In today’s world, customers are increasingly looking for a seamless shopping experience across physical and digital channels. More flexibility leads to a better customer experience, higher sales, and increased brand loyalty; hence merging is essential. The touch and feel of physical shopping are amalgamated with the ease and habit of online shopping to provide instant gratification to shoppers.
Brands like Amazon, 6th Street, and Rebecca Minkoff are proving to be trendsetters in this domain and have launched their phygital store across the world. Retailers who are not able to provide this experience may find themselves struggling to keep up with the competition. Retailers need valuable data insights on customer behavior, sales trends, inventory levels, and more. This will help them make better business decisions and optimize their operations for maximum efficiency and profitability.
For example, by analyzing sales data, retailers can identify which products are selling well and which are not, allowing them to adjust their inventory levels and marketing strategies accordingly.
Let us first take a look at how phygital works.
Jane wanted to buy a leather jacket and went to a phygital store. She ordered the products she wanted to try using the touch screens in the store or the company app on her mobile device. She can touch and feel the jacket on the racks. Next, she sees if a fitting room is available and when to try the products. If Jane does not like the fit, she can order a different size of the same product. If not available in store, she can try out the size in a similar leather jacket and place an online order for her desired jacket in the correct size. There are micro fulfillment centers behind each store, with inventory selected based on that region’s style preference and size curve. This micro fulfillment center acts as a back store for not only the retail customers but also the online orders from that region. This is one of the many ways phygital will transform the shopping experience.
Prerequisites for a phygital store
Plan your assortment effectively
The assortment is the biggest asset for any e-commerce retailer. They must plan their assortment effectively. By taking into account factors such as customer demographics, seasonal trends, market trends, and regional preferences, retailers can ensure that the right products are available in the right locations. Thus, reducing the risk of excess inventory and improving customer satisfaction.
Group products into categories based on factors such as price, style, color, and size. This will make it easier for customers to navigate your store or website and find what they are looking for. Increff Merchandising Software helps you unify your assortment that will help you build a phygital store.
Understand the regional demand
Many brands that were operational in the Covid times as online sellers are now planning to open their physical stores since it gives them product clarity as they can touch and see the product. They have the advantage of customer pincode level demand patterns in their past years of operations.
Merchandising solutions like Increff Merchandising Software can help brands to analyze this data and mirror this online regional demand to plan inventory for the physical store. Merchandising Software can also help understand which is the best region to open a store based on data. This store can again work as a micro fulfillment center and serve both offline and online orders for which the inventory can be planned on Merchandising Software.
Avoid stockouts and overstocking
Phygital is a new concept. In order to increase sales, you may end up overstocking, but that should not be the case. By understanding data across retail sales channels brands should plan their inventory. This solves overbuying and underbuying.
This is resolved by Merchandising software solution of Increff. You need a solution that provides real-time inventory management across all physical and online stores. This means that retailers can avoid stockouts and overstocking, which can lead to lost sales and wasted inventory. With a real-time view of inventory levels, retailers can fulfill orders faster and more accurately, improving customer satisfaction and increasing sales. These features are covered by Increff’s WMS solution.
Fulfill orders faster
Conventionally, stores were just transactional avenues, by turning stores into fulfillment centers and enabling buy-online-ship-from-store capabilities, orders can be fulfilled faster. The OMS solution can be incredibly valuable when it comes to order fulfillment. Stores will be able to manage returns effectively by means of Increff Store Fulfillment System. Increff SFS helps fulfill orders and manage returns. Just like buy online pickup in store, stores can fulfill orders placed online. This will fulfill the order in a shorter time frame.
Provide an omnichannel experience
Experiences matter to customers irrespective of the mode of shopping – online or offline. Instant gratification, convenience, and flexibility are the determining factors. By understanding the customer needs and offering what is needed through the customer’s preferred sales channel, you will be able to deliver omnichannel experiences better. Increff’s Omni solution can help retailers create a seamless shopping experience across all channels, including in-store, online, and mobile.
Retailers can leverage Increff’s solutions to create a unified shopping experience that suits the needs of modern consumers. By providing real-time inventory management, dynamic discounting, valuable data insights, and optimizing order fulfillment. Increff’s solutions can help retailers improve efficiency, increase sales, and build customer loyalty. As the retail industry continues to evolve, retailers who embrace phygital retail and implement solutions like Increff’s will be best positioned for success in the future.
Embracing the phygital revolution is no longer a choice but a necessity. Customers crave a seamless blend of physical and digital experiences, and retailers must rise to the challenge. From effective assortment planning to understanding regional demand, avoiding stockouts and overstocking, fulfilling orders faster, and providing an omnichannel experience, retailers can unlock the potential of phygital stores.
With Increff’s innovative solutions by their side, retailers can optimize inventory management, streamline order fulfillment, and gain valuable insights to stay ahead in the ever-evolving retail landscape. So, hop on the phygital bandwagon, and get ready to revolutionize the way customers shop while enjoying the sweet taste of success.
In the dynamic sphere of commerce, the only constant changes with the continuous reshaping of business landscapes driven by the relentless pulse of technology. This is particularly evident in eCommerce, where traditional trade paradigms are swiftly replaced by innovation, thereby setting the stage for a future we could barely envision just a few years ago.
The pandemic drastically impacted the retail industry when online shopping became the new normal due to lockdowns and social distancing. Regardless of the size or sector, companies had to embrace e-commerce— consequently, the need for a robust online presence became clearer. And now, even though the world has gone back to normal, the e-commerce industry continues to grow and evolve.
A eMarketer’s Worldwide eCommerce Forecast report indicates that in 2023, e-commerce sales will contribute 20.8% of the total retail sales at $6.31 trillion. And this fraction is expected to increase on a year-on-year basis to reach 24% by 2026.
This upward trend is fueled by technological advancements, changing customer behavior and preferences, and increasing borderless trade, signifying more than just a market trend. It is an indication of a profound shift in the way businesses operate worldwide. In this article, we will explore the seismic shifts in the e-Commerce industry in 2023 and offer perspectives on how things might evolve from here.
Riding the wave of omnichannel retailing
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of having multiple sales channels. Companies with a strong online presence were able to continue operating despite lockdowns and social distancing measures. It pushed companies to embrace omnichannel retailing and cater to changing customer behavior.
The lines between online and offline retail are blurring everyday and brands that don’t still have an onmnichannl presence will fall behind. A report by Forrester predicts that by 2027, 70% of US retail sales will be influenced by digital touchpoints. This trend is driven by consumers’ desire for flexibility, convenience, and personalized experiences. They want the ability to shop anywhere, anytime, and through any medium—online, in-store, or mobile apps.
So, omnichannel retailing presents an extraordinary opportunity for businesses. By integrating multiple sales channels—physical stores, online platforms, social media, and mobile apps—we can provide customers with a unified, seamless shopping experience. This integrated approach helps in customer acquisition and retention and allows us to understand customer behavior across all channels, leading to more targeted marketing and enhanced personalization.
However, realizing an effective omnichannel strategy is no small feat. It requires a deep understanding of the customer’s journey across multiple touchpoints. We must strive to provide a consistent brand experience across all channels, ensuring that the transition from one channel to another is smooth and effortless.
Leveraging data is a crucial aspect of successful omnichannel retailing. With a unified view of customer data, we can create personalized shopping experiences, accurately predict future purchasing behaviors, and streamline inventory management. As we continue to navigate the evolving landscape of eCommerce, embracing omnichannel retailing is not just an option—it is a strategic imperative.
Navigating the evolution of supply chain and logistics
According to Allied Market Research, the global logistics market is projected to reach $12.975 trillion by 2027. As eCommerce continues its explosive growth, the demand for more efficient, transparent, and flexible logistics operations is intensifying. This stands even more true with the ecommerce industry growing at a staggering pace.
Supply chains are becoming more complex as companies expand their reach to cater to a global customer base. The need for real-time visibility, traceability, and predictive capabilities in supply chain management is more critical than ever. Technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, and AI are no longer optional add-ons but essential tools for enhancing operational efficiency, managing risks, and delivering the exceptional service that today’s consumers demand.
In particular, the importance of last-mile delivery in eCommerce logistics is becoming increasingly prominent. According toBusiness Wire, the global last-mile delivery market size is projected to grow by $143.75 billion between 2022-26.
So, we need to consider strategies for optimizing last-mile delivery, such as investing in advanced routing technologies, crowd-sourcing delivery, or leveraging local brick-and-mortar stores as distribution hubs. The goal is to ensure speedy, cost-effective delivery while minimizing the environmental impact.
Yet, the most important realization we need to make is that supply chains and logistics operations are no longer mere back-end functions. They are crucial components of the customer experience, directly influencing customer satisfaction and loyalty. Late or inaccurate deliveries can quickly erode customer trust, underscoring the need for impeccable logistics operations.
The transformative power of AI and ML
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are enabling personalization at a scale that was inconceivable in the past. For instance, AI algorithms can analyze vast customer data and uncover hidden patterns, growth rates and insights about individual shopping behaviors, preferences, and habits.
This granularity of understanding facilitates the delivery of highly personalized and contextual marketing to our customers, thereby enhancing their shopping experience and boosting customer loyalty. Furthermore, AI-powered predictive analytics is revolutionizing our forecasting and inventory management approach.
By analyzing historical data, predicting trends, and identifying patterns, these tools allow us to anticipate customer demand with greater accuracy, reduce excess inventory, and optimize supply chain efficiency. This represents not just a leap in operational efficiency but also a significant cost saving, which can be redirected toward other growth-enabling activities.
Another area where AI is making its mark is in customer service. As AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants become increasingly sophisticated, we can automate routine interactions. This enables our human customer service representatives to focus their attention on more complex, value-adding tasks, thus improving overall customer satisfaction.
As we look ahead, the integration of AI and ML into the eCommerce market will only deepen. The potential applications are vast, from visual search and voice recognition to augmented reality shopping experiences. The challenge for us, as business leaders, lies not in merely adopting these technologies but in harnessing their potential in a way that aligns with our strategic objectives and enhances the value we deliver to our customers.
Harnessing the power of big data and analytics in eCommerce
The ever-growing capabilities of big data and analytics have irrefutably shaped how financial leaders view the eCommerce industry. The significance of data in today’s digital age extends beyond simple quantification. It has evolved into a robust tool capable of providing unique insights, predicting trends, and guiding strategic financial decisions.
According to a report from IDC, the global data sphere will grow to 175 zettabytes by 2025, and a significant fraction of this data is poised to come from eCommerce platforms. The complexity and volume of this data necessitate advanced analytics to understand the subtleties and make data-driven decisions.
Big data and analytics are fundamental to understanding consumer behavior. Through data analysis, we can uncover customer preferences and shopping habits patterns, allowing for more targeted marketing and better product recommendations. This increased level of personalization directly correlates with increased customer engagement and sales, thereby optimizing the return on our marketing spend.
From a financial perspective, the real power of big data lies in its ability to enhance decision-making. For instance, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies used big data analytics to predict shifts in consumer behavior and adapt their strategies accordingly, a move that helped mitigate the crisis’s financial impact.
However, with the power of data comes the responsibility to protect it. A 2022 study by IBM estimates the average cost of a data breach to be $4.35 million. Consequently, investing in robust data security systems and practices is an ethical and financial obligation. As financial stewards, we must balance the potential of big data with the necessity of ensuring data privacy and protection.
Big data and analytics provide the key to unlocking customer insights, driving financial decision-making, and, ultimately, fostering business growth. However, while exploiting the potential of data, we must remain ever-vigilant on the critical necessity of data security, maintaining the delicate equilibrium between exploration and protection.
Incorporating sustainability into this new business paradigm
With the tides of consumer sentiment shifting towards environmentally conscious and ethically responsible products, companies recognize that sustainability is no longer a mere add-on; it’s a key differentiator that can greatly influence business success.
A study by NYU Stern’s Center for Sustainable Business reveals that 50% of the growth in consumer packaged goods (CPGs) from 2013 to 2018 came from sustainability-marketed products. Furthermore, according to a 2020 survey by IBM, nearly six in ten consumers surveyed are willing to change their shopping habits to reduce environmental impact.
But it’s not just about consumer preferences. Leaders have the responsibility to minimize the environmental footprint of business operations. Within eCommerce, it touches every aspect of the business—from sourcing and packaging to logistics and waste management.
For instance, adopting sustainable packaging, optimizing logistics to reduce carbon emissions, and investing in circular economy models are ways we can reduce the environmental impact of our businesses.
Pursuing sustainability also makes financial sense. Energy-efficient operations, waste reduction, and streamlined supply chains reduce carbon footprint and can lead to substantial cost savings. Furthermore, companies that demonstrate a commitment to sustainability often attract socially conscious investors, enhancing their reputation and financial stability.
Yes, incorporating sustainability within the eCommerce framework presents its own challenges, such as managing costs and ensuring supply chain resilience. But the rewards—customer loyalty, operational efficiency, and long-term financial viability—far outweigh these roadblocks.
Steering eCommerce into the future
As we stand on the brink of this exciting new era in eCommerce, we are faced with an extraordinary challenge and opportunity. The challenge lies in navigating an increasingly complex landscape marked by rapidly evolving technologies, shifting consumer behaviors, and growing societal and environmental responsibilities. Conversely, the opportunity is in our ability to leverage these changes to drive business growth, innovation, and societal impact.
In the face of this change, the role of a leader is not merely to react but to anticipate, adapt, and innovate. Our responsibility extends beyond steering our organizations toward financial success; we must also contribute to shaping an eCommerce landscape that is efficient, sustainable, and customer-centric.
Data security has always been a top priority for Increff, and today we are thrilled to announce another major milestone in our commitment to safeguarding our clients’ data. We are proud to share that Increff has successfully attained the System and Organization Controls SOC2 Type2 certification, underscoring our dedication to ensuring the highest standards of data protection.
In today’s digital landscape, where data breaches and cyber threats are prevalent; implementing robust security measures is paramount. The SOC2 Type2 certification is a rigorous evaluation process that verifies the effectiveness of a company’s security controls and procedures over an extended period. For SaaS companies like Increff, this certification validates their dedication to data security and privacy.
By obtaining SOC2 Type2 certification, Increff has undergone a comprehensive assessment of our internal controls, policies, and procedures. The certification process involved an in-depth audit conducted by an independent third-party auditor, evaluating our systems and practices against the stringent criteria outlined by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA). It signifies that our controls are not only designed to meet the required criteria but have also been effectively implemented over time.
This certification is a significant achievement for Increff in the US markets, where data security and privacy regulations are increasingly stringent. It demonstrates our proactive approach to data protection and positions us as a trusted partner for businesses operating in highly regulated industries, such as e-commerce, and more.
“By achieving SOC2 Type2 certification, we are reinforcing our position as a reliable and secure partner for businesses of all sizes. This certification demonstrates our dedication to providing a secure and reliable platform for our clients, empowering them to focus on their core business goals with the confidence that their data is in safe hands.”
-Ravisankar Velidi, Chief Culture Officer & VP Engineering at Increff.
The attainment of this prestigious certification would not have been possible without the relentless efforts of the dedicated Increff team. Their unwavering commitment to upholding the highest data security standards has been instrumental in achieving this milestone. Increff extends its heartfelt gratitude to each team member for their hard work and dedication.
Special recognition is also due to Dr. Harsha E Thennarasu, IT Security Advisor and Researcher, whose invaluable support and guidance played a crucial role in guiding Increff through the certification process. Dr. Thennarasu’s expertise and insights were instrumental in implementing the necessary measures to meet SOC2 Type2 standards.
According to Dr. Thennarasu, “Achieving SOC2 Type2 certification is a significant accomplishment for Increff, particularly as they expand into the US markets. This certification provides clients with the assurance that Increff takes data security seriously and has implemented stringent controls to protect their sensitive information. It has been a pleasure working with a team that is so deeply committed to maintaining the highest standards of data security.”
Obtaining SOC2 Type2 certification validates our unwavering commitment to data securityand provides us with a distinct competitive advantage in the marketplace. This certification is a testament to our dedication to safeguarding our clients’ data, instilling confidence in them, and assuring them that their valuable information is in trustworthy hands. By meeting the rigorous requirements of SOC2 Type2, we demonstrate our steadfast commitment to preserving data privacy, integrity, and availability, thereby fostering strong and enduring relationships with our esteemed customers.
In addition to SOC2 Type2 certification, Increff is proud to hold the ISO 27001:2013 certification and GDPR compliance, further solidifying our commitment to upholding an information security management system that aligns with international standards. These multiple certifications reflect our proactive approach to data security, reassuring clients they can place their utmost trust in our ability to protect their sensitive data effectively. Data security will remain at the core of our operations as we continue to drive innovation and growth. We eagerly anticipate the future and remain fully dedicated to serving our clients with the highest level of integrity and security they deserve.
About Increff
Increff is a retail SaaS company solving complex inventory management & supply chain challenges. Over 200+ global retail brands believe in our end-to-end merchandising and omnichannel inventory management solutions. We empower retailers to enable automated decision-making, bring accuracy to processes, drive sustainable retailing, and achieve incredible efficiency.
In the world of retail, a single merchandising decision can influence the trajectory of a season, the success of a product, and even the overall growth of a business. However, these crucial decisions can be fraught with inaccuracies and bias if not properly informed. This is where the power of data comes into play, acting as the lantern in the dark maze of merchandise decision-making.
The Old vs. The New: The Shift to Data-Driven Merchandising
Traditionally, merchandising decisions have often relied heavily on human intuition and experience. While these elements certainly have their place, they can also lead to inconsistencies and inaccuracies, which can impact overall business performance. The data-driven approach, on the other hand, eliminates much of the guesswork and subjectivity involved, enabling retailers to make more accurate, effective, and efficient decisions. Let’s explore how the mighty force of data can be harnessed to dispel errors and inefficiencies across the spectrum of merchandising operations.
Planning: The Blueprint of Success
Merchandise planning sets the stage for a successful retail operation. It’s about accurately predicting what products will sell, when, and in what quantities. With a data-driven approach, businesses can delve into historical sales data, current market trends, and customer behavior to create precise, effective merchandise plans. Data-driven approach can further fine-tune these plans, minimizing the risk of over or under-stocking. It also enables merchandisers and planners to optimize inventory mix at stores level, with the computational power to go up to a granularity of design-level attributes of styles.
Buying: The Art of Selection
Making informed choices in buying is essential, involving not only what to buy but also how much. Retailers can utilize data analytics to examine customer buying patterns, preferences, and trends. This data-driven approach identifies potential bestsellers and underperforming products, enhancing assortment mix and reducing excess stock.
To ensure optimal decision-making, retailers should perform comprehensive computations considering key attributes. Additionally, data helps identify both top-selling products and Never-out-of-stock items (NOOS) to adjust assortment mix effectively and capitalize on emerging trends.
Allocation: Every Store’s Perfect Match
Allocating merchandise across various stores is a complex task, especially for retailers with a vast network. Each store serves a different demographic, and understanding these nuances is critical. Data analytics can provide insights into regional sales patterns, individual store performance, and customer preferences, helping retailers to distribute the right products to the right stores, eliminating wastage and maximizing sales.
Replenishment: Never Missing a Beat
In the retail world, an empty shelf is a missed opportunity. Predictive analytics and real-time data can ensure that these opportunities are never missed. By monitoring sales data and inventory levels, a data-driven system can trigger timely replenishments, ensuring that key sizes are not missing and keeping customers satisfied. Further, data helps identify slow-moving inventory, allowing for pullbacks to the warehouse and replacement with more promising items.
Additionally, allows retailers to curate collections of styles that are best displayed together and dispatch them to the appropriate stores. By maintaining different replenishment quantities based on style performance, retailers ensure efficient inventory management.
Inter-Store Transfers: A Balancing Act
At the end of season, Inter-store transfers are often necessary to balance inventory and meet local demand. Here, too, data plays a vital role. It can help identify which stores have excess stock of non-performers and which ones are running low on top sellers and key sizes, facilitating smart, efficient transfers that optimize inventory across the network.
Markdowns and Discounting: The Science of Sale
Markdowns and discounting are necessary evils in retail. However, they need to be strategic to protect profit margins. Data analytics can help identify the optimal timing and degree of markdowns based on product performance, inventory levels, and sales velocity. Moreover, personalized discounting strategies can be developed using customer data, ensuring that promotions resonate with shoppers and drive sales without significantly eroding profits.
Concluding Thoughts: Embrace the Power of Data
In an era of increasing competition and ever-changing consumer preferences, accurate merchandising decisions are more critical than ever. A data-driven approach provides the accuracy, agility, and insight required to navigate the complex landscape of modern retail.
By leveraging data, retailers can eliminate inaccuracies, bias, and guesswork from their merchandising decisions, resulting in optimized inventories, improved customer satisfaction, and healthier bottom lines. The future of retail is here, and it’s powered by data. Embrace the change and let data light your path to retail success.
How Increff helps?
Increff’s algorithmic-driven merchandising software redefines the paradigm of end-to-end merchandising processes. It equips planners, buyers, and merchandisers with insights to make informed decisions regarding inventory purchase, timing, quantity, placement, and markdowns during both pre-season and in-season periods. Uniquely tailored for fashion and lifestyle businesses, it features 100+ customizable, patent-pending algorithms which empower businesses to grow sustainably and profitably.
The software’s accuracy and efficiency lead to substantial improvements in various operational metrics.
Drastically cuts down 70% of man-hours spent in number crunching
Allows decisions to be made 4X faster.
Strategic inventory management results in a 1.5X increase in inventory turns and a 20% reduction in inventory holding.
Helps businesses increase their full-price sell-through by 15%, enhancing the bottom line and margins by 4-5%.
Optimizes supply chain processes, saving up to 10% in logistics cost.
Increff’s Merchandising Software is, therefore, a game-changer for the industry, driving both operational efficiency and profitability. Click here to learn more about Increff Merchandising Software.
In the fast-paced world of warehouse management, where every second counts and customer expectations continue to soar, finding ways to optimize operations is crucial for success. Among the myriad of strategies available, picklist optimization stands out as a game-changing investment. Imagine a warehouse where order pickers effortlessly navigate through the aisles, maximizing their productivity while minimizing unnecessary steps. Picture a scenario where accuracy is paramount, and customer satisfaction soars as orders are fulfilled with precision and speed.
This is the power of picklist optimization—a strategic approach that revolutionizes warehouse management.
Understanding Picklist Optimization Picklist optimization is the process of organizing and sequencing picklists to minimize travel time and maximize efficiency during order picking. It involves intelligent algorithms and data analysis to determine the most efficient route for picking items, taking into account factors such as product location, order priority, and picker availability. By optimizing the sequence of picks, warehouses can significantly reduce the time and effort required to fulfill orders.
In this blog post, we will delve into the reasons why picklist optimization is the ultimate investment for warehouse management, unlocking a world of enhanced efficiency, reduced costs, and delighted customers. Get ready to discover the secret to transforming your warehouse into a well-oiled order fulfillment machine!
Enhanced Operational Efficiency
One of the primary benefits of picklist optimization is improved operational efficiency. Traditional warehouse picking methods often result in unnecessary travel time and inefficient paths, leading to wasted resources and increased labor costs. By optimizing picklists, warehouses can reduce travel distances, minimize congestion, and improve overall picking speed. This efficiency translates into higher productivity, increased throughput, and shorter order fulfillment cycles.
Minimized Picker Fatigue
Order picking can be physically demanding work, and picker fatigue is a common issue in warehouses. Fatigue can lead to reduced accuracy, slower performance, and increased risk of errors. With picklist optimization, warehouses can reduce picker fatigue by minimizing excessive walking and creating more logical picking routes. By optimizing the sequence of picks, pickers can complete their tasks more comfortably and efficiently, leading to improved accuracy and reduced employee turnover.
Increased Order Accuracy
Order accuracy is crucial for customer satisfaction and retention. Inaccurate orders result in unhappy customers, returns, and potential damage to the company’s reputation. Picklist optimization helps mitigate this risk by ensuring that pickers follow logical and efficient routes, minimizing the likelihood of errors. By reducing the number of picking mistakes, warehouses can enhance order accuracy and improve customer satisfaction, ultimately leading to higher customer loyalty and increased sales.
Cost Reduction
Warehouse management involves various costs, including labor, inventory holding, and transportation. Picklist optimization directly contributes to cost reduction by optimizing the use of resources. By minimizing travel time and streamlining the picking process, warehouses can save on labor costs, reduce overtime expenses, and maximize picker productivity. Moreover, improved order accuracy reduces the costs associated with returns, replacements, and customer service inquiries. Overall, picklist optimization is a cost-effective investment that delivers significant long-term savings.
Scalability and Adaptability
As businesses grow, their warehousing needs evolve, and scalability becomes essential. Picklist optimization systems are highly scalable and adaptable to changing warehouse dynamics. They can handle varying order volumes, different product assortments, and evolving order priorities. By investing in picklist optimization, warehouses can future-proof their operations and ensure continued efficiency, even during periods of rapid growth or change.
Precision in Every Pick: How Increff WMS helps
Increff WMS offers a comprehensive set of features and functionalities that enable efficient picking optimization. From intelligent order consolidation to zone-based picking and advanced technologies integration, Increff WMS empowers warehouses to streamline their picking processes, enhance productivity, and achieve higher levels of operational efficiency. Here’s how Increff WMS helps in picking optimization:
Intelligent Order Consolidation: Increff WMS intelligently consolidates multiple orders based on factors such as product compatibility, proximity, order SLA time, and priority. By grouping orders with similar items or picking locations, it minimizes the travel time and distance required to fulfill multiple orders simultaneously.
Dynamic Picklist Generation: The system generates picklists dynamically, taking into account real-time inventory updates, order priorities, and picker availability. It ensures that picklists are optimized based on the most efficient routes and sequencing, reducing picker idle time and increasing overall productivity.
Zone-based Picking: Increff WMS supports zone-based picking strategies, dividing the warehouse into different zones based on product categories or locations. Pickers are assigned specific zones, optimizing their movements within their designated areas and minimizing unnecessary travel across the entire warehouse.
Wave Picking: Wave wise picking is a warehouse management technique where items are picked in groups or “waves” based on a configured wave size and frequency. This method helps in improving picking efficiency by allowing pickers to focus on a specific set of items in a particular wave sequence. As soon as all items of the least wave sequence are picked, the picker will be assigned the next aisle to pick.
Pick-to-Light Picking: This provide pickers with real-time instructions and guidance, reducing errors and improving picking accuracy while further optimizing the process.
Real-time Inventory Visibility: Increff WMS provides real-time visibility into inventory levels and locations. Pickers can easily locate products and select the most efficient picking path based on the availability and proximity of items. This eliminates wasted time searching for products, streamlining the picking process.
Performance Tracking and Analytics: The WMS software captures data related to picking performance, such as pick rates, order fulfillment time, and picker productivity. Increff WMS generates comprehensive reports and analytics, enabling warehouse managers to identify bottlenecks, optimize workflows, and make data-driven decisions for continuous improvement.
Scalability and Flexibility: Increff WMS is scalable and adaptable to the evolving needs of growing businesses. It can handle varying order volumes, multiple warehouses, and changing fulfillment priorities, ensuring that picking optimization remains effective even as the business expands. The user is allowed to set the Release Preference as per channel or as per SLA etc
So, whether you’re a small e-commerce startup or a large-scale distribution center, investing in picklist optimization is not just a wise decision—it’s a game-changer. Embrace the power of picking optimization, harness the capabilities of Increff WMS, and witness the transformation of your warehouse into a well-oiled machine. It’s time to break free from the constraints of the past and step into a future where efficiency, accuracy, and customer delight go hand in hand — unlock the true potential of your warehouse management.
The peak sales season is a make-or-break time for every retailer, offering a significant opportunity to boost revenue and increase profits. In fact, over the past decade, the average annual retail sales growth was 3.6%, but since 2019, there has been an incredible 30% growth in retail sales. However, managing the surge in demand and traffic during this period can pose significant challenges. To optimize operations during this critical period, relying on gut feeling alone can be risky for businesses, as it is subjective. This is where technology comes in.
Without the right technology in place during peak season sales, businesses risk encountering significant obstacles such as stock shortages, slow checkout lines, and suboptimal customer experiences. These challenges can lead to lost sales and revenue, as customers may choose competitors who can handle the increased demand better. Additionally, retailers may be forced to offer heavy discounts to move excess inventory post-season, reducing their profits.
By investing in the right technology solutions, retailers can equip themselves to handle the surge in demand during peak season and avoid costly mistakes. Furthermore, technology partners can provide valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences, enabling retailers to tailor their offerings for maximum impact.
In this article, we will explore how the right peak-season technology partner helps you optimize your operations during peak sales season, from inventory management to order fulfillment and more.
Here are a few reasons why the time to shop for a peak season partner is now.
Get Ahead of the Game
NRF forecasts that retail sales during 2023 will grow between 4% and 6% over 2022. The sales holiday shopping season is always busy, and this year is expected to be no different. In fact, with more people used to the concept of online shopping due to the pandemic, it’s likely to be even busier than usual. By starting your search for a solution partner now, you can get ahead of the game and avoid the rush. This will give you time to evaluate different options and find the partner that best meets your needs. Retailers are expecting inflation which will have an immense effect on both retailers and consumers. People will not buy as they usually do, and retailers will see a dip in profits. A solution partner will help you navigate through the tough time by reducing manpower, optimizing storage, inventory transparency, and more.
The global e-commerce market is expected to total $6.3 trillion in 2023. Ensuring that the right products are in stock at the right time is crucial to meeting customer demand and maximizing sales revenue. Allocate your products wisely. Plan which products should go to which store based on consumer data like affinity, men-to-women shopper ratio, etc. The life of merchandisers will get easier if they know which stores require what items. By choosing a partner now, you can analyze historical sales data, forecast future demand, and establish appropriate inventory policies and procedures – which are important to meet the needs of the shoppers.
Ensure Smooth Operations
You do not want to deliver late orders and lose customers. Inventory management, processing orders, ensuring on-time delivery – a good partner can help ensure that everything runs smoothly. Optimize warehouse operations to handle huge order surges during the peak season and avoid hiring an extra workforce to handle such surges by means of a peak season partner. Order routing and splitting can ease the burden on your warehouses, leading to faster order fulfillment. You can also get stores into the picture for faster fulfillment of orders via the store fulfillment model. By choosing a partner now, you’ll have time to integrate their services into your operations and ensure everything works properly before the busy season starts.
In conclusion, maximizing peak season sales is critical for retailers to achieve sustainable growth and profits. With the rapid increase in retail sales, it’s more important than ever to leverage technology to optimize operations during this critical period. Based on the mistakes made in the last season, dilute the inventory by sales like End of Season Sale. Use the Dynamic Markdown technology to find the right percentage of discount to be given on each product. By partnering with the right technology solution provider, retailers can equip themselves with the necessary tools and insights to meet customer demand, manage inventory effectively, and provide a seamless customer experience. As the sales holiday shopping season approaches, it’s essential to act fast and secure a reliable technology partner to avoid costly mistakes and lost sales.
The time to act is now, so don’t hesitate to start your search and get ahead of the game.
Remember, the right technology partner can help you achieve your peak season goals and pave the way for long-term success.
Good merchandising is like a classic wardrobe staple: always in fashion.
Picture this: You walk into a store and immediately feel captivated by the displays, the colors, and the overall aesthetic. You find yourself instinctively drawn towards certain products, feeling as though they were made just for you. This is the magic of merchandising – a carefully crafted experience that delights customers and leaves them coming back for more.
In a world where fashion trends change faster than the seasons, one thing remains constant – the power of great fashion merchandising. It’s the backbone of successful retailers and the secret weapon that keeps them ahead of the curve. But it’s not just about creating a visually stunning display; it’s about anticipating customer needs and delivering an experience that resonates with them on a personal level.
According to a recent study by San Diego State University, failing to get merchandising right could result in a 50% brand switch rate. That’s why a meticulous and thoughtful approach to merchandising is essential. From the placement of products to the use of lighting and colors, every element plays a crucial role in creating a memorable experience for customers.
As mentioned, merchandising is more than just displaying products on a shelf or rack. It’s a complex and nuanced process that requires a deep understanding of consumer behavior, market trends, and retail best practices. It’s about creating an immersive shopping experience that delights and inspires customers while also driving sales and building brand loyalty.
But exactly what is merchandising? At its core, merchandising is both an art and a science. It requires a keen eye for aesthetics, an understanding of product placement, and a flair for creative presentation. But it also demands a data-driven approach, with retailers analyzing sales data, monitoring inventory levels, and adjusting pricing and promotion strategies to optimize revenue. Merchandising also encompasses strategies for managing inventory levels and stock rotation to ensure that products are always available and fresh.
To stay ahead of the curve and stand out from the competition, it’s crucial to keep up with the latest shifts in the retail industry and implement the best merchandising strategies and practices. In this guide, we’ll explore the world of merchandising, from the fundamentals to the latest trends and techniques. We’ll dive into topics such as assortment planning, buying, and allocating, as well as inventory management and more. By the end of this journey, you’ll gain valuable insights that will help you create a memorable shopping experience for your customers and drive revenue for your business. Let’s dive in!
The winds of change in merchandising are picking up speed
Current Scenario
With inflation rates skyrocketing to levels not seen in decades and consumer confidence taking a hit, managing the fashion industry has become increasingly pricey. The industry is feeling the pinch, and brands are under more pressure than ever to maintain margins and stay profitable in the face of these challenges.
The accessibility and sharing of product information and trends have caused a significant shift in consumer preferences and behaviors. Consequently, consumers are frequently exposed to fresh ideas and products. As a result, a trend has emerged in which the lifespan of fashion products has notably decreased, causing brands to prioritize newness and innovation.
Data and insights have become a necessity for brands. They rely on data to comprehend their customers’ preferences, behaviors, and purchasing patterns. Historical data analysis of sales, inventory, and customer feedback data allows brands to develop a more accurate demand forecast, identify emerging trends, and optimize product assortments. Moreover, data-driven insights enable brands to optimize pricing, promotions, and markdowns, ultimately leading to improved margins and profitability.
Consumers are increasingly conscious of how brands impact the environment and society. Across the globe, 60% of consumers consider sustainability an essential factor when making purchases. Over the past five years, 85% of individuals have modified their buying behavior to be more sustainable, indicating a willingness to change consumption habits and reduce environmental impact.
As a result, brands are under pressure to adopt eco-friendly and sustainable practices, including waste reduction and building a sustainable and responsible supply chain. One in three consumers is willing to pay extra for sustainable products. So, companies must prepare for sustainability to become the norm rather than the exception, making sustainability a ‘climbing agenda.’ (Source: The Global Sustainability Study 2021 survey)
Taking action with the best merchandising practices
Let the data do the talking…
The era where brands relied on intuition and spreadsheets to plan, purchase, and distribute their products is a thing of the past. In today’s data-rich world, retailers can access vast amounts of data to help them make more informed decisions.
By analyzing data, brands make more informed decisions and meet the 5 R’s (… the five rights) of retail product merchandising defined by Paul Mazur:
Let’s take a closer look at how a data-driven approach helps in each step of merchandising process.
Granular data analysis in merchandise planning and buying
What is Merchandise Planning and Buying? Merchandise planning involves analyzing sales data, market trends, and customer insights to develop a plan that identifies product categories, assortments, and price points. It helps retailers optimize inventory levels, reduce stockouts and overstock, and increase turnover rates.
Merchandise buying executes the plan by selecting and purchasing the right products from suppliers, negotiating pricing and delivery terms, and managing inventory levels to minimize costs and maximize sales.
Retailers incur significant expenses in buying merchandise, including shipping, transportation, delivery, and storage costs. Making incorrect purchasing decisions can result in doubling the merchandise purchasing costs. This is where a data-driven approach helps in merchandise planning.
Recognizing “Never Out of Stock” (NOOS) products is a crucial element of a data-oriented approach to merchandise planning. These are the top sellers and core styles that have persistent sales for a more extended period. By identifying NOOS products, retailers can ensure that these items are always in stock, reducing the risk of stockouts and lost sales.
To achieve ideal decision-making, retailers must perform computations at the granular level, incorporating multiple product attributes such as color, size, style, and seasonality. This level of analysis enables retailers to determine the ideal assortment mix and depth, ensuring that the right products are available in the right quantities at the right time.
Another crucial aspect of data-driven merchandise planning is analyzing past sales, revenue, discounts, size cuts, stock-outs, and exposure.
Benefits of data-driven merchandise plan:
Decreased warehousing costs: By reducing unwanted inventory in the warehouse, inventory carrying, labor, and maintenance costs are minimized.
Increased customer loyalty and lifetime value: Having products in stock that meet customer demand makes them less likely to leave empty-handed and will keep returning for more.
Less discounting: By reducing unsold inventory, there is no need to rely on heavy discounts to clear stock.
Lower chances of missed sales opportunities: With few out-of-stock situations and stocked best-selling products, retailers can minimize missed sales opportunities that their competitors may capitalize on.
Smart inventory investment: By analyzing past sales and trends, retailers can make informed decisions about inventory investment and allocate their money to stocks that generate revenue.
Precision stocking: Smart allocation and replenishment
What is Merchandise Allocation and Replenishment? Merchandise allocation decides the quantity of each product for each store based on sales data, store size, and customer demographics. The goal is to optimize sales and meet customer demand.
Replenishment restocks products in stores that are sold out or running low on inventory to maintain on-shelf availability. It involves analyzing sales data and inventory levels to determine when and how much to restock for each store and product.
Using manual methods and general thumb rules to allocate inventory leads to issues like overstocking, stockouts, and suboptimal inventory health. On the other hand, with a data-driven approach, brands can ensure that inventory is allocated at the right depth, location, and time to maximize sales and improve inventory health.
The benefits include:
True ROS (Retail On-Shelf Availability) based store style ranking ensures the best store style combinations are fulfilled, increasing sales.
Optimized inventory distribution by identifying pivotal and non-pivotal sizes for each store and attribute group combination.
Inter-store transfers and stock consolidation can be performed to correct for the loss of sale, inventory health, and assortment issues.
Optimum depth for SKUs can be maintained at each store based on True ROS and required days of cover without any minimum or maximum inputs from the user. This approach improves store inventory health and helps avoid stock-outs or overstock situations.
Suggestions for pullbacks of dead or slow-moving inventory pullbacks from stores to warehouses and replacements with better potential articles. This frees up space for faster-moving items and ensures that the store is always stocked with the latest trends and styles.
Dispatch collections or stories of styles together to a store, which needs to be displayed together. This creates a cohesive shopping experience and increases the likelihood of multiple purchases.
Different pools of replenishment quantity can be maintained at the warehouse based on the grade of the style, allowing for the allocation of more inventory to high-performing styles, resulting in increased sales and profits.
Other best merchandising tips and tactics
Effective discounting/markdown optimization
Markdowns are essentially price reductions that retailers offer on their products to clear out old inventory, make room for new products, and maximize profits. However, managing markdowns efficiently is easier said than done. It requires a keen understanding of customer behavior, product performance, and market trends. This is where the data-driven approach comes in.
By analyzing sales data, inventory levels, and customer behavior in real-time, the tool recommends if the discount should be increased, decreased, or kept the same to improve its sales and maximize margin value.
Here are some key benefits of markdown optimization
Maximizing ROI: Markdown optimization tools can help you identify the right set of styles to apply discounts to and the optimal discount percentage for each style for achieving the best possible sales and margin value.
Dynamic adjustments: Markdown optimization tools allow you to make dynamic adjustments to your markdowns based on real-time data. It means you can increase or decrease discounts for specific products and store locations based on their performance and stock status, allowing you to maximize sales and profitability.
Elasticity: Markdown optimization tools also enable rapid rollback on discounting if the rate of sale (ROS) doesn’t increase as expected. This elasticity ensures you can quickly adjust your markdown strategy if you do not see the desired results.
Flexible capping: Markdown optimization tools facilitate the flexible capping of the discount within different decision matrix combinations. This means you can set up different discount caps for different products and store locations based on their performance and inventory levels.
Style-level manual overrides: Finally, markdown optimization tools allow for style-level manual overrides for reordering and discounting decisions. This enables merchandisers to use their expertise and judgment to adjust markdowns for specific products and store locations as needed.
Localization of assortment
The traditional approach to inventory distribution involved having a few large warehouses that served a wide geographic area. However, this model has several drawbacks, including longer shipping distances and transit times, which can result in delayed deliveries and dissatisfied customers. To address this issue, retailers are adopting a new approach that involves building smaller fulfillment centers closer to their customers.
By using a pin code level inventory distribution system, retailers can ensure they have the right products in the right quantities at the right locations. This approach enables them to achieve faster delivery times, reduce shipping costs, and improve customer satisfaction. In addition, retailers can leverage data analytics to identify regional demand patterns and adjust their inventory levels accordingly.
Building a resilient supply chain is another key benefit of bringing fulfillment centers closer to the customer. By having multiple smaller fulfillment centers spread across multiple regions, retailers can mitigate the risk of disruptions caused by natural disasters, labor strikes, or other unforeseen events. This approach also allows them to be more agile in responding to changes in demand and market conditions.
By bringing fulfillment centers closer to the customer, retailers can not only improve delivery times and build a resilient supply chain but also create the phygital experience that customers are seeking right now. This is because it can reduce the distance that products need to travel and minimize inter-warehouse redistributions, resulting in significant savings in logistics costs and reducing the retailer’s carbon footprint.
Bridging the gap with Omnichannel
The traditional methods of allocating merchandise — having separate inventories for each sales channel, can no longer keep up with the fast-paced demands of the industry and can result in obsolete inventory, heavy discounts, or, worse, landfill dumping of unsold products. These challenges not only harm the environment but also hurt the bottom line of businesses.
The concept of Omnichannel seeks to deliver this experience by unifying the entire retail ecosystem, breaking down silos between online and offline channels, and creating a cohesive and integrated customer journey. At the heart of this transformation lies inventory management. By integrating online and offline inventory, retailers can create a unified view of their stock levels, which allows them to offer customers the convenience of shopping across multiple channels and access an endless aisle of products, even if they are not physically available in-store. This feature enhances the customer experience by providing more options and reducing the likelihood of customers leaving the store empty-handed.
Another advantage of an omnichannel inventory system is the ability to offer omnichannel capabilities such as BOSS (Buy Online Ship to Store), BOPIS (Buy Online Pickup in Store), and BORIS (Buy Online Return In-Store). These options provide customers with the flexibility to choose the most convenient way to shop and return items while enabling retailers to leverage their physical stores as fulfillment centers.
By leveraging inventory as a strategic asset and integrating online and offline channels, retailers can provide a seamless shopping experience, increase sales, reduce waste, and improve their bottom line.
Newer Possibilities with AI-powered Merchandising
The possibilities of artificial intelligence (AI) technology are limitless, and it has found a new ally in merchandising. AI has become an indispensable tool for retailers, offering a plethora of benefits ranging from personalized recommendations to fraud detection. Its vast and varied applications make it an essential asset for any brand seeking to stay ahead of the curve in today’s competitive retail landscape.
A few use cases of AI in merchandising include
Personalization: AI analyzes customer data to provide personalized product recommendations and promotions, leading to increased customer engagement, loyalty, and sales.
Forecasting: AI predicts future demand based on historical sales data and market trends, aiding in inventory management and allocation decisions.
Pricing optimization: AI determines optimal product pricing by analyzing competitor pricing, consumer demand, and other market factors, increasing sales and profitability while remaining competitive.
Fraud detection: AI analyzes transaction data to identify fraudulent activity patterns, helping retailers prevent losses from fraudulent transactions.
The ball is in your court…
Brands that can tailor their strategic priorities to their specific situation will have the best chance of adjusting their business models to deal with current challenges. They will also be able to use these strategies to create a more flexible and adaptable merchandising capability that not only helps them weather the downturn but also positions them well for growth when it returns. But how does Increff help?
Bringing Science to Retail – Increff Merchandising Software
Reimagine merchandise planning, buying, and allocation with Increff’s intelligent algorithm-driven end-to-end merchandising software
Assortment Planning: Consider factors like seasonality, local demographic, product attributes, discounting, ,etc. to identify top sellers and slow movers. Personalize assortment at every store based on true demand for options, depth, and size ratios.
Allocation and Replenishment: Allocate inventory, as per demand, and improve the frequency of replenishments through our ARS solution. Experience consistent revenue uplifts by reducing size cuts, replenishing fast-selling styles, and optimizing overstocking and understocking within stores through inter-store transfers.
Extract actionable insights with business intelligence and online analytics.
Sales are the lifeblood of a business. However, with the ever-increasing competition and changing consumer behavior, it can be challenging to drive increasing numbers and revenue. The rise of fast fashion and the boom of the e-commerce industry has also made it more difficult for clothing brands to stand out and attract customers.
A survey by Econsultancy reports that sales of fashion brands fell by 25% during the pandemic. And even after COVID-19 subsided, while online sales rose by £2.7 billion, the total sales dropped by £9.6 billion in 2021.
So, it is clear that the online fashion industry now has a significant impact on brands. And it is not as easy for companies to increase their sales without having a strong brand identity and online presence. Brands must also focus on their operational side of things like streamlining inventory management, optimizing allocation & distribution, and deploying a smart sales strategy to boost their sales.
In this blog post, we’ll explore some smart strategies to help clothing brands increase their sales and revenue.
1) Build a strong brand identity
The key to having a solid brand identity is ‘Consistency and storytelling.’ It is crucial to build an image your customers will recognize at a glance, whether online or in traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Your brand story should also align with the company’s values and mission and establish an emotional connection with the target audience. This leads to brand loyalty and an increase in sales.
When a brand builds a messaging that stays the same across multiple customer touch points and is visually unique, they are able to reinforce its identity multiple times. It also helps build a distinct identity that separates it from the competition. Forbes reports that companies that take their time building a consistent brand image across all their sales channels see up to a 23% increase in revenue.
Having hero products and building new stories around them is another great way to establish your brand identity. It often becomes synonymous with the brand, making it easily recognizable. For instance, the Hermès Birkin bag is one of the most recognized and coveted luxury handbags and has driven recognition for the brand globally. It can differentiate a brand in a crowded market by representing the unique value proposition of the brand and highlighting what sets them apart from competitors.
Additionally, since a hero product is often the top-selling product of a brand, it ties to sustainability and profitability. That’s because a brand doesn’t have to experiment and can count on its inventory of hero products always selling well and not ending up in landfills.
2) Re-strategize using past data
It is rightly said by Clive Humby that “Data is the new oil.” Brands can unlock a lot of growth potential by analyzing past sales information brands and identifying important sales patterns, trends, and customer preferences. That, combined with analysis of factors that contributed to high or low sales during a particular period, can help companies formulate their future sales strategy.
Data can also help segment the customer base based on age, demographics, preferences, and location. This information can help brands tailor their marketing messages and promotions to specific customer groups, increasing the likelihood of sales. Even McKinsey reports that brands that use data to offer a personalized customer experience see their digital sales jump by 30%-50%.
A report by The Ellen MacArthur Foundation suggests that the fashion industry is particularly prone to overstocking, with an estimated 30% of clothes produced never sold. This major operational cost for businesses can be reduced significantly with some key practices.
By managing inventory more efficiently, brands can reduce costs, minimize waste, and improve customer satisfaction. An effective buying and planning strategy that identifies the right inventory mix and assortment for stores and online channels is vital. It helps prevent situations like out-of-stock items, low fulfillment rates, and poor customer satisfaction.
The idea here is to double down on the demand potential and not let interested customers go away without buying. It can be done by accurately predicting the true size ratios at the right granularity to understand which products you need in your inventory and in what quantity. You wouldn’t want to run out of your best-seller during peak sales, Right?
4) Optimize allocation and replenishment
Once you streamline your inventory, the next step is to optimize allocation and replenishment. This involves determining which items are selling well at which locations and then using that information to allocate inventory to the right stores at the right time. By maintaining the optimum depth for SKUs at each store based on the true rate of sales (ROS), brands can ensure the right inventory distribution.
You need to regularly analyze store-level sales data to identify best-selling items, underperforming products, and sales trends. Then, use this information to make informed decisions about product allocations and replenishments.
One key strategy for optimizing allocation and replenishment is using automated systems. They can help you ensure that your stores always have the right amount of inventory to meet demand without overstocking and risking excess waste. By automating the allocation and replenishment process, you can also reduce the time and effort required to manage inventory, allowing your team to focus on other essential tasks.
Transferring stock between stores or warehouses ensures that each location has sufficient and balanced inventory levels. This prevents stock-outs and overstocking, which can negatively impact sales. It also helps reduce the brokenness of products by consolidating size sets in one store location with the highest likelihood of making the sale.
When a brand has a chain of stores, it is obvious that not all of them will have equal footfall. This is where inter-store transfers can help by ensuring that high-performing stores do not run out of inventory while low-performing ones aren’t overstocked. It also helps brands consolidate all inventory at a regional level to have healthy stocks at the right stores to give the inventory a final chance to sell before the end of the season sale.
Inter-warehouse transfers also work similarly, taking into account regional demand. For example, if a brand’s south India warehouse is running out of festive wear during Pongal, it can transfer inventory from its northern warehouse to match the demand. It helps prevent inventory from lying around in warehouses where there is no demand, reducing the need for markdown to clear stock. At the same time, warehouses can move stocks based on regional demand to improve delivery speeds and reduce costs.
Most brands need a more proactive approach to discounting. They do not analyze demand in real-time to adjust their price accordingly, which results in higher price cuts during the off-season. This results in missed sales opportunities and losses that fashion brands find difficult to circumvent.
This problem can be overcome by implementing a smart sales strategy where the discount on the product will be increased or decreased by analyzing the style’s ongoing performance and stock status. For example, if you see a product is not doing particularly well at 10% off, the discount rate can be increased to 20% to clear the inventory. It is far better than selling the same product for a 40%-50% discount at the end of the season.
Brands must plan ahead by considering product lifecycle, seasonality, and upcoming sales events. This can help them manage inventory more effectively and reduce the need for last-minute, deep markdowns.
Increase your revenue by 20-25% with Increff
Increff’s Merchandising Software employs advanced data analytics to provide actionable insights into your sales, customer behavior, and inventory. This enables precise decision-making in areas like product selection, pricing, and promotion, helping you maximize sales and revenue by up to 25%.
With Increff, you can manage your inventory more effectively, ensuring you have the right products in the right place at the right time. This reduces stock-outs and overstocks, increases sales, and reduces costs. A leading menswear brand has seen a 40% increase in sales for their consolidated inventory via IST.
Additionally, our markdown optimization tool helps you strategically reduce prices on slow-moving items, further boosting sales.
With Increff, you’re not just adopting a technology solution – you’re partnering with a team of retail experts dedicated to helping you achieve your business goals. By leveraging our merchandising solution, you can expect to see a significant increase in your revenue, positioning your business for long-term success in a competitive retail landscape.
Incepted in the early 2000s, omnichannel retailing is no longer a fantasy. Several brands have created an environment where offline, online, and m-commerce work together to create the most seamless shopping experience for their customers.
An omnichannel approach to retailing is a win-win situation for both brands and consumers. About 89% of consumers expressed that brands should work harder to create a more cohesive customer experience. Brands who have implemented it successfully are reporting a hike of 9.5% in annual revenue with omnichannel benefits like fulfillment from store etc.
Despite the effectiveness of this method, many retailers and brands are hesitant to adopt omnichannel retailing because of the misconceptions surrounding it.
Let’s take a look at the biggest myths clouding people’s perceptions:
#Myth 1: Omnichannel and multichannel are the same thing
Although they might sound the same, the difference between these two approaches is night and day.
While a multichannel approach necessitates a team and a system working in silos, customer experience is not included. The omnichannel approach, on the other hand, integrates all communication contact points to create a seamless experience.
It is the more engaging, personalized experience that centralized customer data adds to omnichannel retailing that makes all the difference. With this approach, brands get to offer both better customer service and faster issue resolution.
The bottom line is, consumers expect the best customer support even when juggling between sales channels. In omnichannel retailing the communication between them works in silos, equipping the customer support to provide them with the best service.
#Myth 2: Managing Omnichannel is tedious
The benefit of implementing omnichannel retailing is that it is not necessary to execute all features of omnichannel retailing all at once.
You can begin by analyzing what is working for you and gradually adding new channels. It’s not required to change the infrastructure of your physical store or invest in some hefty technology to start with omnichannel retailing. Since it is completely based on retail technology, you can integrate procedures as you need. As a result, there is no need to restructure your entire process to go to omnichannel retailing.
#Myth 3: Omnichannel platforms don’t work
As already established, companies that do not utilize omnichannel platforms are losing out on its benefits. With an omnichannel approach, customers get to curate their own experience – whether offline or offline.
Customers can browse online and walk into physical stores, or they can order the same product online after trying it on in the store – the possibilities are endless. This unified experience ensures that sales are not lost while navigating various platforms.
Furthermore, many omnichannel adopters find that making the switch has helped them improve store inventory accuracy to the point where they have been able to launch additional initiatives that rely on it, such as reserve online and collect in-store.
Myth 4: Omnichannel retailing is an expensive affair
Any business must invest in the appropriate tools and technology to grow. While retail technology may appear to be an investment at first, the return on investment is justified.
Omnichannel retailing has been shown to increase order frequency, store traffic, customer retention, and brand identification. In fact, it is reported that the opportunity cost of not being omnichannel is 10% in terms of lost revenue.
As a result, even though the transition to omnichannel retailing requires an initial investment, it increases sales multifold, making it a sound business investment.
Concluding: What Does the Future Look Like With Omnichannel Retailing
The day when omnichannel retailing becomes a standard retail practice is not very far. Businesses that transition to omnichannel practices early will greatly benefit from the new opportunities created by it. Only 11% of businesses have claimed to successfully implement omnichannel retailing, and others who join the rank will surely reap the benefits.
The core idea of omnichannel expansion is simple; it enables the brand and retailers to become visible across all sales channels their customers are using. Being omnipresent everywhere the shopper goes gives them a competitive advantage.
In a digital-first world, going the extra mile to keep up with customer demands and trends will help you in keeping ahead of the competition. With the truths behind the myths revealed brands and retailers should use omnichannel retailing to make their business future-ready.
If you want to enquire more about what retail tech solutions can help you adopt omnichannel retailing, contact us today!
Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests that the employee turnover rate in the warehousing sector has been as high as 49% annually. Due to this very high attrition rate, businesses often face severe fulfillment delays, low efficiency, and increasing costs.
So, why does this happen? Entry-level warehouse jobs are still considered to be manual, repetitive, and devoid of growth. To retain employees and reduce dependency on skilled labor, organizations must implement new technologies that keep their workers engaged.
However, it is not as easy as it sounds. With such a high attrition rate, employers cannot spend too much time on training. So, they need an effective, easy-to-use solution that gives them a good ROI. Here’s where Increff Warehouse Management System comes in.
In this blog, we will showcase the top 5 reasons why Increff WMS is the ideal solution for managing your warehouse operations.
1) Quick deployment and easy maintenance
While legacy systems can take anywhere from 4 to 6 months to deploy, Increff WMS can be up in just 1 week. It can also integrate with your existing ERP system alongside any other e-commerce platform or logistics management system you are using. This allows for a seamless experience and easy management of all your functions from a single touchpoint.
Unlike traditional on-premise solutions, which require regular hardware maintenance and updates, Increff WMS is a cloud-hosted hardware agnostic solution requiring no additional upkeep. It can run on a smartphone and also has Chrome accessibility. The system will be auto-updated whenever a new feature, bug fix, or upgrade is released.
The most critical thing for a warehouse management solution is ease of use. At the end of 2022, there were almost 500,000 open warehouse jobs. It shows businesses are unable to retain employees, and the turnover rate is very high. So, companies cannot spend a ton of time and resources on training new employees.
Increff realizes this, and its Warehouse Management Solution is designed to have a very shallow learning curve. With our simple and intuitive user interface, your employees can be trained on Increff WMS’s individual activities in just 5 minutes, unlocking high productivity from day one.
It also simplifies the entire operations process with a single channel for B2B and B2C order processing and easy error tracking. The system is manually operated and has automation capabilities using the available data and operating via conveyor belts. Even though the system is manually operated, it has a 100% foolproof mechanism where the user cannot proceed to the next step if an error is detected.
Increff WMS ensures the highest level of inventory accuracy with a promise-to-ship agreement that guarantees 99.99% accuracy at the bin level. This means you can trust that your inventory is always up-to-date and you never oversell or undersell your products. It also offers an extremely swift inventory-order sync time of 10-15 seconds to ensure you never take extra orders without having the units to fulfill them.
The solution also upgrades your inventory management by enabling serialization that prevents duplicate scanning of items and achieves 100% first-time-right operation. As for when products are to be collected for shipment, it optimizes the path around the warehouse for more picks with lesser distance traveled, saving a lot of time and effort.
4) Simplified decision-making
It is important for businesses to be able to analyze different KPIs associated with inventory, order management, and putaway to get an overall picture of the warehouse performance.
With 80+ actionable reports from Increff WMS, businesses get access to important insights that allow for data-backed decision-making rather than simply following one’s gut or using traditional methods like spreadsheets. Our reports cater to different stakeholders, including warehouse managers, operations, finance, category, and supply chain teams, allowing for simplified decision-making at all levels of your organization.
For any business, scalability is a very important factor when considering a new solution. You wouldn’t want to change your systems frequently while experiencing high growth, which could slow down processes and increase traction.
So, even if you are a small company projecting a very high growth rate but with a low order volume currently, Increff WMS can meet your requirements. While for enterprises, it can scale as required and even process up to 100k+ dispatches per day per the warehouse. The solution also maximizes your warehouse space utilization saving storage and labor costs.
Apart from being simple and efficient, Increff WMS is also the best in the market, with 200+ brands believing in what we have to offer. Gartner has also recognized Increff as a notable vendor in its report “Asia/Pacific Context: Magic Quadrant for Warehouse Management Systems” for 3 consecutive years now.
Schedule a quick demo to learn more about our solution and explore how we can help your business.
Increff management has a wonderful combination of rich merchandising experience and cutting edge technology, one of the biggest challenges for fashion retailers has been continuously improving first quality sell-through, which Increff has really been helpful by improving the relevant merchandise available on the floor.
