PHILADELPHIA — Sept. 18, 2023 — invent.ai, an award-winning global retail planning solutions provider, is proud to congratulate Erica Evans, Vice President of Merchandise Planning, Replenishment, Allocation, Pricing, Business Intelligence and Customer Data at GNC, for her 2023 Women in Supply Chain award win. Presented by Food Logistics and Supply & Demand Chain Executive magazines, the annual award honors female supply chain leaders and executives whose accomplishments and mentorship set a foundation for women at all levels of a company’s supply chain network. Erica was selected for leading GNC in solving supply chain challenges, optimizing processes, and leveraging technology like invent.ai's AI-driven inventory planning solutions to achieve business goals.
In her role at GNC, Erica primarily focuses on inventory planning, inventory management, store and DC replenishment, and merchandise planning and analysis. Over the last five years, Erica has spearheaded many successful supply chain transformation initiatives that have helped GNC overcome internal challenges, navigate external disruptions, and seize optimization opportunities. These initiatives include:
- Creating new order fulfillment methods and optimizing inventory flow during COVID-19
- Diversifying GNC’s supplier base and optimizing inbound inventory
- Protecting vendor relationships during times of uncertainty
- Securing key wholesale partnerships with major retailers
- Launching localization efforts to tailor product assortments to customer demographics
- Supporting store openings with new allocation processes
Across her efforts, Erica embraces innovative technology solutions to support GNC and its supply chain teams. In one notable example, Erica helped GNC implement and leverage AI-powered retail profit optimization solutions for inventory management provided by invent.ai. These AI systems help GNC’s team generate accurate demand forecasts with a decision platform to make intelligent decisions about inventory planning, store replenishment, and DC replenishment. Erica was adamant about rapid delivery while quantifying tangible profit for the business. As a result, with invent.ai's AI-powered inventory optimization solutions, GNC was able to improve inventory decisioning and increase sales capture by 150 basis points while reducing inventory.
Gurhan Kok, CEO and founder of invent.ai, said, “Congratulations to Erica on this well-deserved honor! Erica was awarded for her dedication and commitment to supply chain innovation, and we’re proud to be a part of her initiatives at GNC. Her work is an excellent example of what’s possible when you combine the best supply chain talent with the best inventory optimization technologies. With Erica leading the way, GNC is well positioned to achieve success and delight customers for years to come.”
“Women have been making a significant impact in supply chain management, contributing to the growth and innovation of the supply chain industry. As more women join the supply chain workforce, they bring diverse perspectives that can help address complex supply chain problems and improve global supply chain operations. We must empower, recognize, and elevate these achievements through initiatives like the Women in Supply Chain Award, as seen through the overwhelming response. Congratulations to all the winners, those who nominated others, and the bravery of those who nominated themselves,” added Sarah Barnes-Humphrey, founder of the Let’s Talk Supply Chain podcast and Blended Pledge project, both exclusive sponsors of the Women in Supply Chain award.
To see the complete list of 2023 Women in Supply Chain award recipients, visit https://foodl.me/fdx1zi.
About invent.ai
Invent.ai is a pioneering AI-Decisioning Platform that gives retailers superpowers to make the best planning and operational decisions to grow sales, revenue and margin dollars. Delivering fast, measurable value through its technology solutions, invent.ai brings together retail planning data, predicts outcomes and optimizes inventory, pricing and merchandising.
Recognized as a Representative Vendor in 2024 Gartner® Market Guide for Retail Forecasting, Allocation and Replenishment Solutions and for Retail Unified Price, Promotion and Markdown Optimization Applications - Short Life Cycle, awarded the 2024 RetailTech Breakthrough Awards’ Customer Experience Award, SupplyChainBrain’s 2024 Great Supply Chain Partner and Supply & Demand Chain Executive’s 2024 Top Supply Chain Projects award.