Are you falling behind your more future-forward competitors when it comes to keeping up with the new digital age? Is your team empowered with access to real-time data, analytics, and insights to help you meet the now very demanding customer expectations?
We know that retail today is more challenged than ever before. The higher cost of doing business means that your ability to generate cash is under pressure. Add to this, the fact that no customer has the patience, nor the inclination, to wait very long for something they want …. now. If you are not automating, streamlining, and optimising your retail merchandise processes, you risk losing your customers because you are not meeting their expectations.
As we explore the retail merchandise lifecycle with many organisations, this presents a great opportunity for automation.
It is no secret that Excel remains one of the most widely used tools in business today. Why? Because frankly, spreadsheets can provide powerful functionality. Excel is accessible, reasonably priced, easy to learn, and easy to use. There is no denying that Excel is a five-star tool that can organise, lookup, pivot, analyse, display, and store some of your important data. But… when working with large volumes of data, relying on repetitive human input, and making allocation and replenishment decisions based on disparate sources of data, it could be killing your business!
Source: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/automation-in-retail-an-executive-overview-for-getting-ready
In 2019 the McKinsey Global Institute published a report (Steven Begley, 2019) based on a three-year broad-based research initiative on automation across sectors. It illustrates how automating time-intensive processes will enable merchants to increase the time they spend on more strategic, value-adding activities. Those that are creating value for the organisation and impacting your bottom line.
Having the right product, right place, right time, and the right price has never been more relevant! Quick response to ever-changing market conditions is not an option, it is essential.
Repetitive manual input and analysis waste a significant amount of a merchant’s time. Merchandise planning activities based on data from disparate sources is not only time-consuming and tedious, but it is error-prone. Relying on human input to decide what to buy, how much to buy, when to buy, and from whom is inflexible and will not allow your business to scale effectively.
When it comes to optimising your stock holding, it is key to have access to data that provides actionable insights into size & quantity mix, inventory performance, allocations, and replenishment, amongst others, to drive stock turn and trading densities. More profitable sales mean that pricing and promotions need to be effectively managed. Importantly, having full inventory visibility across multiple channels, warehouses, and locations, with seamless integration between systems, will further facilitate better planning, allocation, demand forecasting, and replenishment activities and decisions.
While some decisions will always require human input, automation definitely means less risk of errors, less risk of data loss and access to actionable insights in near real-time.
Growth requires change. Scalable, adaptable, and efficient decision-making can lead to more profitable, sustainable business growth for you.
Keen to discover how you can automate your manual business processes & systems BusinessChain is here to help you improve your supply chain performance.
Why not give BusinessChain a call today?
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