Import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to increase 3.2 percent in April compared with the same month last year, and year-over-year gains should continue through the summer, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report from the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates. “Retailers are continuing to watch rising gas prices, but job gains and other indicators show the economy is strengthening,” NRF Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold said. “This should improve consumer confidence and lead to increased spending, so retailers are cautiously building up their inventories.”
Inventory Management
Suppliers, retailers and solution providers seeking help on efficient identification, serialization and placement of electronic product code-enabled RFID tags should benefit from new guidelines that were announced by the board of the Voluntary Interindustry Commerce Solutions Association (VICS). The new guidelines, developed by the VICS Item Level RFID Initiative on RFID tag placement and performance, cover how the industry should cooperate to ensure reliable tag performance and data capture deployment.
Left unaddressed, nonproductive inventory can be a major financial drag on your business. But you can reduce its negative impact and even create some positive outcomes by following the simple guidelines laid out here.
An inherent fact in retailing is nonproductive inventory — i.e., inventory that's sitting idle in stores or distribution centers with no immediate sales plan for moving it. Nonproductive inventory can be overstocks (inventory you own that exceeds projected future sales, primarily for discontinued and soon-to-be-discontinued items) and too-much-too-soon inventory, for which you have a future sales plan but your weeks-of-inventory ownership is far greater than needed. Both can have a substantial negative impact on your company's bottom line.
Lord & Taylor is deploying handheld RFID readers in its stores to maintain accurate inventory levels and prevent out-of-stock situations. RFID technology allows retailers to rapidly determine how much tagged inventory is in a particular location at a given time.
Excess inventory due to changing consumer behaviors, aggressive competitor actions or simply missed forecasts is a fact of life. When the inevitable happens, marketing can help in various ways. From in-season promotions and end-of-season clearance sales on your website to outlet stores and third-party distribution, retailers can deploy several strategies to aid in the liquidation of extra inventory.
We’re in the midst of the holiday peak — four more weeks of industrywide frenetic selling activity. But while the sales peak ends at Christmas for most direct retailers, the inventory returns peak is just starting.
Retailers struggle each holiday season with an inevitable inventory imbalance. Some order too much of one product and not enough of another. The vagaries of the economy, the increasing influence of e-commerce, online marketing and a greater recognition of evolving shopping habits made this past holiday season one of the trickier ones to project. As a result, it's created chaos regarding inventory management.
Many smaller retailers simply don’t believe that improvements in inventory planning will provide enough incremental profit gain for a company its size to justify investing in staff, systems or processes. However, they may be overlooking a crucial piece of the puzzle: how inventory planners help marketing and merchandising grow sales and increase gross margin.
Listen in as Nick Molina, CEO of My Talking Toddler, discusses how the children's educational products retailer managed its inventory and e-commerce site during the hectic Christmas rush following a TV appearance on NBC's "Today Show."