The issue of inventory in retail has always been a point of confusion, headaches and inefficiency. One way retailers are looking to decrease out of stock issues is by turning to mobile apps.
While the rate of misinformation between retailers and vendors has decreased dramatically in the last seven years (from 35 percent to 10 percent), there is still plenty of room for improvement.
The “real time” aspect of mobile technology and the ability for in-store personnel to quickly and easily gauge perpetual inventory is looking like a more accurate solution to dated systems, which could allow for less misinformation and fewer costly inventory mistakes. The access to instantaneous information would also sometimes be available to workers in the field, adding to that increased accuracy.
As widely discussed in the retail world already, personnel aren’t the only ones that could be using mobile apps.
Customer-focused apps are already on the market, with retailers looking for ones that provide assistance to their in-store experience, keeping the customer engaged with the brand instead of encouraging them to shop around for better prices at the store down the street.
Do you think the instantaneous ability of mobile apps will help decrease misinformation between retailers and vendors even more or just provide more confusion?
Source: TMCnet, March 2011
