British supermarket Waitrose is rolling out a new AI-based forecasting capability from supply chain management firm Blue Yonder, with the aim of improving the already high levels of availability across the retailer’s stores and enhancing customer satisfaction.
Rather than relying on historical sales data and human intuition, the AI forecasting capability, which is part of Blue Yonder Demand Planning, focuses on customer behaviour and analyses “why” customers bought what they did rather than just “what” they bought.
According to Blue Yonder, the capability understands and learns from the trading environment to provide a better forecast based on customer behaviour. For example, it will learn how customers responded to a variety of influences including weather variations, major sporting and cultural events and promotions.
Waitrose’s latest investment in Blue Yonder technology builds on the already successful deployment of Blue Yonder Fulfilment and Warehouse Management solutions used within the retailer’s organisation.
Partnership benefits
The latest upgrade is part of a significant investment in technology across Waitrose’s supply chain and is designed to improve availability, which already stands at record levels, the retailer noted.
The forecasting investment is also expected to improve customer satisfaction score by increasing on-shelf availability and refocusing store partners from manual ordering to more strategic customer-oriented tasks.
Furthermore, it will leverage AI capabilities to ingest and analyse massive volumes of data without overwhelming users; assess risks by weighing different forecasting outcomes; determine stock volumes dynamically to minimise waste; and respond to demand fluctuations automatically, quickly and accurately.
More accurate forecasts
“Whether we are planning for a major sporting final or the first cold snap of the winter, there can be multiple factors affecting what our customers buy,” said Alison Maffin, Waitrose Supply Chain Director. “The Blue Yonder solution will learn from previous experience and help us predict this more accurately so we can be confident we have the stock our customers want.
“This will allow us to produce a much more accurate forecast for our suppliers and logistics partners but will also result in less wastage and better availability for our customers,” Maffin added.
