Retailers, along with their trading partners, have long been in search of the “Perfect Shelf:” A shelf that contains the exact product a consumer wants, in the right store, at the right time, in the right quantities, at the right value. While seemingly simple in concept, consumers are still disappointed roughly 10% of the time and can’t complete their in-store purchases.
Although they can be related, On-Shelf Availability (OSA) does differ from an Out-of-Stock (OOS), which typically does not consider a product void if it is in the store (i.e. could be damaged, could be in the back room, could be in the wrong shelf location, etc.). Thus, RSi is helping retailers drive sales and profits by ruling the shelf with OSAPower Retail Shelf Alerting, which provides:
- »Visibility with a single portal
- »Store/item/day granularity
- »Speed to value
- »Worldwide experience driving proven accuracy and high ROI
- »User-friendly and interactive user interface
- »Predictive alerts that drive impressive accuracy
Similarly, organizations pour money into promotions, but frequently cannot determine the value in this investment due to on-shelf availability beyond OOS metrics.
Working examples show a sales gain of over 200 basis points in recovered sales by focusing on OSA and having greater visibility into inventory. In combination with alerts – which provide direction, focusing efforts on value-driven actions – specific problems can be identified and acted upon, so sales are not lost due to an OOS when a shopper is already at the shelf. Machine learning refines alert accuracy and helps in scenarios including:
- »New product introduction forecasts
- »Phantom inventory
- »Identified missing shelf tags
- »Inventory stuck in back room
- »Planogram compliance
- »Store allocations
- »Item-store level forecasting
- »Damaged products
- »Shelf-facing errors
Boosting OSA improvements (while reducing OOS), combined with accurate alerts, generates mutual benefits for all trading partners involved through a collaborative infrastructure.
Retailers can incorporate OSA alerting into a comprehensive data-driven approach to grow sales, increase inventory productivity, boost profitability and ultimately improve the overall shopper experience.
The RSi Advantage:
*Avoid lost sales and increase average basket size.
*Extensive CPG and Private Label knowledge.
*Data and item data management expertise.
*The most OSA installs globally (100k OSA alerts issued daily, $1B recaptured sales).