Customer Reviews

The New Science of Retailing: How Analytics are Transforming the Supply Chain and Improving Performance

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This book describes how to apply modern analytical supply chain tools and concepts to retail management, with particular attention to pitfalls that hinder successful execution. Written for executives in retailing, the book has many quotes from successful retail executives and numerous examples of pitfalls.
For example, it demonstrates with a numerical example why it may be profitable to use airfreight for apparel - the resulting shorter lead time enables a retailer to cope better with demand uncertainty (forecast error).
The authors argue persuasively that appropriate metrics are critical for good supply chain performance. For example, one should use the sales-capture rate instead of the so-called "in-stock rate" (percentage of time an item has positive inventory) since inventory records are notoriously inaccurate; when the computer says there is one item in stock, often that unit isn't in the proper display space so no potential buyers can find it, and hence sales won't occur.
The book is quite well written and understandable and enjoyable to read.
Full disclosure: this reviewer knows both authors personally and holds them in high regard.

Very well written. Authors address a range of topics related to Retail supply chain planning and store execution with the goal of increased sales while optimally managing inventories and costs. The sections on Assortment Planning, Supply Chain Flexibility, and Store Execution are truly outstanding. Authors blended in several real life examples and case studies to make this book a very interesting read. For retailers challenged with ever growing complexity in SKU assortments, informed consumers, and increasingly volatile economic environment, this book offers practical advise on how to deal with this complexity and variability. For Retail Supply Chain consultants this book contains several emerging trends as well as proven best practices.

This book is long overdue. Considering how much travel distance and manufacturing integration is embedded in each SKU, there has been remarkably very little work on identifying proper best practise in retail supply chain operations. This book is recommended for professional retailers as well as for customer-facing managers in the consumer good industry.

The authors really understand the in-and-outs of retail and there are always new sights when you read the conclusions in addition to the well-structured experiments and analysis. I learned a lot from every chapter.