Summary
Does an effective merchandising and marketing program create huge profits in today’s retail environment? If so, what are the downstream impact on retail manufacturing and supply chains?
Analysis
Financial, Marketing, Sales, and Supply Chain Executives are very astute at measuring sales and marketing effectiveness. There is some debate among these functional experts concerning the timing impact of single merchandising and market events at the store level. This same minor disagreement further complicates the lives of downstream organizations such as; Supply Chain, Procurement and Supply Managers that manage the retail manufacturing, transportation, freight forwarding, and warehousing assets.
In today’s environment, Best in Class corporate business forecasters and demand planners are using suffocated forecasting software to manage retail manufacturers and downstream inventory risk. Customer service organizations are heavily engaged in data analysis in order to migrate retailer buyer out of stock concerns. Transportation and logistics professionals are in constant communications with supply planners in order to minimize corporate resources.
One common weakness in the retail shelf to manufacturing value chain is the timing impact of marketing event to sales. Show me a retailers with strong handle on merchandising and marketing activities and I’ll show you a company with an exceptional grasp on inventory and supply chain costs.
