StoreNet® Live

VendorNet StoreNet® Live provides brick and mortar retailers with a tremendous opportunity to increase e-commerce sales, obtain more accurate item demand forecasting, and improve customer satisfaction by leveraging store-level inventory to fulfill web orders when the order cannot be fulfilled from its warehouse or distribution center due to out-of-stock conditions. By making in-store inventory seamlessly available for ecommerce sales, retailers are able to realize lost sale opportunities, and optimize inventory across what have traditionally been independent sales and fulfillment channels. With this revolutionary technology, VendorNet has created a single virtual warehouse across the enterprise that improves sku availability for online shoppers.

Features

• Seamless availability of in-store inventory for ecommerce sales
• Intelligent order routing to best available store based on user-defined criteria
• Online delivery of pick list, packing slips, and shipping labels for in-store order fulfillment
• Customized packing slips and shipping labels
• Automated carrier integration
• Online order tracking
• Robust production reports
• Automated inventory updates
• Capable of integrating with any third party or in-house developed ecommerce, order management and retail inventory management systems

Benefits

• Increases ecommerce sales that would otherwise be lost due to out-of-stock conditions
• Facilitates better utilization of available inventory and lowers inventory carrying costs at stores
• Improves ecommerce sku demand forecasting by capturing demand that was previously lost
• Increases customer satisfaction by satisfying online demand more efficiently
• Eliminates significant labor costs associated with manually checking inventory levels, distributing orders to stores, tracking orders from the stores, and billing the customer
• Improves order fulfillment time and reduces shipping expenses by shipping from the closest available store
• Facilitates online reporting and store performance analysis
• Creates a new fulfillment platform for retailers that do not have direct-to-consumer warehouses by allowing retailers to ship from stores, eliminating warehouse expenses and additional inventory carrying costs to fulfill ecommerce orders
• Proactively addresses the shift of retail sales from traditional stores to the Internet and maximizes available store inventory and personnel resources

How it works...

Online orders that cannot be fulfilled from warehouse inventory due to out-of-stock conditions are electronically transmitted to VendorNet StoreNet Live, which routes the order to the best available store for fulfillment based on user-defined store allocation rules. Store personnel access the orders complete with pick list, packing slip, and shipping label through a VendorNet-enabled web portal. The store personnel pick the items, and confirm the picked quantities in VendorNet StoreNet Live. This triggers printing of the packing slips with FedEx or UPS shipping labels, and ultimately the transmission of shipping manifests to the appropriate carrier notifying the carrier that packages are staged for pickup.

Upon receipt of the shipment by the carrier, VendorNet StoreNet Live obtains pick-up scans confirming carrier possession, and sends a ship transaction including tracking number back to the host order management or e-commerce system triggering a charge to the consumer's credit card. In order to ensure accurate inventory counts are maintained, inventory deductions are performed locally at the store, or can be sent electronically from StoreNet Live to the retail inventory management system on a scheduled basis.

Each morning, StoreNet Live obtains updated store inventory counts from the retail inventory management system. These inventory levels are used by VendorNet StoreNet Live when allocating orders to stores that morning and also to communicate total item inventory counts across all stores, including the warehouse, to the retailer's e-commerce system. This exposes total inventory counts, including safety stock levels to the retailer's website, and creates an integrated sales platform that fully leverages enterprise-wide inventory.