BOULDER, Colo. -- To reduce in-store ordering time and increase product variety, natural-foods retailer Wild Oats Markets here has adopted a Web-based ordering system.
The system, from OrderDog, Lewisville, Texas, was installed at all of the chain's 102 stores last month, following a two-month rollout.
In selecting the system, Wild Oats was principally seeking a more efficient ordering system for direct-from-manufacturer orders, which make up more than 60% of orders, said Kristen Harman, national sales manager for the chain.
In addition, she noted, the chain wanted to provide its customers with a larger product assortment while keeping its authorized product list intact and maintaining the integrity of its planograms.
Harman said Wild Oats' previous system was extremely inefficient and labor-intensive, "taking our salespeople away from serving customers."
With the OrderDog system, Wild Oats' employees order from all direct vendors at one time using a handheld scanner, which uploads orders by a dial-up connection into a PC, which sorts them into individual vendors. Employees log in to review orders, make changes, and add special orders. Then they submit the orders, which are routed to each vendor. This cuts order time by 75%.
Harman said that based on an earlier eight-week test at one store, other benefits of the system include decreased out-of-stocks, the ability to place more frequent orders ("just in time" ordering), increased order accuracy, real-time tracking of order status, automated special orders from authorized vendors, and faster deliveries.
"These efficiencies provide the department with the flexibility to devote more time on customer service, education, sales, and other department responsibilities," she said. "If a customer comes in looking for a particular item and we do not have it on the shelf, the staff member can go into the OrderDog system and look up a product by vendor, product description, category, etc. This means that our stores can potentially order any item a customer wants."
