Supermarket Perimeter - May 2024 - 90

Technology: Fresh ordering
deliver a fresher shopping experiences to their customers, " Midgley said.
Supermarkets using Invafresh's AI-enhanced fresh ordering solution
have seen a 50% reduction in replenishment time, a 25% reduction in
backroom inventory, a 25% reduction in shrink, and a 6% reduction in
inventory storage costs.
A good ordering system should consider a variety of exclusion
situations. Though automated systems are important and valued,
situations will still arise regularly where experience and expertise of
administrators is needed.
Paying attention to efficient exclusion processes, attention of
seasoned staff or corporate administrators can be refocused on the
most important products increasing efficiency and helping eliminate
human errors.
Don't forget the weather
Upshop's " very robust " machine learning forecast model allows the
company to help its customers accurately predict their ordering needs,
the first step toward creating " sellable product, " said Mike Weber,
Upshop's chief marketing officer.
For a fresh ordering platform to work effectively, it needs to
accurately account weather, seasonality, and other nuances that can
vary by a week or two from year to year, Weber said.
Weather will be " very big component of our forecast model moving
forward, " said Mark Hawthorne, the company's chief innovation and
strategy officer. " An inch of rain in Southern California can be like a foot
of snow in the Northeast, " Hawthorne said. " There's a huge opportunity
in that area. Some of our Hispanic retailers on the West Coast, they get a
little weather, suddenly they're selling a lot more masa. "
Another big focus right now for Upshop, Weber said, is getting
retailers' fresh ordering systems up to speed on the digital side.
" In ecommerce, we're seeing an increased amount of fresh orders.
Retailers need to have single PI across online and instore. "
Upshop's fresh ordering capabilities, Weber said, allows customers to
take out the manual component of getting their forecasts right.
" We give customers a data-driven view that allows them to think
through (their ordering process) in a great amount of detail. We do
center-store well, and we do fresh even better. "
One area where fresh ordering platforms like Upshop's are
particularly useful is in accurately moving items from one part of the
store to another.
" Ingredients is the area of the biggest hidden shrink in stores, " Weber
said. " Using items from the store, like from the deli, for made-to-order
foods is really hard. We're very proud to have the ability to combine
ingredient ordering and production and recipes, so the whole thing is
seamless. "
Made-to-order has huge room for growth, he added, as grocery
stores " start to treat themselves like they're restaurants, with a lot more
options than McDonald's, and where consumers see value. "
90 - MAY 2024
supermarketperimeter.com
Upshop

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Supermarket Perimeter - May 2024

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