Inventory Management

The news cycle is confusing. We hear warehouse vacancy rates are at a 27-year low. Then we read that new warehouses are being developed at record rates and that Amazon.com is shedding excess space. At the end of the day, the lived experience of most retailers and merchants is that capacity is tight — and expensive.…

In 2022, the blueprint to retail success is evolving before our eyes. The ripple effects of a two-year global pandemic coupled with rapid accelerations in digital transformation have shifted the paradigm for consumer expectations. Now more than ever, customers desire seamless and personalized experiences at every touchpoint of their buyer’s journey. Whether it’s in-store, on…

Excess inventory. Losing pace with shifts in customer behavior. Erosion of gross margin. Selling on markdowns. Missing forecasts. No time for innovation. What do these have in common? These are the symptoms of a retailer suffering from a lack of speed. Speed to market, that is. If you skim recent headlines, this is what you’ll…

What if retailers could increase their full-margin sales by making informed, customer-centric predictions about what shoppers are likely to buy in the coming months? It's being done already by forward-looking retailers and brands that have invested in transforming how they forecast retail demand. It all starts with understanding why, not what they’re buying. Due to unpredictable…

Returns are on the rise. A combination of rising prices and tighter budgets means that shoppers are returning items more often than they have in some time. It’s a swing of the pendulum as online shopping soared to meteoric heights during the pandemic, with e-commerce seeing a 31 percent increase in growth from 2019 to…

Retail was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic on a foundational level. Unable to open doors to the public and forced to quickly scale up (or even create from scratch) an online business model, the industry had to adapt fast to preserve revenue streams. Now, nearly two years later, the retail landscape has evolved significantly as…

In e-commerce, speed and order accuracy are the key drivers of customer satisfaction. A customer who expects diapers to be delivered in half an hour may abandon a retailer forever after one messy delay or mistake. Brick-and-mortar retailers that are building out their e-commerce operations are feeling pressure on many fronts. Q-commerce companies, which promise 15-…

Now is the time for brands to gear up for Amazon Prime Day 2022. While the dates have yet to be announced, preparations are well under way for the massive online shopping event. In 2021, consumers purchased $11.2 billion worth of goods on Amazon.com during Prime Day, up 7.7 percent from $10.4 billion in 2020.…

Managing inventory well is one of the most important ways to ensure the success of your business. With supply chain disruptions happening across every industry due to the pandemic, effective inventory management is more important than ever. Purchase orders are among the most powerful tools for mastering inventory management, tracking inventory, and maintaining strong retailer-vendor relationships. A purchase order is a legally binding document that outlines…

Target warned investors Tuesday that its profits will take a short-term hit as it marks down unwanted items, cancels orders, and takes aggressive steps to get rid of extra inventory, reports CNBC. The retailer slashed its profit margin expectations for the fiscal second quarter from around 5 percent to around 2 percent to account for a…