23 Jul Stay Ahead: Effective Ways to Optimise Your Retail Operations.
Whether you choose to focus on innovation, efficiency or branding, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for retailers to stay on the forefront of their industry while maintaining efficiency and profitability. You just can’t have it all.
Many companies have tried to optimise their retail operations – but only with modest success. Below are 5 effective ways you can optimise your retail operations to stay ahead.
Start by identifying your biggest setbacks
“Optimising” is a big word that encompasses so much. The good news is, you only need to focus on understanding of key business barriers before addressing them head on.
This process will involve asking:
- What’s taking up the most time?
- What’s offering the least ROI?
- What are the biggest hassles within specific departments or processes?
For instance, you might find that poor on-shelf availability is a pressing issue. From there, you can check for weaknesses within your forecasting and inventory systems to pinpoint relevant solutions.
1. Reducing time spent on replenishment
If you do a little digging, you might be shocked to discover how much time your staff spend on inventory replenishment.
Warehouses would be best organised by aligning the order of products to the store’s layout. Products located close to each other in stores should also be reflected in the warehouse itself.
Many large-scale retailers have also found success in a centralised supply chain which holds the opportunity for lower shipping costs, higher product availability and easier decision-making.
Read more on how a centralised supply chain framework made all the difference for Senheng.
2. Automate, digitise, analyse
So much data, yet so little action. Sounds familiar?
For most small-scale retailers, reports and KPIs lack usability and are time-consuming for staff to gather. They’re rarely used to drive improvements and are typically redundant.
Get the right insights you need with digital transformation solutions made just for SMEs, everything from supply chain management to smart commerce solutions.
3. Consider connected inventory
When two or more companies share their inventory, not only do they increase product availability but broaden their product range too.
With more than one touchpoint, delivery times are drastically shortened since goods can get to customers quicker. All this also translates to cheaper transportation costs and happier, more satisfied customers.
Zalando and Adidas’ partnership is a great example of how connected inventory can work wonders. In 2015, Adidas linked their distribution centres with Zalando’s inventory system. This meant that Zalando’s customers can access more Adidas product choices – while Adidas can fulfill products Zalando didn’t have in stock.
Discover our range of digital transformation solutions to start optimising your business today.