If you are a $5m eRetailer, you may be giving up $200,000 in lost sales each year – because the product your customer wanted to purchase was out of stock. A revenue Harvard Business Review™ study showed that 43% of consumers will buy a product elsewhere if it is out of stock which results in up to 4% of lost sales for the average retailer.
We have a simple, highly effective solution that has not been available to smaller retailers until now.
Predictive Analytics and automated Demand Planning can reduce stock outs to near zero. While Demand Planning has been used for years, adding the power of Predictive Analytics has changed the game for many companies. Predictive Analytics adds incredible precision to the supply-chain order process which when used with traditional Demand Planning mathematics, can provide incredibly accurate product ordering.
Predictive Analytics
Predictive Analytics uses advanced algorithmic programming to calculate thousands of data points into an accurate forecast. They have the ability to detect seasonality and trends, but more importantly, can mitigate forecast errors by omitting outliers. These new advanced algorithms can leverage so much data that mathematical trends that otherwise may be hidden are identified in the results.
Demand Planning
Demand Planning is the traditional work of an inventory manager who calculates Lead Time Demand and Safety Stock based on the volatility of demand, and then subtracts products in inventory or already ordered from the final purchase amount. ERP tools can do this work, but often smaller companies on Quickbooks™, Xero™ or Fishbowl™ use cumbersome Excel models to solve this problem.
It is the combination of the two processes that are changing the accuracy of product purchasing and inventory management.
Today, businesses can create this new class of inventory management by investing in Business Intelligence tools and adding this capability to current inventory management processes. The cost to create a Business Intelligence system can easily exceed $50,000, so many smaller companies find the investment to be too high. Beyond the cost, many companies are also hesitant to initiate a BI program because choosing the technology tool and acquiring the capability (database programming, data science analysts etc.) can be very daunting to implement.
We provide a fixed cost, turn-key SAAS service allowing users to get up and running quickly at a fraction of the cost of an internal implementation. And you never have to worry about maintenance or technology choices. The entire problem is solved on day one – so you can focus on sales and product ordering.