Addressing Out-Of-Stock Issues With Smart Shelf Digital In-Store

Like much of the retail industry, many of our brand and retailer partners are struggling with supply chain shortages, leaving out-of-stocks at the shelf and even losing facings on the shelf as the products are replaced with items in-stock.  Sometimes, even when the original product is replenished, it’s not put back on the shelf because the label has been replaced.  The new product gets put back in the shelf, even though the original product is back in stock.  This is called being voided.  Out-of-stocks and voids lead to frustrations from the brand and the shopper, and ultimately in sub-optimal sales for the retailer. 

Increasingly, our partners are using Perch by Raydiant interactive digital shelf platform to help address out-of-stocks by adapting their digital content to both detect and respond to out-of-stocks.  Interestingly, Perch by Raydiant can often detect out-of-the-stocks by drops to engagement at the shelf.  Our real-time feeds can augment supply chain intelligence with shelf intelligence - truly smart shelves.    

If the product has been replaced, Perch by Raydiant messages the original product as an alternative option and provides options for omnichannel purchasing.  In fact, the majority of our digital activations include QR codes, loyalty discounts and other omnichannel purchasing options to help convert in-store customers into omnichannel shopping behaviors.

We have partners who use Perch by Raydiant to offer omnichannel options that can be purchased online, via email or mobile.  kate spade new york used Perch by Raydiant for its Make It Mine line of personalizable hand bags, including options that weren’t in store.

ncreasingly, we are seeing more advanced real-time computer vision to detect inventories at the shelf.   Companies such as Spacee, Trax, Coolr Group and others are taking constant photos of the shelf and analyzing inventories to provide predictive analytics for order management and replenishment.  For example, CoolR Group just completed a case study where an ice cream brand increased sales 60%  while reducing replenishment trips by 20% by having real-time views of inventory in coolers, interpreted by computer vision that then automated replenishment orders.  If you those percentages didn’t stop you in your tracks, read that last sentence again.

We are entering a new era of real-time intelligence that should reduce out-of-stocks and voids substantially.  But in operating climates such as these, they may be more prevalent than we would like.  Increasingly, we will see real-time inventory feeds inform the digital at the shelf.  We will ensure that products promoted are the ones in-stock.  AWM Smartshelf is using inventory to change dynamic prices to affect sell through and Wasteless is doing the same with food nearing the expiration date.  

This is the future of retail.  Dynamic. Personalized. Intelligent. Providing the right message at the right time at the shelf. Creating a valuable experience for the shopper. The future of retail is so bright.