Retail Solutions

Retail Supply Chain

Inventory is the largest financial asset in retailing. As any retailer knows, the matter of offering the right goods in the right store at the right time and at the right price sounds simple, but can be highly complex. And when in-demand items are out of stock the result is lost customers and lost revenue.

That means selecting inventory assortment, allocating it to stores, and replenishing it efficiently to create an attractive and memorable shopping experience is the heart of retailing. When an organization can manage its inventory well, it can reduce capital costs and achieve success in a crowded marketplace.

The process of buying inventory, moving it out to stores and effectively restocking it is called a “chain” for a reason ― every part of the operation is inextricably linked, and all depend on timely, reliable data about how products are performing.

But when each link in the supply chain gets its data from a different source, or keeps its data in discrete silos, the result is multiple versions of the truth and a breakdown in cooperation between those crucial links. The results of chronic supply chain problems are simple and highly visible ― products not on the shelves, stock that’s out of season or warehouses full of overstock ― and they can easily wipe out margins that are already razor thin.

Solution Description

The answer for retailers is a powerful business intelligence (BI) system like Panorama NovaView 5.0 that can ― in near real-time ― process, analyze and report on a retail chain’s vast quantities of POS data down the SKU level, then use it to customize assortments, replenishment, prices, and quantities in the field.

For starters, buyers receiving accurate up-to-date information on the performance of vendor brands, SKUs, deliveries, and lead times can use BI to forecast how much inventory is needed to meet demand through the season and track availability. At the next link, distributors can optimize merchandise levels, minimize out-of-stocks, and manage inventory costs through item movement analysis. And replenishers can use BI to automatically reorder goods from distribution centers and/or vendors, saving merchants time and increasing return on assets.

The easy-to-understand BI tools in Panorama’s NovaView solution ― like dashboards monitoring KPIs or bubble-up exceptions ― won’t build you a miracle supply chain, but they will automate your homegrown process and make it more efficient and effective than ever thought possible.