FranceRetail and e-commerce2017 – ongoingMr.Bricolage
ProOrder machine-learning tool for weekly store orders
Mr.Bricolage tested ProOrder in about 100 stores and cut screws-and-nails ordering from 2 hours to 20 minutes
Problem
A Mr.Bricolage store carries 35,000 to 50,000 product references, and staff built each weekly order by hand. A department such as screws and nails, with 1,500 to 2,000 references, took about 2 hours to order.
Approach
The retailer used ProOrder, a machine-learning tool that generates weekly order forms for each product category. Store staff review and approve the forms. About 100 stores tested it, with one week of training per store, and the Mr.Bricolage stores were to be fully equipped by the end of 2018. About 80% of the stores are run by independent owners.
Results
Takeaway
Most of the machine-made order forms were accepted without changes, so store staff only reviewed the exceptions. The figures come from the retailer and the test stores.
Categories
- Industry
- Retail and e-commerce
- Business function
- Logistics and supply chain
- Innovation type
- Process innovation
- AI technology
- Predictive analytics and ML
- Adoption
- Vendor solution
- Evidence
- Company's own claim
Sources
Source summaries
The article describes ProOrder, which generates weekly order forms per product category. It reports a 4% sales rise and a 10% stock fall in about 100 test stores, 80% of forms approved unchanged, and ordering for one department cut from 2 hours to 20 minutes. The total IT investment was under 10 million euros, and the AI share was not given.
Full details are in the original sources.