Resources

The strategic importance of walking a store with your retail merchant has been growing dramatically in the last several months.  Retailers like Home Depot and Wal-Mart are putting a strong emphasis on merchants spending more time in stores, so they can see firsthand the product presentation and get the pulse of what is happening at... Read more »

Forecasting is part mathematics and part art, and due to this,  it can be extremely complex, but even simple forecasting can be very valuable.  Many vendors get too tied in a knot over the complexity of item and store level forecasting and then nothing gets done.  We encourage all vendors to start with the basics... Read more »

September 2 articles in the Wall Street Journal and the Chicago Tribune warn of potentially mild holiday buying driving inventory trends in major retailers across the country.  The chief concern cited in both: fear of too much inventory when the season ends and the resulting “frantic price slashing” (Tribune) and “discounting bloodbath” (WSJ). The Journal article cites... Read more »

Back in 2011, Lowe’s announced Q2 financial results with anemic growth and flat same store sales.   To improve performance, CEO Robert Niblock and EVP merchandising Bob Gfeller are implementing Integrating Planning and Execution (IPE), which places an emphasis on putting the right product in the right store at the right quantity. This new focus got... Read more »

Many vendors have started to using EDI 852 data or retailer portal data for sales and retail merchandising, but so far, only a few are using EDI 852 data for forecasting of demand.  But the reality is, vendor inventory at stores is often too low to meet demand and the rates of out of stocks... Read more »

Wal-Mart’s Retail Link* web site is a rich tool, providing vendors with a well of data for analyzing sales and inventory. The problem for many vendors is that Retail Link provides data, but storing the data, calculating metrics and providing users with analytics and reports can be a time consuming chore. Just this week I... Read more »

Home Depot vendors gain a critical advantage using Accelerated Analytics for point of sale data analysis. Home Depot vendors have the opportunity to use EDI 852 data to analyze their business and be very proactive in working with their merchants. A standard Home Depot EDI 852 document contains units sold, units on hand and dollars... Read more »

How to Calculate Weeks of Supply A metric fundamental to managing the retail supply chain is weeks of supply (WOS). Weeks of supply tells the inventory manager how long the current on hand will last based on current sales demand.  By keeping your eye on weeks of supply, you can avoid inventory stock outs and... Read more »

What is EDI 852?   EDI 852 is a standard data format used to transmit product activity data. Files are typically sent daily or weekly and will include sales activity by product, and for some retailers, inventory on-hand.  Activity is typically summarized at a distribution center level, unless store level data is deliberately selected. Some... Read more »