Dive Brief:
- PetSmart deployed a retail software as a service platform across 1,700 stores to improve inventory mangement, according to a Jan. 7 press release.
- The gStore platform by GreyOrange, a supply chain solutions technology company, will help the pet retailer enhance its location management, inventory management, digital fulfillment and store operations through GreyOrange’s software that details a store’s inventory and physical layout.
- “Imagine it just like Google Maps for your store inventory with real-time updates and AI capabilities, ensuring that you always know exactly where your inventory is, reducing stockouts and enhancing shopping experiences,” according to gStore’s website.
Dive Insight:
PetSmart wants to create a “world-class omnichannel experience" and it intends to do that with the help of the gStore platform, Greg Fancher, EVP of IT and chief information technology officer at PetSmart, said in the release.
The gStore platform is expected to help PetSmart locate inventory faster through the use of 3D location management, SKU assignment and process flow optimization, according to Fancher.
The pet retailer has a large store format and when they fulfill omnichannel orders, it’s important that they’re efficient, Troy Siwek, gStore general manager at GreyOrange, told Supply Chain Dive in an interview.
Minutes can accumulate during order processing due to employees not knowing where inventory is or not taking the correct path around the store to pick all the orders, Siwek said.
One way PetSmart can speed up the process for order fulfillment is with gStore’s planogram, a 3D view of how a store looks, aisle by aisle. Current inventory is also loaded by gStore into that planogram, Siwek said.
“We can do what a warehouse does, a typical fulfillment center does, which is route their associates through the store to pick the orders in the most efficient manner. They don’t have to look for anything. They don’t have to guess where anything’s at. They just get a pick path and they go execute,” Siwek said.
GreyOrange’s gStore platform is also being used at fashion retailer H&M Brand’s COS and sportwear company Fabletics, Siwek said. Retailers as such are interested in reducing the stress in their supply chains by becoming more familiar with their inventory when it comes to reordering or ordering products they don’t need.
“What PetSmart is able to do, and our clients are able to do, is do more picking and packing from their stores, and do it better in some cases than they would in a fulfillment center or a third party location,” Siwek said.
“It’s so easy to do once they’re using the software so they know where everything’s at, they can pick it just as fast as a warehouse can, and in many cases they’re closer to the actual consumer,” he added.
