Having accurate and timely in-store replenishment is crucial to ensure products are always available for customers to buy. Learn how the Detego platform optimises replenishment to make it easier and more efficient than ever, through the use of RFID and our mobile app.

Feature Focus – Replenishment: Maintaining product availability on the shop floor

What is the replenishment Feature?

Replenishment is a key feature of the Detego platform for retail stores. Via the mobile application, it guides staff through the process by determining what items need to be replenished on the sales floor, by comparing the salesfloor stock to either a ruleset or a planogram. Staff then go through the replenishment process moving items to the sales floor and confirming the transfer by swiping on the mobile app. This feature increases the OFA (on floor availability) of products in the store, and the application displays the exact OFA as a percentage.

Detego Replenishment

What problem does it solve?

Not finding the right product in the right size is a pain point all too common when shopping in stores. How many times have you not purchased something from a store simply because it wasn’t available, or you couldn’t find it in your size? Use of the Detego replenishment feature improves the availability of products in stores to over 95%. Product availability means having at least one of each product on the sales floor ready to purchase at all times – down to each specific size and colour. So, this means that customers looking for a particular product have at least a 95% chance of finding what they’re looking for, increasing both sales and customer satisfaction.

All stores will have processes for replenishment. It’s a core operational function for retailers that’s vital to maintain sales and keep stores running. Like many operational processes, however, there is great variance in how effective a stores replenishment might be. The two key factors to look at are the accuracy and the timeliness of replenishment. If stock information is incorrect, then any replenishment list created from it will be inaccurate, meaning items that aren’t available on the sales floor are not replenished and therefore can’t be sold. Similarly, if items aren’t replenished in a timely manner, then they will be unavailable to purchase even though they are sat in the backroom of the very same store!

How does replenishment work with the Detego platform?

The Detego platform delivers reliable and accurate replenishment through the use of the Detego mobile application and goes hand-in-hand with the application’s stocktake feature. With the 99% accurate view of both the backroom and the salesfloor achieved by performing daily stocktakes, the Detego replenishment feature compares the inventory on the sales floor to either the store’s planograms or the ruleset of inventory for the store. It then lists all the products that need to be replenished from the backroom on to the salesfloor – providing staff with a pick list. Stores may also have additional capabilities for replenishment depending on which features they have enabled.

Let’s explore the different options for replenishment with the Detego platform:

 ‘Standard Replenishment’: Replenishing after a full stocktake

After an associate completes a full RFID stocktake, the Detego platform has an accurate view of the items on the sales floor and in the backrooms. It then creates replenishment advice to ensure that products either out-of-stock or running low on the sales floor are moved there from the backroom to maintain a high On-Floor Availability (OFA).

  1. The Detego platform uses the results of the latest stocktake and creates a list of items that need replenishing from the backroom to the sales floor.
  2. Staff use a hand-held reader with the mobile app to see the replenishment advice.
  3. As staff move an item to the sales floor, they confirm the transfer by swiping on the mobile app.
Detego Replenishment Screenshots

Replenishing sold goods – ‘intraday replenishment’

With an integrated Point of Sales (POS) system, the Detego platform can update the replenishment advice whenever an item is sold. This ensures that the item is replaced on the sales floor if there is stock available in a backroom.

  1. When an item is sold, the Detego platform checks if that product is now out-of-stock or below the set thresholds.
  2. If this is true, a notification about the need to replenish the article is sent.
  3. Staff use a hand-held reader with the mobile app to see the replenishment advice.
  4. As staff move an item to the sales floor, they confirm the transfer by swiping on the mobile app.

Additional ‘smart’ replenishment features:

Smart Replenishment: AI Picklists

For larger stores, the Detego platform takes replenishment advice to the next level.  The system utilises the RFID tags on every product alongside machine learning algorithms to can determine the relative location of items in the backroom. It then presents the replenishment list to staff in a particular order, grouping items that are near each other in the backroom. The result is that staff picking items to be replenished save time and energy thanks to intelligent assistance from the mobile app.

Read more on Smart Replenishment with AI pick paths here

AI Pick Lists

AI planograms

So, replenishment work by comparing the stock that is on the sales floor to a list or ruleset that determines what should be there. But where do these lists or rules come from, and is there room for improvement? Typically, stores will either have a basic ruleset for all stock, or more complex planograms for specific items. While rulesets are simple, they are sometimes suboptimal, but planograms for individual products are hard to maintain. With the Detego platform, stores can run Artificial Intelligence planograms which constantly learn and adapt what the optimal quantities and size distribution is for every single product in the store

Read more on AI planograms here

AI Planograms - Merchandising

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