Oracle Retail breaks down inventory barriers with Cloud Service

To empower retailers to more easily track, access and manage inventory in store Oracle Retail has introduced a new Store Inventory Operations Cloud Service. By providing the ability to view inventory by size, colour and other key attributes, the Oracle Retail Cloud Service helps retailers improve customer satisfaction and fulfil demand regardless of channel.

"With Oracle Retail Store Inventory Operations Cloud Service, we are providing retailers with the ability to have real-time inventory visibility to enable core merchandising operations, ecommerce and order management," said Jeff Warren, vice president, Oracle Retail. "The integration points provide the level of inventory visibility and fulfilment transparency that makes a tremendous difference to the customer and to the business."

For fashion retailers, customer satisfaction often comes down to simply being able to locate and deliver an item in the size and colour that the customer wants. Traditionally, store associates endeavor to fulfil customer requests for an elusive size, or color, by looking online or calling fellow stores. This process can be time-consuming and ineffective, consuming resources across a business that already operates on narrow margins.

Oracle Retail Store Inventory Operations Cloud Service solves this problem and provides the retail community with:

• "Store Up" Vs "Warehouse Down" Approach to Inventory Management: By providing the ability to have visibility into inventory at a detailed level within the store, combined with a view of warehouse inventory, the Oracle Retail Store Inventory Operations Cloud Service enables stores to influence inventory sell through by requesting it directly from the warehouse.

• Item Visibility by Size, Color, and Location. The Oracle Retail Store Inventory Operations Cloud Service is designed to address fashion or hardline retailers' unique need for item visibility, and caters to them by enabling identifying items at the colour and size level as well as by the item's exact location within stores across the store network.

• Access to Item Inventory Positions Across All Locations, to Meet Fulfilment for All Channels. With visibility to where an item resides, comes the ability to drive increased customer satisfaction, complete customer transactions and fulfil orders quickly and efficiently. While retailers often are asked to find and ship an item to customers, the task can consume an inordinate amount of time and resources with a lack of connectivity and transparency. By streamlining inventory management at the store, the Oracle Retail solution helps retailers to improve customer service and drive increased profitability.

• Mobile, Intuitive User Interface Reduces Training for Store Associates. Oracle Retail Store Inventory Operations Cloud Service is designed to drive increased efficiencies across the store inventory processes. The intuitive user interface can reduce training time, and increases productivity and return on employee investment at a faster rate than ever before.

• Faster Rollout, Lower Total Cost of Ownership. Oracle Retail Store Inventory Operations Cloud Service provides retailers the ability to deploy the store inventory solution faster, while taking advantage of future investment through frequent service updates. The Store Inventory Operations Cloud Service plays a key role in Oracle Retail's overall commitment to ensure a timely, common view of inventory across the retail network – an imperative for successful omnichannel fulfilment.