Store requests

Store Requests is a feature that aims to improve the in-store experience, helping store personnel to better sell their products and better serve their customers.

Many situations might happen so there is no in-store stock, but there is the possibility to request the items from the warehouse. Store Requests, then, allow store personnel to place requests for warehouse stock, increasing the chances of sale. 

When a customer comes in and asks for a specific product and/or size, the shop assistant can use our mobile app to check whether they have the product in store stock, if the item is in-transit or if there is only availability in the warehouse, they can request it  directly from there. It is important to mention that the head office may accept or reject these requests, giving them flexibility on which stores can have their requests fulfilled from the warehouse.

Requests statuses can be checked on the mobile app and the approved ones will be sent to the store on the next replenishment. Once the product is sent , the shop assistant can contact the customer to let them know that they can come back to complete the transaction. 

Functionality process

A customer comes into a store to buy a product that the store does not have. The shop assistant uses the mobile app to order the product.

By clicking the "+" the user can search for the product, either manually by placing the product reference or scanning the barcode with the Scan  feature. When the product is not found, an empty screen with a message is displayed. If the search matches with some product, the following screen is shown.

Here, the user can check a simplified product card info and the different sizes with their respective availability. The user can proceed by adding or removing quantities to request by increasing the number of items requested. Requesting unavailable items might be impossible (because they would get automatically rejected). 

Moreover, the availability label might show "available" or "stockout" depending on the possibility of requesting the items from the warehouse. If the user decides to check details about the availability, the whole green/red label works as a button and by clicking on it a modal appears showing the following info:

Different stock info can be consulted in this modal: warehouse stock (depending on retailer's rules we might show the stock number or just a label), in-stock transit (stock already assigned to the store on next replenishment), and store stock (quantity already in store considering updates are not real-time).

When the user clicks on the "Continue" button, the store request is created and a response screen is immediately shown with a summary of the request and the status of the requested items per size. If an requested item is automatically approved, a green "Approved" message is displayed; if it is automatically rejected, a red "Rejected" message is displayed; and finally if the item need manual approval, a gray message "Pending" is displayed.

When manual approval flow is enabled, the pending requests will be shown in the web platform so the headquarters staff can check manually and approve the requests based on their own criteria.

Note: Two modes of replenishment are available and depending on properties set for each customer one of the following might happen:

1. Ensured delivery mode: All approved requests will go "on-top" of the replenishment. It means we ensure the delivery of the items to the store regardless of the optimization algorithm.

2. Optimization/regular mode: requested items represent a higher probability of sale, so the optimization algorithm takes that into account but does not ensure all the requests will be delivered. In cases of scarcity, approved requests might not result in sending items to that store.

Expiring requests

By default, we assume that the customer will come back to buy the product within 14 days of the product being requested. If in these 14 days the ordered unit(s) is/are not sold, we assume that the request has expired and it will not be displayed in the mobile app. 

Simultaneously, to measure this function's efficiency, we can track whether the store eventually sold the requested product. This is also helpful to ensure that stores are not using it irresponsibly. They are only requesting products which they are certain to sell. To do this, we track daily sales until the request expires to determine whether the unit(s) ordered is/are sold. If it is, we also consider that the request has expired and will flag it accordingly. In the web app Store Requests page, there is a column that shows how many units were sold of those requested. 

Maximum number of request per product

In order to limit a store's usage of the feature and ensure that they are using it responsibly, the maximum number of units per product that can be requested also be limited. This will apply to all active requests, meaning that if a store has recently requested 2 units and the maximum is set at 3, then it will only be able to order one other unit of the same product. As soon as the request expires, either because it timed out or is sold, the limit will adjust.