In previous articles we have talked about the importance of fresh products in our supermarkets and how the slightest detail of freshness or poor presentation can change the preference of our customers, making them leave to the competition. Well, if the key is in fresh products, no less important is the supply, make sure to have 100% of all our assortment available in the aisles of the supermarket.
Supply management in stores is emerging as the combination of technology and best business practices around the world.
Hispanic retailers that have improved their internal operations are now working to achieve greater savings and benefits by also improving the processes and exchanges of information that occur between the different departments of each supermarket chain.
Supply process includes the entire operation that results in 100% availability of the product on the store shelves during all hours of service, without causing shortages or excesses of assortments and requires the following steps:
- Previous analysis
- Processing of orders
- Inventory control
- Transportation, storage and customer service
- Information systems required to monitor all these activities
The best supply management programs have similar characteristics. They have a great focus on customer demand. In this sense, it is no longer the supplier who imposes his interest on both the quantities of purchases and the assortment that we must have on the shelves.
The bad practices of sales compliance for our suppliers, getting rebates for the store, are already part of the history of the old retail.
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It was fully demonstrated that it was much more the amount of money we lost buying products and then have them stored for weeks or months and had little turnover.
The modern supply also implies having in our catalog only those products that our customers require.
Although they are well known in other sectors such as the industrial sector and have been used for decades, modern retail is already resorting to the following supply techniques:
- Just in Time (JIT)
- Quick Response (QR)
- Efficient Consumer Response (ECR)
- Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI)
First, the most successful retailers of the moment execute their operations in the supply chain with absolute priority as the main axis of all activity.
The Department of Supply is treated as a kind of heart that pumps all the arteries, in this case the whole company.
Second, they continuously seek tangible results, with a focus on sales growth, asset utilization and cost reduction.
Currently, one of the main objectives that retailers seek the most is to achieve the highest efficiency at the lowest cost, without abandoning quality standards and customer service.
How do we Create Value Through the Supply Department?
- Let’s make customer’s life easier by improving the logistics service from our central warehouses or from the store supplier, reducing waiting times and increasing our service and quality. Virtually our customers should not know what the word “missing” means on our shelves and services.
- Let us make our own the customer’s problems, which will result in a shorter response time to the problem and will make us fulfill the promises made.
- Getting more options to the client, we can do this if we know well the customer wishes and we limit ourselves to these desires, which will allow us to eliminate costly and useless options.
Having an advantage in the market is having a relative profitability superior to our competition, which has to be sustainable over time and this is achieved through the creation of value.
With all these tools on supply and if we also have fresh products of the highest quality available to our customers, I assure you that each day your stores will have more loyalty and more trustworthy generation. As a result, we will have a considerable increase in productivity and sales.