Festive season drives a boost of business and stress altogether, challenging retailers at every step. Retail ERP Software can assist through this period brilliantly. Being able to stand strong and manage everything effectively, complying with the right strategies, getting retailers maximum profit, greater customer in-flow, and goodwill as a reward.
The festive season commences post-monsoon. In a span of 4 months, it mounts tremendous pressure on the retailers. Consecutive occurrences of multiple festivals drive different sets of consumers to buy assorted products or services. There is a high chance they would demand a mix-match of a few products. Additionally, the bid on a combination of regular consumption and gift factor adds to the complexity. It is always better to opt for Retail Management Software, as it ensures all the necessary tools required to get you through this frantic yet crucial period.
What Causes Supply Chain Hiccups?
The dazzling and cheerful festive season fetches various supply chain hiccups, turning jam-packed consumer seasons even tougher to deal with. Some major causes lead to supply chain hindrances:
- Running low on inventory
- Not having enough workforce
- Low storage space
- Last-mile fiction
Effectively Manage Supply Chain During the Festive Season
Working in silos can block ways to new opportunities, it delays operations and is prone to errors. Make sure you adopt Supply Chain Management Services like Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Retail Industry. You can make better replenishment strategies, plan loyalty programs, boost upsell and cross-selling, and much more.
Smartly Replenish Inventory
Replenishment strategies play a crucial part during the festive seasons. Poor replenishment can make this festive season a lot more stressful. Failing to find the desired product can lead your customers to approach your competition. You need technology that tracks your previous sales and patterns to help you make replenishment strategies. Working in silos will only make things worse. During high traffic, you need things to work faster and smoother, which is only possible with a Retail ERP Software such as Microsoft Dynamics 365.
Forecast Demand and Plan Wisely
It would be extremely helpful if you could successfully forecast customer demand during this festive season and stock just the right products. Apart from meeting daunting customer demands, it saves you from wastage and embarrassment. Analyze your previous sales, trends, and correlations to understand what people are demanding. Artificial Intelligence can provide tremendous assistance. You can easily pick an algorithm that matches your sales pattern the best and predict future sales demand on various levels. You can easily identify which product has the highest probability of being sold.
Read Customers and Offer Special Deals
During this heavy customer current, you are most likely to hook a good sale with smart strategies. Scan through their past purchase and spending patterns and identify which product they are most likely to purchase. Classify customers into different sets and plan offers for each set. Identify customer demands and encourage cross-selling. Offer discounts on the right products. Distribute coupons they can redeem later in the same or the other retail chains of yours.
Refill Stocks as Soon as You Can
All your efforts go in vain if your customers fail to find the desired products without delay. Going out-of-stock not only upsets your customers but causes a lot of embarrassment to you too. Track your inventory to stay updated as soon as you run out of stock. Inventory management tools such as the one Microsoft or LS retail offers can help you keep track of inventory and ensure prompt refilling. It is better to have your inventory data at hand, if you can get it on your mobile, even better. This way the updates reach faster to you.
Avoid Multiple Integrations
Having your data stored within different platforms can add to the complexities. Having to draw data from different software is more time-consuming and prone to errors. Similarly working in silos can do more harm than good during this opt for a unified solution like Microsoft Supply Chain Management. It is one of the Best ERP for Retail delivering a comprehensive supply chain suite – from Inventory Management to back office, everything packed within the same technological environment. Ensure free flow of communication throughout all the departments and deliver inventory requirements fast.
Final Words
Get ready for a business boom in this festive season. Ensure better Inventory Management and Replenishment with Retail ERP Software like Microsoft. Smartly replenish inventory, forecast demand and plan wisely, offer exclusive deals to your customers, and so on. Trident Information Systems is a Microsoft Gold Partner who has been serving various businesses for over two decades. For further information contact us.
