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Driving Efficiency and Sales Growth: How Akuret Helped a Grocery Chain Improve Inventory Management
In today’s fast-paced retail environment, operational efficiency and inventory management are critical for maintaining customer satisfaction and maximizing profits. One grocery store chain was facing significant challenges in these areas—specifically, the time and effort spent managing product availability, tracking down stock issues, and ensuring a smooth shopping experience for its customers.
To overcome these obstacles, the grocery chain turned to Akuret, seeking a data-driven solution to streamline their operations. Here’s how Akuret helped this grocery chain transform its processes, save time, and increase revenue.
The Challenge: Time-Consuming Availability Management
Every week, store associates were dedicating countless hours walking through the aisles, scanning empty shelves, and trying to pinpoint the causes of stock shortages. Even though their POS system was aware that certain shelves were empty, there was no digital tracking mechanism to trace the root causes or speed up restocking. This process not only consumed valuable employee time but also led to missed opportunities for customer purchases
The grocery chain knew they needed a more efficient, data-driven approach to manage these operational issues. They wanted a system that could alert associates to problems in real-time and help track and resolve issues without the manual labor of constantly surveying store shelves.
The Solution: Leveraging Data with the Akuret App
To solve this issue, the grocery chain partnered with Akuret to implement a smarter, more automated approach to inventory management.
Here’s how it worked:
Daily Data Integration:
The grocery chain supplied Akuret with daily transaction data, enabling the system to identify product availability issues.
Store-Level Alerts:
Akuret’s app was installed on handheld devices used by store associates. Twice a week, the app would send alerts directly to these devices, flagging specific inventory issues, such as empty shelves or misplaced products.
Efficiency Gains:
By receiving and acting on these alerts, store associates spent just 60 minutes per week addressing issues, drastically reducing the time spent on manual shelf scanning.
The Results: Tangible Improvements in Efficiency and Sales
Thanks to the Akuret app, the grocery chain saw immediate benefits, including:
Increased Sales: :
By ensuring that shelves remained stocked and products were readily available, the chain experienced a 0.5% increase in total revenue.
Time Saved:
Store associates saved 4 hours per week on average, allowing them to focus on higher-value tasks like customer service and restocking.
