Optimize your stock with our “Advanced Inventory Insights”

Understanding your stock

The DHL Fulfillment Network shines a clear light on this for customers, with our Advanced Inventory Insights: a tool that deepens customers’ understanding of their stock, meaning that not only can they view their inventory in detail, but they can take actions to maximise sales, minimise losses as well as cut costs.

Customers ask themselves: What are my current stock levels across all the DHL warehouses I use? Which SKUs are running low, and in which warehouse? Do I keep too much stock? My stocks in Spain are low: could I move excess stock there from Poland? I have 300 units in stock: if projected forwards, will this cover me for two months of orders, or three? How can I track our goods with use-by dates more closely?

Easy to use

While large players have dedicated teams looking after replenishment and logistics, this is certainly not a standard for all. We believe that every business deserves world-class fulfillment and inventory management is an important part of this. All our customers benefit equally from the Advanced Inventory Insights tool, which comes as standard for DHL Fulfillment Network customers. It has been designed to be customer focused, with a series of easy-to-use, intuitive dashboards. Tutorials and a ‘read me’ area guide our customers through the platform.

Co-developed in conjunction with our existing customers, the platform is purposely designed to provide analytics with a keen focus on actions: five key areas, denoted as ‘action areas’ in the tool, allow customers to make informed decisions based on the data, and take concrete action.

Searches can be customized: for example, a customer planning for a forthcoming peak season can view at a glance and in detail their inventory movements last peak season, per SKU. How often did we have stock-outs? How fast did each SKU sell? What was our return rate? Once a search filter has been applied, this can be bookmarked, which means that customers can easily revisit their search and plan and track progress over time.

Furthermore, the tool provides suggestions for customers: for example, if you have overstocks, it may suggest selling these at a discount, or moving them to a location where stocks are low. It also provides industry benchmarks, arming customers with knowledge against which they can weigh up their own inventory management approach.

Forward planning

What if my post-Christmas sales slump more than I expect? What if a particular SKU doubles in sales? The tool allows customers to examine ‘what-if’ scenarios, again with a strong focus on highlighting actions customers can take to prepare.

Another key feature of the tool is that it uses data to project required stock levels into the future relative to sales history, allowing customers to generate a ‘purchase advise list’, i.e. a listing of suggested orders to place with their suppliers. This is particularly useful for customers who need to factor in long manufacturing or shipping leadtimes.

Innovating for your future

At DHL, we place a great focus on digitalization, and invest continually in innovations in our service offering. The investment in this tool has been made for the benefit of all DHL Fulfillment Network customers, and has been created with one goal in mind:  We want to help your business grow.  

Your business deserves world-class fulfillment: with our tool, let your inventory management be a strategic part of your success.