Retailer Achieves 97% Faster Order Processing and 20% Higher In-Store Stock Value

A leading retailer of tools and hardware products in the UK, this organization has always been a technology-led business, blazing the trail in retail innovation years before many of its competitors. It launched an ecommerce website in the ‘90s, was at the forefront of next-day delivery in 2000, and led the charge in click-and-collect a decade later.

The scale of growth was putting immense pressure on the systems at the heart of the organization’s supply chain and logistics operation. The team struggled to ensure it could effectively replenish stock across the store network within the constraints of transport and storage capacity. The challenge was amplified by the unprecedented growth in home improvement activity during the pandemic lockdowns.

The existing replenishment process required significant manual intervention to reduce the order quantities to achievable levels each day.

Ensono proposed an approach whereby the process of replenishment could be modelled and optimized outside of the core logistics platform. This eliminated the need for the costly and time-consuming replacement of existing systems.

Stock order data files are now automatically extracted daily to build up a range of candidate orders, optimized according to different replenishment strategies. This allows the Supply Chain team to choose the most appropriate candidate order for submission, according to the priorities they see across the network.

Since deployment, the client has seen an increase in tradeable stock value of 20% across the network, even during peak times. This is alongside an availability score that is within 0.1% of the best figure since the start of the pandemic.

There is a marked decrease in manual intervention, freeing up Supply Chain staff to focus on higher value activities as the brand continues to grow across EMEA.