Walking the inventory tight rope
Alix’s consumer sentiment report revealed a host of other findings for retailers to keep in mind as they enter the ever important holiday shopping season, including the No. 1 factor that would drive shoppers to a competitor. The majority of consumers surveyed, or 66% of respondents, said they’ll shop at a different retailer if the product they’re looking for isn’t in stock.
‘Right product, right place, right time’ echoes in every retail conference room, yet as retailers have expanded online assortments and marketplaces to attract new customers and traffic, it’s become more challenging to avoid frustrating shoppers when they can’t find their size or their desired item in-store, the report said.
For example, only 9% of a retailer’s online assortment on average is available in stores, based on a sample set of 30 retailers, according to the report.
It’s clear why consumers are frustrated. Macys.com has 24,000 women’s tops available online, but for customers who step foot in their Herald Square flagship in New York City, there are only 2,500 women’s tops available to pick up, the report said. For Gap.com, 158 tops and tees are available in women’s online, but only 50 are available for pick-up in the Herald Square location.
As retailers look to stand out and attract attention online, they’ve started offering far broader digital assortments. But as consumers return to stores, they’re expecting to see those same products on the shelf.
It would be too expensive and unrealistic to replicate digital inventories in stores, so retailers need to be able to forecast which inventory to put where so consumers can find what they’re looking for in stores.
This is a perfect kind of recipe for where AI should come in, said Lapinsky. They’ve got to get really smart about where the customer is going and what they’re looking for, and they do that with better analytics, potentially AI models, that are predicting what the customer wants. And then they’ve got to have that same view transition to stores, even by store location, store cluster, store region, where they have a good view of what that consumer is likely looking for.