efficient stock replacement. the right stock in the right place to support effective marketing promotion in-store, including co-ordination of point of sale materials. efficient range stocking to maximise consumer take-up. efficient new product introduction. Response has been improved by standardising, for instance, carton sizes, pallet sizes, load weights, barcoding, electronic data management, standard ordering procedures, invoicing and receipt of goods notices. The need to have standard definitions and control of product categories gave rise to the need to have a category-focused marketer in the retail environment, hence the Category Marketer. This has helped Wal-mart in the US, and grocers such as Tesco and Sainsbury in the UK.
To successfully minimise expensive stock holding, the technology has to link successfully through an intranet. Clearly the marketing needs to be spoton to ensure the right stock is in the right place at the right time, and that back-up stock is available. The grocery producers or, for instance, toy manufacturers' dilemma is to balance the stock well and not have perishable products in the factory. Nobody wants toys in February, as early Internet toy vendors discovered.