Ahold USA increases control of store inventory with scan-based trading
Supermarket company Ahold USA is among a growing number of retailers using web-enabled scan-based trading to cut costs and boost sales of products that suppliers deliver directly to stores.
Under scan-based trading, direct-store-delivery suppliers don’t invoice retailers until after their products are scanned at the point of sale, making it more likely that suppliers will stock store shelves with products that will sell quickly, experts say. And because retailers and suppliers share POS and inventory data that can be accessed and analyzed on a web interface, they’re better able to collaborate in a way that moves merchandise faster.
“We can react faster to inventory re-stocking as part of our partnership with SBT suppliers, and we’re getting to the point where we can improve sales,” Kevin Krygier, director of direct store delivery for Ahold, tells Internet Retailer.
More suppliers as well as retailers are seeing the value of scan-based trading within the broader trend of supply chain collaboration, says Kara Romanow, supply chain analyst at AMR Research Inc. “I’m seeing more interest in scan-based trading today than a few years ago. We’re starting to see the beginning of a trend.”
In addition to moving merchandise, scan-based trading helps retailers to better control product shrinkage, or loss due to misplacement, damage or theft, and to save time dealing with delivery people, Krygier says. Because supplier invoices are automatically processed through the web-based scan-based trading system, which calculates the invoice based on POS data, direct-to-store delivery personnel are free to re-stock store shelves on a flexible schedule without having to check in with store personnel and submit shipping forms and invoices, he adds.
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