With the dizzying array of shopping choices and channels, finding products is as easy as clicking a button. But if your customers don’t find the products they want, they’ll move on quicker than you can type “Amazon.”
To avoid losing a sale, not to mention a customer, retailers must make smart merchandising decisions to connect customers with the products they want over the channels they prefer, before they look elsewhere. Still, the questions of what to stock, how much to stock, and which promotions to offer continue to grow more complex as retailers integrate online and offline channels. By accessing and analyzing real-time inventory data, retailers can gain a competitive advantage and improve in-store merchandising and sales like never before.
So how can you get real-time inventory data? Leading retailers are turning to cloud-based platforms, like Kibo, to enable streamlined, up-to-date inventory visibility and insights. Unlike on-premise platforms, our flexible APIs enable easy and cost-effective implementation to get you up and running at the speed of market.
Here are five ways real-time inventory can help you improve in-store merchandising:
- Out-of-stock no more. With real-time inventory visibility, you can spend less time worrying about stock-out scenarios, and more time focusing on your customers. Why? Because your inventory is always accurate and up-to-date across all channels. And if a consumer is unable to purchase a desired item online, you can easily direct them to the nearest local store that has the item in stock.
- Improve product pricing. By comparing real-time product search results to sales results, you can evaluate the viability of your current pricing model. If customers are searching for a particular product in droves, yet conversion rates are low, you’ll know it’s time to revisit your product pricing strategy.
- Always trending. Stop playing stocking guessing games! Gain a better understanding of customer shopping habits by analyzing what products are selling best, when and where.
- Promote this! Improve ROI on targeted promotions by viewing real-time information on product searches. With data-supported insights, retailers can offer geo-targeted deals tailored to customer segments, including mobile and social promotions.
- Happy customers, healthy revenue. Satisfied customers go hand-in-hand with a successful retail business. Customers today have high expectations and demand seamless, simple shopping experiences. With inventory visibility, shoppers can quickly find the products they want in the locations they prefer. And that means you win the sale.
When all is said and done, inventory visibility opens the door for you to better purchasing, pricing and promotion decisions, resulting in improved profitability.
Imagine a retail space where the answers to all your inventory and merchandising questions are right at your fingertips. Kibo gives you the tools to provide your customers with a streamlined omni-channel shopping experience along with the actionable insights you need to optimize in-store merchandising, inventory and stocking.
Check out our long list of our Omnichannel Resources to learn how you can partner with Kibo to drive more more traffic and sales across online and offline channels.
