New Rules For Retail Automation

Barriers that in the not-too-distant past stood squarely in the way of retailers achieving fully automated store replenishment are gone. Now, moving to automated store ordering is not the dauntingly long, complex, and expensive journey that it was just five years ago.

Yet, many retailers are hampered by manual or semi-manual processes, simply because they’ve been ill-informed, mis-advised, or underfunded. In a recent RSR Supply Chain 2012 report, demand unpredictability in an uncertain economy and consumer demand for the lowest price were cited as retailers’ two biggest supply chain challenges. Still, only 58% of retail supply chain executives surveyed for the 2012 State Of The Retail Supply Chain report from RILA indicated that demand planning was fully deployed in their organizations.

In the new retail environment, marked by economic volatility and a transfer of merchandising power and choice from the retailer to the empowered consumer, manual or semi-manual merchandising systems are a competitive disaster.

This paper will debunk some of the myths and old ideas that cause retailers to avoid a move toward full forecasting and replenishment automation.