Allocation Process

All the sweat and tears has finally paid off. 

The product is sitting in the Distribution Centre and it’s time to put your feet up and drink that hard earned cup of tea. 

Unfortunately, as we all know, that isn’t the case.  This product isn’t going to get into the stores by itself.  Through our experience with retailers of all sizes, we have found that quite often, the term ‘process’ is used rather loosely when it comes to Allocation.  

Initial Distribution

In many instances, once the product arrives in the warehouse, the allocator will send the product to the stores in the manner in which it was initially purchased, often times 6 – 12 months before.  This would be great if the business was that consistent, but all of us are aware of the changes that have occurred within the past year.  We all know that our economy has changed over this period, and it has changed regionally.  Therefore, in order to maximize on the inventory that has been purchased, the Allocator should have the ability to review how similar products have sold over a specific period of time using various methods that have been created for your own business.  The Allocator can then choose to either send the product to the stores as initially purchased, or send the product out based on proven mathematical computations.

Replenishment & Auto Allocation

Frequently in the past we have seen the initial distribution being sent to the stores and the following replenishment being based solely on filling-in past sales.  While this process works for a time, the product in stores can ‘size-out’ easily and transfers will be required to ensure stores that are selling well maintain the appropriate size ranges.  QuickAllocation can reduce need to perform these time consuming and costly transfers by ensuring the product is sent to the appropriate stores initially.  Of course, the Allocator can also flag styles for ‘Auto Allocation’ thereby reducing the need for manual interaction.

New Store Openings

New Store openings are certainly a challenge for retailers of all size.  QuickAllocation allows the Allocator to set new store requirements on fixture capacity in combination with a sister store performance target.   Store mappings can be included in each of the allocations, to ensure new or renovated stores are appropriately covered in the allocations.

Through the use of seemingly simple allocation methods, QuickAllocation can easily ensure your product really does get to the right place at the right time. 

Now, can we just put our feet up and have our cuppa?