What Keeps Your Retail Clients up at Night?
Among other things, we think it’s the (in-store) inventory management vs. out-of-stock mitigation issue.
Stores stock the “must have” merchandise according to an agreed-upon plan - but why does it seem so difficult for them to meet or exceed the plan?
- Store managers over-allocate their resources to inventory cost management and they wind up having more out-of-stock than predicted, expected or acceptable by today’s consumers.
- Store managers over-allocate their resources to out-of-stock mitigation; but they cut out margin due to inventory carrying costs.
- Store managers make matters worse by slashing prices to move the extra inventory and wind up losing margin.
This is the retail CMO’s nightmare.
On the other hand, the retail CMO that sleeps soundly at night has:
- An enterprise mobility solution that includes a small, dense, mobile computing/communications platform;
- An enterprise mobility software suite that includes connectivity to retailer and supplier supply chains to track inventory on the floor, in the stock room and in the chain; and
- Training programs for associates that have them focusing on customers first, merchandising second and inventory management third.
In other words; stores CAN meet plan with the solutions you provide – but are you positioning them correctly?