By Bob Bahramipour, Gigwalk
Imagine you are a parent during back-to-school season. You act early and get everything on the list with the exception of one last item: A backpack. Not just any backpack, but the very specific one your child has been dreaming of. You enter the last store on your list and are told they carry the coveted backpack. You hit the shelves only to find it’s out of stock. You have been shopping all week and you’ve had it. So you reach over, pick up the competitors backpack, turn to your child and say, “sorry kid.”
As a brand, you cringe — you have now been passed up for another product on the shelf. Unfortunately, this scenario is all too common and it’s precisely these inefficiencies in retail execution that cost brands and retailers billions each year — for example, $800 billion is lost globally to out-of-stocks alone.
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Shocking, I know — but there’s hope.
While you can’t be at every store at once, you can use data and on-the-ground resources to ensure your goods are in stock in the right place and being marketed accordingly. Here are a few things you can do to increase operational efficiency.
Improve Communication Through All Channels
Planning and transparency are critical to supply chain management. As I mentioned above, inefficiencies between consumer brands and retailers can cost hundreds of billions of dollars, usually through avoidable issues like out-of-stocks, mis-shelved items and incorrect pricing. Bottom line: If a product is out of stock or is misrepresented in any way, you risk losing a sale. To avoid such issues, keep a close watch on all aspects of retail execution, starting with your supply chain.
Make sure you have a communication strategy that gives you maximum channel visibility. This could be achieved using online collaboration tools, an electronic to-do list, or doing something as simple as holding regular meetings or check-in calls. Having a process ensures you don’t get any chinks in the chain.
Collaborate Across All Teams
Once you have a robust communications system in place, use it to work closely and share observations with partners and third parties vital to your retail strategy. Once you start to see gaps and patterns, prioritize and dispatch fixes as a team.
The use of Big Data has vastly improved supply chain planning. Should you move forward with a cloud platform to communicate and collaborate across your teams, be sure to analyze the data such tools provide. This will allow you to address non-compliance before it is too late, discover in-store execution gaps, track fixes and close the loop with retailers, distributors and brokers. Once you can analyze your data, you can realize measurable gains in retail sales.
Hire Extra Help Or Independent Contractors
Sometimes all we need is a hand; other times we need several. As you begin to identify gaps in your system, be sure to hire extra help to keep your supply chain running smoothly. These breaks in efficiency might be a daily or seasonal issue, so learn what part of the chain could use some extra manpower and hire accordingly.
If you don’t have the resources to hire full-time staff, independent contractors are always a good option. A flexible workforce has great benefits and you can leverage it to suit your company’s needs. As mobile technology continues to redefine work, accessibility and collaboration, contracted workforces will become more and more prevalent, especially when it comes to focusing on specialized tasks.
Keep in mind however, that whether it’s your own team or independent contractors, all of your on-the ground-resources should be on the same technology platform. A centralized repository of data from the field safeguards you against data loss due to shifts in staffing and ensures you have a clear and complete analytical picture of your retail execution.
Act Now
As the saying goes, there’s no time like the present. The sooner you begin to get a firm grip on your supply chain, the quicker you will get to the root of your issues. This will allow you to close the loop with retailers, distributors and brokers to speed time to resolution. Through the creation of a communications infrastructure, collaboration across all teams, and the help you need, you can avoid every brand’s worst nightmare. Instead, you can rest easy knowing all is being executed correctly across various retail locations.
Bob Bahramipour is CEO at Gigwalk. He brings 15 years of digital media experience to his role as Gigwalk’s CEO. Prior to Gigwalk, Bob served as TRUSTe’s Vice President of advertising products, where he was responsible for launching the company’s vast online ad offering. Prior to TRUSTe, Bob built the largest video ad network on the Internet as VP of Business Development at YuMe. As a senior member of the Yahoo! Search team, he managed the search toolbar business and oversaw search distribution and partnerships. Bob is also an active investor, founder and advisor and currently serves on the board of advisors for StumbleUpon.
