Right Stock. Right Place. Right Time — And Available When Customers Want It
Retail leaders often talk about the importance of having the right stock in the right location at the right time. But there’s an equally critical part of the equation that can’t be overlooked: ensuring stock is available for sale when customers expect it.
Few things damage customer confidence more than being told an item is “in store,” only to discover it isn’t accessible or available at the point of purchase. This disconnects impacts sales, service levels, and brand trust — and it often has less to do with demand planning and more to do with how product arrives and how easily stores can make it sellable.
The Store Challenge: Availability and Accuracy at Low Cost
For stores, the challenge is balancing availability and inventory accuracy with the real-world constraints of labour, time, and space. Even when product physically arrives at a store, there may be multiple dependencies, checks, handling requirements, and exceptions that influence when it becomes available for sale.
The cost of these activities is often underestimated — and in many cases, it becomes a hidden tax on store teams. When stores are forced to spend additional time resolving issues, reworking freight, or correcting stock integrity, the result is increased labour cost and reduced time spent on customer-facing activity.
Why Warehouse Improvements Don’t Always Translate to Store Outcomes
Many organisations invest in warehouse optimisation, automation, and continuous improvement programs to improve throughput, reduce cost, and lift service. But too often the focus remains within the “four walls” of the warehouse.
When warehouse initiatives are designed primarily to improve internal efficiency, they can unintentionally shift work downstream. Product can arrive at stores in formats that require additional handling or sorting, shipment data may not support efficient receiving or reconciliation, and store teams may need to absorb the complexity created upstream.
In these cases, the warehouse may perform well on paper — while stores experience increased labour, lower stock availability, and reduced inventory accuracy.
The Solution: End-to-End Supply Chain Design
Improving store availability and inventory integrity without increasing total supply chain cost requires an end-to-end lens. That means designing processes, systems, and automation around the full supply chain — including the way stores operate and the variability they face.
Two principles are essential:
Understand the end-to-end supply chain flow — including the exceptions, variations, and cost drivers that influence outcomes across DCs, transport, and stores.
Ensure automation supports the whole network — not just DC productivity, but also store execution, freight efficiency, and data integrity.
Technology That Enables Better Store Execution
To deliver better store outcomes, technology and automation should enable:
accurate, granular shipment information (down to pallet / tote / carton / rail level), supporting faster and more reliable store processes
store-ready product presentation, minimising unnecessary handling and enabling product to move efficiently from delivery to the selling floor
When these capabilities are embedded into supply chain design, retailers can improve in-stock performance, reduce store rework, and lift inventory accuracy — without simply shifting cost from one part of the chain to another.
Want to Explore What “Store-Ready” Looks Like for Your Network?
If you’re looking at supply chain process design, modelling, or automation that improves store execution while managing cost, our expert team can help ensure you’re on the right track.