Retail Planning
Automate and optimize retail planning
Consumers today expect unlimited product availability with expansive choices in how they browse, purchase, and receive their goods. For retailers, these demands add tremendous complexity to merchandise planning, assortment allocation, and replenishment, as well as multi-channel purchase and delivery. Those who can automate and optimize these processes stand the best chance of maximizing profit and customer service.
This requires awareness and cognition. It starts with an ear to the ground at each point of sale (POS) to pick-up real-time signals for demand-driven inventory planning and continuous replenishment. It continues with an eye trained on the longer road ahead and the ability to simulate myriad scenarios to plan dynamically around sales promotions, marketing campaigns, seasonality, and new product introductions (NPI). This is how you decide what, how much, and where to stock.
Forecast, model, and simulate store-level sales
Vanguard Predictive Planning™ for Retail supports all types of data synchronization including near real-time point-of-sale (POS) transactions. This enables Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) collaborations that cut costs out of the supply chain to benefit both you and your vendors. The system’s advanced-analytic modeling and simulation capabilities support omnichannel sales and delivery while ensuring optimal inventory and labor down to the store level. All of this is key to balancing product breadth and depth for best-net-profit assortment allocations that span thousands of SKUs and, potentially, hundreds of locations.
Match expert forecasting and planning with best-in-market usability
Leverage Vanguard Software for part, or all, of your S&OP or IBP proces – from sales forecasting to supply planning to financial forecasting and budgeting. Vanguard can integrate all of these distinct applications in a single platform designed to unify management estimates, exceptions, and data.
Vanguard’s UI integrates seamlessly with your business processes, enabling diverse teams and users to communicate and collaborate. Plus, all changes and updates are dynamic, system-wide. Change your demand plan and see that change reflect instantly in your inventory order schedule – all on the same screen.
Client Results
“Billions [of dollars] in operating margin and trillions in market capitalization separate supply chain winners from losers,” according to AMR Research. With Vanguard Predictive Planning™, best-in-class planners see:
%
Reduction in inventory
%
Increase in perfect-order fulfillment (complete, accurate, and on time)
%
Shorter cash-to-cash cycle times
%
Fewer stock-outs than competitors
Featured resources
Case study
Infographic
Solution Brochure
What our clients have to say
- Demand forecasting
- Product mix/portfolio analysis
- Sales and operations planning (S&OP)
- Supply chain planning
- Information sharing
- Operational efficiency
- Equipment diagnostics
- Surveys and research
- Multi-Echelon Inventory Optimization (MEIO)
- Artificially Intelligent forecast method recommendation
- POS Demand Sensing
- New Product Forecasting
- Promotional Forecasting
- Sell-to and sell-through forecasting
- Bill of Materials (BOM) Support
- Predict demand for final products and raw materials, even when historical data is scarce.
- Optimize product portfolios, pricing, and promotions. Product development: Estimate life-cycle costs and forecast adoption across all channels.
- Enable real-time collaboration between Marketing & Sales and Operations to ensure production capacity can profitably support customer demand (and vice versa).
- Optimize your supply chain network, inventory levels, distribution plans, and more.
- Involve suppliers and customers in planning processes. Dynamically receive their latest demand and material availability estimates.
- Conduct process improvement/Six Sigma projects to reduce costs, cycle times, and waste.
- Expertly guide operators, technicians, and support agents through complex troubleshooting processes using automated question-and-answer sessions.
- Know your market and understand your customers’ needs, wishes, and opinions using online surveys.
- Increase service levels; reduce safety stock; improve turns and profitability.
- Automate the selection of the best-possible forecast methods and parameters.
- Spot and respond to demand trends and signals in real time; improve downstream replenishment.
- Optimize product transitions; identify cannibalization effects; respond automatically to seasonality and trends.
- Optimize inventory levels and production scheduling.
- Improve demand sensing and demand-supply planning.
- Streamline production; eliminate errors, delays, and compliance failures.
Meet a few of our clients

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