A recent Bossa Nova survey conducted by Wakefield Research concluded that despite major spending on inventory management, retailers are still experiencing catastrophic problems. The study excluded clothing and department stores and focused on retailers with $500m+ in annual revenue. Of those consulted:
- 73% state inaccurate inventory forecasting is a constant issue, meaning retailers end up with too much or too little supply to meet demand
- 66% say price inaccuracy is a consistent issue, which can lead to unbalanced P&L reports
- 65% report an inability to track inventory through the supply chain, resulting in potential sales lost
- 67% of retailers feel that analyzing inventory on store shelves is not an effective use of employees’ time
- Data shows that instead of spending time on sales-driven customer service and upselling, the majority of employee time is spent filling out-of-stock holes on shelves (56%) and pulling items forward on shelves (55%)
- 92% of retailers agree their stores spend more time identifying inventory issues than they do implementing solutions
- 81% feel their stores are only keeping pace or actually falling behind technologically, despite the availability of new technologies
- 76% of retailers say the introduction of robots in stores would improve employee productivity
- 74% said inventory accuracy would improve as a result, while increased profits would be another direct result of introducing in-store robots
- A majority (62%) of retailers feel that employees would embrace their new, automated colleagues
“Inventory accuracy is a never-ending challenge for retailers,” said Martin Hitch, Bossa Nova co-founder and chief business officer. The vast majority (87%) of corporate retail professionals report inaccurate inventories are to blame for more lost revenue than theft (13%), and 99% of survey respondents admit to some kind of constant inventory problem.
Source: Bossa Nova
