Ydistri

Prague, 
Czech Republic
https://www.ydistri.com/

• Booth: 762

Ydistri disrupts the way how the supply chain and inventory management works nowadays.

We came up with an Intelligent Rebalancing Platform to help retailers increase margins, revenues, and inventory turnover by eliminating dead stock, overstock, and out-of-stock.

Our solution provides brick and mortar stores the capability to effectively compete with e-commerce giants, by identifying problematic stock in one location, analyzing the network potential, and directing consolidated redistribution shipments elsewhere in the network.

All powered by intelligent algorithms and stored in Microsoft Azure Cloud.

 Press Releases

• Brick-and-mortar shops are getting a second wind after covid and technology will be the key to their survival (Sep 01, 2022)

  

  Retail is one of the areas of the economy that has been most affected by the covid-19 pandemic. For brick-and-mortar stores, in particular, the measures associated with the coronavirus pandemic have often been a matter of life and death, and many retailers are now grappling with the question of whether brick-and-mortar stores have any place in the new, post-pandemic world. However, developments in recent months suggest that brick-and-mortar stores are not a thing of the past. Instead, people have found many new reasons to return to them during the pandemic, and while e-commerce is experiencing a year-on-year decline, brick-and-mortar stores grew 4.6% year-on-year in February, according to the CSO. However, to defend their position in the market and to be able to compete with strong e-commerce in the long term, they cannot do without investments in innovation and technology, especially in the field of efficient inventory handling.

  E-commerce is a sector that has experienced a rapid rise in the last two years, but the truth is that the pandemic has rather accelerated a trend that was already visible before it. E-commerce, and in particular the increasingly popular "omnichannel" approach, answers the biggest problems that customers have with shopping in brick-and-mortar stores - it allows them to avoid waiting in queues and, in most cases, can avoid situations where the desired goods are unavailable. One central e-shop warehouse is much easier to keep well-stocked than a network of brick-and-mortar stores.

  Failure to predict demand correctly causes huge losses and problems. It is the unavailability of goods at the stores where they are in demand that is one of the things that ultimately deprives brick-and-mortar stores of customers and profits in the long run. However, retailers are not yet able to address this effectively.

   Online shopping also has its shortcomings, which started to surface more at the time when brick-and-mortar stores were closed. It is the long waiting times, errors in the delivery of orders, or return processes that are reasons for customers not to reject brick-and-mortar shops. They also like the possibility to see the goods in real life, comparing alternatives, or getting advice from the retailer in the store. In addition, the pandemic conditions have motivated many people to think more about their shopping behavior. People have started to return to shopping at local retailers and to be more concerned about social responsibility and the environmental impact of their consumer choices, an area where brick-and-mortar stores still have a significant advantage.

  According to a Capgemini study, as many as 79% of shoppers are re-evaluating their consumption behavior with these aspects in mind. The tendency for customers to shop locally can therefore be expected to continue, and the desire for people not to give up on the normal activities of human contact also plays in favor of brick-and-mortar stores. However, for retailers to defend their position, they will need to eliminate situations where the supply of goods in individual stores is unable to meet customer demand. The solution need not be complex or prohibitively expensive.

   What often happens in practice is that goods that are hopelessly sold out at one branch of the store are left over at another. These surpluses or shortages have to be additionally balanced with the help of smart redistribution.

   It is obvious that for brick-and-mortar stores to be able to compete sufficiently with e-commerce, retailers will have to rethink their current habits and innovate their services in other aspects as well. However, incorporating smart redistribution into the process seems a logical and easy-to-apply first step that can signal to customers that they can still rely on brick-and-mortar stores. For the retailers themselves, it can then be a springboard for further innovation in the industry.
   

• Roland Džogan (Ydistri): Retail in 2022 will be about flexibility and automated inventory management, even the smallest must arm themselves with technology (Sep 01, 2022)

  The past year has been marked mainly by the covid-19 pandemic, which has affected all industries. However, one of the areas most affected by the pandemic was undoubtedly international trade. We have seen a sharp decline in global production, the whole world has faced supply chain problems unlike anything it has ever had to face in modern history, and as a result, there has been a significant imbalance in the market between demand and supply of goods. Traders and suppliers were forced to react immediately to the changes brought about by the pandemic, but customers were also reassessing their behavior.

  The result of the rapid and unexpected changes was confusion at all levels of the supply chain. However, the problems that the supply chain has faced over the past year are very likely to continue. Experts believe that a return of the supply chain to its pre-pandemic state cannot be expected before several years, if ever. To create a new balance and restore customer confidence, retailers will therefore need to rethink their current solutions and be even more flexible and open to the trends that the past period has given rise to.

  Automation of inventory management

  Last year showed that the inability of traders to meet demand can be fatal. Whether companies were struggling with shortages due to delays in deliveries from overseas or an inability to correctly predict how much demand they could expect, the unavailability of in-demand goods is always perceived negatively by customers. It is not surprising, therefore, that not only replenishment systems are becoming the new standard, but increasingly also redistribution systems, which were previously seen as a nice-to-have.

  The more automated and sophisticated systems that retailers have at their disposal, the better they will be able to respond to demand and adapt to customers. The winners will be those who learn how to dispose of orders and own goods in such a way that they do not have empty shelves, but also surpluses, which will be solved by unfavorable discount promotions. Discounts have a negative impact not only on the profitability of the business but also on the reputation of the brand.

  Emphasis on sustainability

  The need to better optimize inventory is compounded by the increasing pressure on sustainability. Indeed, the covid-19 pandemic has also had a bright side - according to research to date, it has made shoppers significantly more sensitive to the environmental impact of their purchasing behavior. Many people returned to shopping locally at local retailers during the pandemic. This was due not only to a desire to support small businesses but also to dissatisfaction with the heavy environmental burden that online shopping entails. It is, therefore, to be expected that not only will people gradually return to brick-and-mortar stores, but also that the environmental and sustainability activities of businesses will become an increasingly important factor in the success or failure of a company.

  Circular economy

  The circular economy, a trend that is increasingly being heard about, particularly sustainability and reducing the carbon footprint of industry and trade will also be a big topic for the coming year and beyond. Finding solutions to be able to put as many goods as possible back into the supply chain, reuse, recycle and re-sell them will be a major challenge. Although 2022 will probably not be a breakthrough year, it has great potential to be the year when sustainable solutions in the spirit of the circular economy lay the foundations.

  Flexibility in the delivery of parcels

  It's no secret that while brick-and-mortar stores have not been too well served by the pandemic, e-commerce has experienced a significant upswing in the past year. Online shopping has become a standard to which virtually all customers have become accustomed without fail, including those who were previously apprehensive about it. However, as their popularity grows, so do the demands for greater flexibility, particularly in terms of delivery. Same-day delivery, which used to be more of a luxury or a privilege of a few specific segments, will slowly become a necessity. Retailers that can deliver goods to their customers in the shortest possible time as accurately as possible and provide as much information as possible about the delivery will have a major competitive advantage in 2022.

  Last-mile solution

  To provide greater flexibility in parcel delivery, it will be essential for companies to provide a last-mile solution. The last-mile technologies available to logistics companies today can provide customers with information about where their shipment is when they can expect it, and everything in between. Last-mile technology can also help address unexpected events during delivery, such as sudden transportation complications. Perfect information can be expected to be a key factor for customer satisfaction in the coming year.

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  As the list of some of the upcoming trends shows, the coming year should be mainly in the spirit of cooperation at different levels of the supply chain and retail. The days when companies tried to cover all steps with their solutions are irretrievably gone. To provide customers with the quality of service they require, companies need to use specialized solutions for inventory management, redistribution, and, where possible, onward delivery to customers.

  It is becoming increasingly clear that retail will be under increasing pressure to keep up technologically with competition in the form of predatory and fast-growing e-commerce. It is evident from customer behavior that brick-and-mortar stores are certainly not going away. To remain competitive, they need to arm themselves technologically, and this is far from just the largest retail chains.

• Traders are struggling with the unavailability of goods and losing profits. Often they are unaware of their stocks. (Sep 01, 2022)

  Shortages in supply chains are a growing problem that affects more and more industries worldwide. Traders are having great difficulty in making certain goods available and are losing profits because they cannot meet demand. However, the problem can be solved quite well in some cases with modern technology, led by smart redistribution. Retail chains often have stock - just not in the right store and are unable to relocate it.

  There have been significant delays in the supply chain in recent months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and retailers are already experiencing problems, particularly with the import of goods and critical components from overseas. Chinese ports, which are important arteries for international shipping, have been continually struggling with new waves of the virus, operating at limited capacity and with ships waiting even a couple of days for passage. Elsewhere, there has been nothing to load. Shipping containers were left lying idle in Europe due to reduced demand during the pandemic, and there have not been enough of them to load overseas, and those that are available have become noticeably more expensive than in previous years.

  According to information from the market, shipping from Asia is now up to seven times more expensive, making it unprofitable for many companies to import some goods. Air transit times are stretched to double in times of capacity problems, rail transit times are about two to three weeks longer than normal and, in addition, the capacities are hopelessly occupied for this whole year. Overall, transport across sectors has become about 8 to 15 times more expensive, leaving traders to deal with end-of-line pricing to cover the increase, in addition to a shortage of parts or goods for production and sales.

  The international transport situation is already affecting many industries. Consumer electronics and automotive companies have been the most affected so far, but supply shortages in the textile and pharmaceutical industries are no exception as well. Moreover, the situation is unlikely to improve shortly, so many companies are pre-ordering goods in large quantities in fear of being unable to meet demand over the Christmas period. The problem of unavailability of goods might not be that extensive if retail chains were able to redistribute their goods better.

  Traders often face the problem of not being able to meet demand at a given outlet and losing customers unnecessarily, even though another outlet in the chain has a surplus of the desired goods and is unable to sell them. It is therefore now more important than ever that chains can intelligently redistribute goods between branches according to current demand. At Ydistri, we are developing a service that can analyze the stock and its sales potential across all branches of a chain and then provide smart redistribution.

  Smart redistribution is not a catch-all solution, and certain types of goods and components, such as chips, are in real short supply that cannot be solved elsewhere than in the Asian factory and distribution route. However, the availability of a significant number of goods would be significantly helped by smart redistribution.

  It is obvious that although conventional ordering systems have a demand prediction function, they can never be 100% accurate. Therefore, surpluses and, conversely, shortages of goods at individual stores must be additionally balanced using reliable and continuous redistribution. By evaluating the service with our customers over a long period, we have found that we have a success rate of more than 90% in predicting and selecting the right products for redistribution. Thanks to smart technology, stores can often tap into their unused inventory and avoid unnecessarily ordering goods that are sitting uselessly elsewhere.

 Products