Data Drives Action. Action drives on shelf availability.

Current consumer demand is placing stress on the grocery supply chain. The images that are being shown across social media and the news channels are a constant reminder of what is happening in store.  The government and supermarkets are making pleas to shoppers to stop stockpiling. Whilst I do think this purchasing behaviour is likely to be relatively short-term, it is resulting in an increased pressure on grocery supply chains.

Can this be done more effectively? 

In a week where some grocery suppliers have seen 2 or 3 times uplift in sales, it is imperative to keep track of where their stocks are in the supply-chain, and make sure they are prioritising the right depots. This means grocery suppliers having access to their daily trading data. 

We are talking about the data that retailers provide to grocery suppliers. Not just epos data, but also supply chain data. Combining these data sources together is powerful. It helps you drive on-shelf availability because you can:

• Manage depot store levels daily
• Allocate limited stock by prioritising deliveries to where it is needed most
• Have shared conversations with your retailer counterparts and make collaborative decisions around orders

Explore Data Daily

This type of information is typically reviewed weekly, bi-weekly or evenly monthly. That is useful to see what has happened, but it doesn’t impact change for tomorrow. Looking at data on a daily basis, allows you to make smart decisions and prevent problems from emerging.

Suppliers need to make use of the data that is available on a daily basis. This enables them to make sure they are proactively ensuring the right product is getting through to the right depot to get through to the customer.

Vasts amount of Data

We aren’t suggesting that every day you should spend hours and hours downloading, manipulating and formatting data. There isn’t time to do that manually. 

The business value comes from being able to gather true insights from data. These insights allow action to be taken which improves business performance. 

SKUtrak automates the daily collection of data on your behalf and presents the data using interactive visual analytics. This allows users to discover and explore what is really happening. By understanding what is happening, suppliers can then make interventions into their supply chain to improve on-shelf availability. 

To see how suppliers are using SKUtrak to make complex decisions with confidence, watch the Thatchers case study.

If you liked this then take a look at our other blog 'Getting your availability right'.