Retailers advised to improve communication along their supply chains in order to avoid issues stemming from overstocked or understocked items, says Aberdeen Group; nearly a third of retailers found to have stock-out rates exceeding 7%
Allison Oesterle
LOS ANGELES
,
January 3, 2012
(Industry Intelligence)
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According to a report by Aberdeen Group Inc., retailers should improve communication along their supply chains in order to avoid issues stemming from over- or under- stocked items, Internet Retailer reported on Dec. 30.
Specifically, the report advised that retailers should increase the transparency of their supply chains and increase the responsiveness of each link within their supply chains.
The report found that approximately 30% of retailers have an average stock-out rate, a ratio that measures the total value of items that are out of stock against the total revenue, that exceeds 7%, and 69% of retailers reported that they do not have systems that allow them to monitor suppliers’ inventory levels.
Half of the 65 multichannel and store retailers surveyed by Aberdeen in November reported that they did not have access to real-time order or inventory data.
Retailers reported that their top priority is discovering a better method to forecast demand. 55% of multichannel retailers and 41% of store retailers additionally reported that they were trying to establish a system that would allow them to more accurately keep track of product-level and store inventories.
The primary source of this article is Internet Retailer, Chicago, Illinois, on Dec. 30, 2011.
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