This post was originally published January 2020 and updated on 15 October 2020
Many retailers have launched new contactless delivery and self-serve options but can only access rudimentary sales and inventory positions. That prevents them from offering the ‘buy anywhere, fulfil anywhere’ services that are best for customers and most profitable for them.
Managing inventory is one of the most challenging processes for retailers – no matter their size. It’s also the largest cost. It’s a balancing act to strike the right stock levels and adjust those levels as your business changes. Understocks lead to missed sales and dissatisfied customers, and overstocks tie up your capital and result in markdowns that can hurt your margins.
Some retailers struggle with the fundamentals of inventory control, such as stock taking, demand forecasting, planning and receipting. And in a world where online and offline channels are blending into a single brand experience, customers expect access to products wherever and whenever they want.
Unify your inventory
To provide the purchasing and fulfilment options you need for frictionless experiences that delight customers and reduce costs, you first need to get tight control of your inventory.
A unified commerce platform gives you a single, accurate and up-to-date view of inventory so you can be sure that you have the right product at the right place at the right time.
With unified inventory management across all locations, you can make better decisions about what stock to order and how to make it available in your physical, mobile, online stores and call centres.
You can react to trends quickly, and forecast demand based on historical data, sales forecasts and seasonal variations. And with the platform’s open architecture and APIs, you’re free to add new features, channels, apps and services that will increase customer satisfaction and benefit your business in many ways:
Increase sales with ‘endless aisle’ capabilities that let you sell products stocked in any location and have them delivered direct or collected by the customer
Reduce inventory costs by moving stock to the right location when it’s needed and cutting your overall stock requirements
Create dark stores for online order fulfilment, turning physical locations into temporary or permanent fulfilment nodes to enable faster delivery and keep retail staff working
Turn locations on and off for endless aisle fulfilment based on the stock mix and quantities, store closures due to the pandemic or surges in online shopping
Lower fulfilment costs by delivering direct to the customer using store-to-door, warehouse-to-door, click-and-collect, kerbside pickup or optimised sourcing
Offer more purchasing and fulfilment options to customers so they can locate items in-store, buy online, collect in-store, reserve online, receive the same day or at a time and location of their choice
Optimise your product range by matching stock to each store’s location, community and demographics while still giving access to your complete range via endless aisle
Extend your range across more sales channels such as in-store kiosks, shoppable screens, pop-up stores, concessions and mobile devices.
Retailers reaping inventory benefits with the Infinity unified commerce platform
T2 Tea makes shopping contactless
We partnered with T2 Tea to quickly offer a new click-and-collect service in its 20 Australian stores. After achieving a massive 350% increase in click-and-collect orders, it has been turned on in New Zealand, Singapore, the UK and US.
With a ‘buy anywhere, fulfil anywhere’ strategy and Infinity’s centralised hub providing the inventory and fulfilment smarts, Cue Clothing is using its 240+ stores across Australasia to take on online giants like Amazon and changing the way customers shop.
Night ‘n Day gets tight control of inventory
By simplifying inventory management with Infinity, convenience grocery retailer Night ‘n Day is cutting costs, freeing up time and increasing net profit to around $12,000 per store each year.
If you’ve put in place some quick-fixes to get new capabilities up-and-running and are now looking at how to build a foundation for frictionless customer experiences, talk to us about how to start with a single view of inventory.
For more on unified commerce and why it’s the future of retail, download this free ebook.
