Gain From the (Supply) Chain! Why It’s Vital to Have a Retail Supply Chain System You Can Count On

There’s many pressures on retail, but we don’t believe that commerce has to be complex. Implementing a solution such as a retail supply chain system allows your brand to work smarter, not harder.

What is Retail Supply Chain Management?

Essentially, good retail supply chain management is about delivering your products to customers as quickly as you can whilst ensuring that you can increase your bottom line. Using a supply chain management system gives your brand a competitive advantage, so that you can increase sales whilst your customers can happily receive the products they want. Win, win!

We’ve been supporting retailers for decades, so we developed our retail supply chain system, Merret Pro, to support the needs of retailers. Whilst we don’t like to brag, Merret Pro is used at many retail brands from Morrisons’ Nutmeg to Harvey Nichols, to name just a few.

Meet Our Retail Supply Chain System: Merret Pro

During COVID-19, retail stores have seen many challenges but one of the biggest has to have been changes in store footfall (whether that was no footfall during lockdown or reduced footfall since non-essential retail re-opening). The latest ONS figures reported that online spending accounted for 31.8% of sales, in contrast to 20% in February 2020. With more customers shopping online than ever before, it seems silly to have limited “online stock” but a store estate full of items that are selling out on your website.

A retail supply chain system, like Merret Pro, means that your stock availability is fully maximised so that you can get the right stock to the right place at the right time – which also means making the most of full price sales across multiple selling channels. Merret Pro enables you to shop the brand, not just the channel.

Retail Supply Chain Customer Case Study: Slater Menswear

We recently welcomed Slater Menswear to the Merret Pro family. As the leading name in men’s suits and formal hire, Slater have an impressive stock inventory of all different colours and sizes to meet the needs of their market. Alongside their formal hire stock, they also have their own formalwear and casualwear brands, with stock being supplied to both their website and to their 26 stores nationwide. Because of their many different selling channels, it’s crucial that Slater have a single view of their stock, so that they’re able to make the most of their stock no matter where their customer is buying from.

Choosing to on-board Merret Pro, Slater Menswear will now benefit from a whole range of operational efficiencies including this real-time, single view of all their stock that is available in both their warehouse and their stores, which will enable a far more efficient fulfilment of customer orders through multiple channels.

Thomas Clay, IT Manager at Slater Menswear, said: “At Slater Menswear, we pride ourselves on the outstanding service that we offer our customers. Due to its full visibility of real-time stock, Merret Pro will offer the best solution for product availability, providing us with the opportunity to continue providing an excellent retail experience to our loyal customers. I am excited to share what having a modern, up-to-date and powerful stock system like Merret Pro can do to our already very successful business.”

Want to hear how Merret Pro can bring cost efficiencies to your business too? Click here to get in touch.