Welcome to our podcast. In this episode, we welcome our CEO, Gurhan Kok. Prof. Kok talks about retail planning predictions, omnichannel inventory optimization challenges and opportunities in the new world of retail.
2022 will be the year of omnichannel retail operations for retailers and AI applications to solve these new problems arising from omnichannel's complexity. Let me give you an example. Today, when a customer buys something online, they can get their orders delivered either from stores or distribution centers and return them anywhere they like. This makes the planning problem for retailers much more complex.
We know that omnichannel is here to stay. Most retailers have already invested in technical and infrastructure capabilities to serve the omnichannel customer. However, the challenge is to achieve excellent customer service or deliver superior customer experiences at a low cost and with better planning. So that's where AI comes into play.
One of the biggest challenges in retail inventory planning is demand forecasting. Given the complexity of omnichannel shopping behavior, another big challenge is determining where customers will buy items and where they will return them.
Customers can now order wherever they like and have plenty of options. Studies show that when customers cannot find an item at a store, up to 30% of them will order from either in-store applications or online, which puts a lot of pressure on retailers to stock the right items at the right time.
Today, retailers are responsible for and have the opportunity to fulfill this demand from other inventory sources. This is great, but it also challenges forecasting where demand will come from and where to position the inventory.
At invent.ai, we have customers from all over the world - from the US to Asia, the Middle East to Western Europe. We also hear the same things from them. Customers prefer omnichannel experiences, and retailers are ready to embrace this change. But we need new approaches to solve these problems. Traditional inventory optimization and forecasting solutions are insufficient to handle the complexity of omnichannel. Service-level-driven frameworks would push inventory at each location based on only that location’s demand and KPIs, but this is not enough to handle today's new omnichannel flows.
At invent.ai, we built a financially centered inventory optimization solution, unlike traditional solutions that focus on a single store or channel. Our solutions enable retailers to make better forecasts. We forecast omnichannel customer demand and plan inventory, anticipating the omni-customer flows that arise from stores or online across the supply chain's entire network.
And we deliver speed to value. We can roll out our AI-based forecasting and inventory optimization solutions within months. With rigorous A/B testing, we can prove the financial impact of our solutions and empower retailers to drive ROI within months with these AI applications. Explore the value of our AI-Decisioning Platform now.
We are very excited to work with retailers worldwide, helping them exceed their customers’ expectations, achieve higher margins and maximize their inventory performance.
Thanks, Gurhan, for joining us on the invent.ai Conversations podcast.
Planning is key to providing your customers with a good experience in the retail omnichannel world. To thrive as a retailer, you need to meet omnichannel customer demand profitably and make every inventory decision based on accurate and granular forecasts.
If you're interested in learning how AI-decisioning can help you accelerate your demand forecasting, allocation, replenishment and markdown capabilities using the merchandising financial planning model and AI-based advanced analytics, get in touch with a retail AI expert today.