Jan 8, 2019   SOURCE: BusinessWire

New IRI Capability Offers Retailers Solution to Recapture Millions of Dollars in Lost Sales by Optimizing On-Shelf Availability

As brick-and-mortar retailers strive for growth in a highly competitive landscape, having shelves stocked appropriately is critical. The complex retail supply chain ecosystem, steep inventory costs and in-store execution challenges often make it difficult for retailers to forecast, order and shelve products efficiently. As a result, out-of-stock situations cost retailers in the U.S. approximately $47.4 billion each year. The latest IRI® Point of View, “On-Shelf Availability: Fueling Profitability, Customer Loyalty and Topline Sales Growth,” demonstrates how enhanced on-shelf availability can improve both customer experience and sales growth. The report also introduces a groundbreaking new solution to on-shelf availability challenges that leverages advanced technology to capture tens of millions of dollars in incremental sales annually.

“A focus on on-shelf availability is a way to ensure that customers are satisfied and that retailers capture every potential dollar from each shopper, on every shopping occasion. Retailers have often tried to avoid out-of-stock challenges by investing in inventory, but empty shelves are often the result of poor in-store execution, rather than a lack of product,” said Brad Shelton, president of Retail Collaboration Gateway solutions for IRI. “At the moment of purchase, the availability that truly matters is availability on the shelf — not the stockroom.”

In the past, the disconnect between stockroom and shelf, along with other on-shelf availability challenges, was addressed through extensive and time-consuming manual shelf audits. Today’s retailers are looking for more efficient processes to ensure they can consistently deliver the instant gratification in-store shoppers seek.

The IRI On-Shelf Availability Optimizer™ solution was developed to address in-store execution problems that lead to out-of-stock situations. Powered by artificial intelligence and machine-learning technology, the solution integrates the discordant, disparate data sets that track products along the supply chain and in stores, creates near-real-time insights, and alerts in-store employees of out-of-stock situations in near-real time, often before they impact shoppers.

In a case study with a major grocery retailer, the IRI On-Shelf Availability Optimizer solution alerted in-store employees to an average of 6,000 inventory defects per day across 700-plus stores. Each alert allowed the retailer to recapture an average of $68 in sales, translating to tens of millions in just a few months.

“Retailers that can capitalize on the vast technological and data science advances to drive sales growth will be winners in a competitive marketplace where every dollar counts,” said Prakash Tilwani, executive vice president of supply chain and media solutions at IRI. “The On-Shelf Availability Optimizer solution ensures that at the critical point of purchase, retailers are in position to provide excellent customer service, build loyalty and capture value.”

About the Report

“On-Shelf Availability: Fueling Profitability, Customer Loyalty and Topline Sales Growth” is a free report available from IRI. To download the report, visit https://www.iriworldwide.com/en-US/Insights/Publications/Solve-Out-of-Stocks.

About the IRI Partner Ecosystem

IRI fundamentally believes that delivering differentiated growth for clients requires deep, highly integrated partnering with a variety of best-of-breed companies. As such, IRI works closely with a broad range of industry leaders across multiple industries and sectors to create innovative joint solutions, services and access to capabilities to help its clients more effectively collaborate and compete in their various markets and exceed their growth objectives. IRI is committed to its partnership philosophy and continues to actively enhance its open ecosystem of partners through alliances, joint ventures, acquisitions and affiliations. The IRI Partner Ecosystem includes such leading companies as 84.51°, Adobe, The Boston Consulting Group, Clavis Insights, comScore, Data Plus Math, Edison, Experian, GfK, Gigwalk, Google, Ipsos, Jumpshot, Mastercard Advisors, MaxPoint, Omnicom, One Click Retail, Oracle, Pinterest, Research Now/SSI, Simulmedia, SPINS, Univision, Viant and others.

About IRI

IRI is a leading provider of big data, predictive analytics and forward-looking insights that help CPG, OTC health care organizations, retailers, financial services and media companies grow their businesses. A confluence of major external events — a change in consumer buying habits, big data coming into its own, advanced analytics and personalized consumer activation — is leading to a seismic shift in drivers of success in all industries. With the largest repository of purchase, media, social, causal and loyalty data, all integrated on an on-demand, cloud-based technology platform, IRI is empowering the personalization revolution, helping to guide its more than 5,000 clients around the world in their quests to remain relentlessly relevant, capture market share, connect with consumers, collaborate with key constituents and deliver market-leading growth. For more information, visit www.iriworldwide.com.