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Better stock replenishment and fewer out of stocks deliver higher store accountability for stock accuracy levels

Better stock replenishment and fewer out of stocks deliver higher store accountability for stock accuracy levels

 

UK specialist retailer of high quality homewares and clothing, The White Company, has seen a significant 38% reduction to shrinkage levels and associated sales uplift since it invested in the Zetes Nucleus IS-Stock Audit system in March 2011.

 

The company, which has 40 stores and further expansion planned, made the decision to implement Nucleus because stock audit integrity was becoming a problem for the business and shrinkage levels of high value items was concerning.

 

Taking audit in-house with technology

 

Prior to implementing the new system with its dedicated software solution developed by Zetes and 16 Motorola handheld terminals, The White Company outsourced its bi-annual stock auditing to a third party specialist.

 

“We made a commercial decision not to continue with the original outsourced model due to concerns that the integrity of third party stock counts was having a detrimental effect on the business since it was so detached from the rest of store operations,” said Colin Blake, head of loss prevention at The White Company. “It was clear we needed to bring stock auditing in-house with specialist technology and expect to see fantastic cost savings using Nucleus. The system is very thorough about detecting mismatches and gives us the integrity of results we need, available the same day a count takes place.”

 

The White Company have estimated that since implementing Nucleus IS-Stock Audit in March 2011, shrinkage levels have decreased by 38% and the system will have paid for itself within a year.

 

Maximising business value

 

“We were finding that stock reported in a third party count as missing would then subsequently turn up in the store, a problem that occurred purely because third party auditors cannot be expected to know the individual stock items well enough to always count the right things,” added Blake.

 

In addition to improving accuracy levels, in-house auditing is faster and being directly involved with the process has made store management more accountable because they are closer to the process. The White Company has reported that as a result of implementing Nucleus IS-Stock Audit, they have also seen an additional benefit of improved operational compliance levels after identifying a pattern between lower stock auditing accuracy and generic compliance as a whole.