a number of technologies — both physical and digital — come together to set up automation in a business process. 

Transformation in warehouse management is all about automating the movement of inventory within and out of the warehouse with minimal human assistance. It seeks to eliminate repetitive, labor-intensive, manual data entry, and analysis tasks, with automation-driven processes. Most often automation in warehouses simply refers to the use of software to replace manual tasks.

Automation begins with the serialization and barcoding of all items, which makes them traceable both within the warehouse and throughout the supply chain. These are scanned and tracked using Bluetooth scanners and handheld terminals (HHT). The use of digital solutions such as warehouse management systems, merchandising software, and returns management systems allows brands to manage their inventory, take assortment-related decisions, and handle returns with greater efficiency.

Myth 4: New WMS will require expensive, time-consuming training

Advanced technology may appear rather formidable and hard to handle. It may often lead to resistance amongst the staff due to fears of the unexpected. For business owners, it could mean added costs of elaborate training interventions. But a cursory look at some of the new-age software solutions is enough to bust this myth.

WMS solutions like Increff WMS offer an incredibly simple UX/UI and workers can get started on the system with just 5 minutes of training. This makes cross-functioning of your existing staff easy and precludes the need to hire any specialized workforce for operating the system. In times of labor shortage, this feature can especially come in handy and help brands save costs on skilled labor. Besides, the implementation and deployment of the solutions are very quick and effective.

Quite contrary to the prevailing notions, therefore, new WMS solutions facilitate and empower your workforce, rather than pose a threat to it. 

Myth 5: Warehouse operations must shut down during audits

Audits are a frequent feature of warehouse management and can be quite time-consuming. This doesn’t mean the normal warehouse operations must be suspended during audits. With new-age warehouse management solutions, audits can be performed with utmost accuracy, while operations in the warehouse go on as usual.

Contrary to the above myths, new-age warehouse management systems powered by automation, make warehousing highly efficient, easy, and cost-effective. As business competition intensifies, automation is fast becoming an essential prerequisite for brands, no matter how big or small. 

Categories
Business Smart Merchandising

5 Ways to Control Inventory in the World of Lean Retailing

The fast-changing retail industry is increasingly adopting a customer-centric approach. Customers have a wider array of options and are no longer willing to buy whatever brands offer them on a platter. In the past, retailers used to purchase merchandise based on their gut instinct or mere hunches. But today, staying relevant in the market calls for a scientific and data-driven approach. 

The growing dynamism of customer preferences also means that brands can no longer pile up stocks indiscriminately in their warehouses, as this could lead to wastage and obsolescence. This is where lean retailing comes in!

Lean retailing is all about ‘rightsizing’ your inventory and maintaining a minimal stock while relying more on the JIT deliveries as and when a product style is demanded. Lean retailing is a highly data-centric and customer-oriented supply chain practice and calls for strong supplier relationships and seamless communications. It enables businesses to cut down on unnecessary carrying costs and avoid the innumerable risks of overstock.

Case Study: Automated replenishment for JIT and OTC Merchandise for Indian optical brand, Lenskart

In this blog, we take a look at 5 simple methods you can adopt to make lean retailing a roaring success.

Regular replenishment of stock

To ensure reducing your in-stock inventory doesn’t impact your day-to-day sales, it is necessary that you replenish your stores and warehouses regularly. Optimum replenishment of stock aims at keeping your inventory costs low, while still being able to meet customer demands on time.

The optimum rate of replenishment is determined based on the data related to customer demand and preferences, and also the physical storage available with the brand. These can be factored in using inventory management software which can help brands arrive at the optimum reordering levels and also the timings of stock replenishment.

Redistribution of stock with inter-store transfers

A pre-season forecast of demand is necessary and can provide a fair idea of the customer behavior patterns over the longer time horizon. But developments during the season can also impact the trends and thus brands need a more proactive approach to ensure no sales are lost. For such contingencies, inter-store transfers are a great way out.

The inter-store transfer allows easy circulation of stock from areas of low demand to those of high demand. It is very effective in improving the health of your inventory, reducing stock brokenness, and supporting omnichannel distribution.

Suggest pullbacks for dead/slow-moving inventory

Slow-moving inventory doesn’t just occupy space on your shelves, it also prevents better-performing products to be exposed to the market. Besides, the longer your products lie on your shelves, the greater are the chances of damage, eventually making them completely unsuited for sale. 

It is necessary therefore that you identify your slow-moving stock early by tracking your inventory regularly. After zeroing in on the slow-movers, pull them back either into the warehouse or transfer them to another store if there is a likelihood of better conversions.

Expose offline inventory to online sales channels

Omnichannel commerce is fast emerging as the most disruptive trend in retail, and the lines between offline and online sales channels are blurring fast. Exposing offline products otherwise lying in your physical stores can enhance their conversion manifolds and boost sales.

With automation-based solutions like Increff Offline to Online (O2O) solution, brands can get a single view of 100% of their inventory across the board through a simple UI. As soon as an order is received, fulfillment can be done from the store or warehouse closest to the customer, thus saving significantly on logistical costs and dramatically speeding up the delivery. O2O can however be made possible only by having complete transparency and traceability of the entire inventory.

Read: 5 Extremely useful techniques to boost store sales

Faster re-commerce to avoid stockpiles

As brands expand their presence and achieve greater sales levels, returns can also grow proportionately. Handling returns efficiently with automated solutions is necessary to ensure the quick resale of the products. 

Increff WMS allows brands to sort the returned products on the basis of their condition. Subsequently, the items can be resold through your own sales channels, or redirected to secondary markets as second-hand products.

Faster re-commerce prevents damage due to delays and prolonged transportation, and thus loss of value. This helps optimize the resale value of the returned goods and avoids stockpiling low-value items in the inventory.

Maintaining a lean inventory is the way forward when it comes to building streamlined supply chains to meet the needs of an intensely competitive, dynamic, and customer-centric marketplace. Lean retailing however comes with its own set of challenges, most of which can be mitigated with some proactive planning and smart tactical decision-making.