ABSTRACT
Understanding the principles of the stock management techniques discussed in the previous chapter will help a retail product manager to appreciate the challenges that surround the objective of getting the ‘right’ quantity of product at the ‘right’ time into a retail business. The application of information technology and the resulting changes to business cost structures, however, has meant that buying practices have changed in many modern retail organisations: orders are communicated in paperless form, sales data is immediately available and goods are electronically tracked through the supply pipeline. Better and faster information has meant that retailers have been able to virtually turn stock management on its head; the approach now is not to manage stock, but rather to manage demand for products and respond to that demand with a flowing supply of goods.The aim of this chapter is to build on the reader’s understanding of the concept of consumer-led product management and explore the notion of efficient replenishment, introduced in Chapter 3 under the auspices of category management within an ECR (efficient consumer response) system.
