Unlocking Hidden Potential: Three Aptos Merchandising Capabilities Every Retailer Should Leverage
The retail supply chain is navigating a period of intense volatility. Dynamic trade policies. Changing sourcing decisions. Geopolitical tensions. Persistent labor shortages. Extreme weather events. Unpredictable demand.
Any one of these factors is enough to create a blip in the rhythm of supply chains. All these factors – all at once – are forcing retailers to dramatically rethink how they acquire and manage their inventory.
We’re working closely with our retail clients as they navigate a retail landscape that demands agility and precision in merchandising. Over a hundred of the world’s top retailers are leveraging Aptos’ Merchandising solution, a software application that helps retailers better manage merchandise in every corner of their enterprise to maximize process efficiencies and delight customers.
During recent software health checks and consulting projects with some of our Merchandising customers, we’ve heard that many retailers have had an above-average number of personnel changes on their Merchandising teams in recent years, which is not surprising, given that employee turnover reached record highs following the pandemic.
Prior to joining Aptos, I worked at several large retailers, and I saw firsthand that when turnover goes up, institutional knowledge goes down. This can lead to a reliance on manual processes or an underutilization of powerful tools already at their fingertips.
To address this, I’ve been partnering with our Merchandising customers to help them unlock the full potential of their application, including the Allocation, Forecasting, and Replenishment (AF&R) module. In my conversations with our Merchandising customers, here are three critical areas in AF&R that I encourage them to leverage more fully, if they are not doing so already.
1. Optimize Inventory Placement with Dynamic Size Scales
The Business Problem: Are certain stores consistently running out of popular sizes while others are stuck with excess? Manually adjusting inventory at the size level across hundreds or thousands of SKUs is virtually impossible for even the most skilled allocator. This leads to lost sales, unnecessary markdowns, costly inventory transfers, and less time available to spend on other value-driving activities.
The Solution: Dynamic Size Scales automatically identify and adapt to unique selling patterns at the store-size level. This means that even if two stores receive the same total quantity of an item, the system intelligently distributes sizes based on each store’s actual historical sales data. For example, a store might receive more products in smaller sizes if that’s what their customers consistently buy. By trusting the system to capture these nuances, you ensure the right product in the right size goes to the right store, minimizing lost sales, reducing markdowns, and cutting down on costly inventory transfers. This can also be fully automated for replenishment, ensuring continuous optimal stock levels with minimal manual intervention.
2. Tailor Your Allocations with User Defined Calculations
The Business Problem: Do you find yourself needing to create highly specific allocation rules that don’t quite fit the standard methods offered in our Merchandising system today? Or perhaps your team is spending valuable time manually manipulating data outside the system to achieve desired allocations? The reality is that standard allocation methods, while robust, can’t cover every unique business scenario.
The Solution: User Defined Calculations empower you to build your own custom allocation methods directly within the application. This functionality provides the flexibility to define the specific fields, user inputs, and calculations needed to build allocation methods that meet your evolving business needs. The beauty of this functionality is its intuitive, low-code approach, allowing your team to create custom solutions without needing extensive professional services engagement. This adaptability is crucial for staying agile in a dynamic retail environment and significantly reduces the total cost of ownership by empowering your internal teams.
3. Embrace Automation with Dynamic Replenishment and Forecasting
The Business Problem: Many retailers still rely on static min/max replenishment settings or manually adjust inventory based on gut feeling rather than leveraging actual selling data. This often leads to missed opportunities, inefficient inventory management, and an inability to scale effectively. Moreover, forecasting, while crucial, can seem daunting if your team lacks specialized expertise, leading to underutilization of existing capabilities.
The Solution: Dynamic Replenishment and Forecasting shifts from static, manually manipulated parameters to a forward-looking approach driven by actual store location SKU selling data and seasonality. The system reviews and assesses each store’s specific needs based on real performance and history, providing a level of precision impossible to achieve manually. By embracing these automation features, you can significantly reduce the manual effort involved in managing hundreds of thousands of store-SKU relationships, allowing your team to focus on higher-level strategic initiatives. It’s about letting the system do the heavy lifting, ensuring your inventory is consistently aligned with real-time demand.
By reevaluating how you’re using your Merchandising solution and actively seeking opportunities to leverage these AF&R capabilities, you can drive greater efficiency, reduce costs, and ultimately deliver a better experience for your customers.
If you’d like to learn more about Aptos’ Merchandising solution or you have any questions related to AF&R, please reach out to me on LinkedIn.
