DSD, or Direct Store Delivery, offers huge benefits to all parties involved in the perishable foods industry. Did you know that DSD makes up 24% of unit sales and 52% of retail profits in the grocery channel? By increasing your volume at the store you will drive profits – and who doesn’t want to drive profits? The best way to make this happen is by implementing DSD software. DSD offers some major advantages to manufacturers and distributors which extend all the way to the end customer. Implementing DSD software will add new functionality to your business, including transparent inventory management, intelligent workflow options, and maximized productivity.
HarvestDSD
At Harvest Food Solutions we offer software solutions built from decades of actual use and experience. Built by routes for routes, HarvestDSD delivers your company a comprehensive and modern workflow. Best of all? It is software that is flexible and scalable to meet the growing demands of your customers. Here are five ways that HarvestDSD software can increase the sales of your perishable foods business:
1) Reduce labor costs.
The Grocery Manufacturers Association reports that direct store delivery accounts for as much as 25% of in-store labor. DSD not only directly benefits retailers but suppliers as well. Why is this the case? When a grocer or retailer struggles with product turnover or is heavily stocked with items that have a fast expiration, a DSD software shelf management system is what you need. Our DSD solutions are designed to maximize the productivity of your route sales by providing intelligent workflow options at the shelf. Having control over your products that have high turnover requires additional handling. The key to taking care of your customer is being able to be in your retailer. This ensures that your product’s tags are facing up and visible, the product is ordered, coded merchandise is returned, and bad merchandise is removed. By having these high-turnover items delivered, stocked, and managed by the distributor rather than the grocery’s retail employees you can increase loyalty and allow the supplier to increase their margin which in return drives profits.
2) Increase volume of items sold drives profits.
DSD brings you a whole new level of inventory management. HarvestDSD is configurable to manage everyday loads to complex, multi-day, multi-location, and directed picking of inventories – all at the pace of your business. You can even automate pick list adjustments that flow to your customer’s daily plans. The best part is that DSD offers enhanced, real-time inventory visibility on routes. When shelves are stocked and well maintained a higher volume of products can be sold.
3) Efficient accounting systems reduce costs.
Harvest Settlement enables complete control over your reconciliation process. With mobile route accounting software, you can offer an automatic collection of payments. The result is improved cash flow because payments can be collected in the field. Additionally, improved accounting systems will help reduce invoicing issues that affect the whole supply chain. Cleaner visibility for management across all sales operations can reduce finance time and audit fees spent reconciling invoices.
4) By influencing demand you can drive sales.
It is imperative to understand consumer demand when it comes to inventory management. HarvestDSD combines powerful forecasting with real-time market conditions that help you to track customer demands and product sales. The result? Successful ordering and inventory management. With a single-screen, multi-day ordering platform you can create permanent, temporary, and suggested orders specific to each customer. This is great for promotional and holiday orders and to reduce out-of-stocks and returns.
5) Improved customer experience builds loyalty.
Industry studies have shown that 70% of customers will leave the store and shop elsewhere if they don’t find what they want on the shelf. DSD software can give you much greater control over retail shelf space. This resonates with the end-consumer because shelves are adequately stocked, popular products are in stock, and there are a good variety of products available. A robust direct store delivery system like HarvestDSD can ensure faster and more accurate inventory management which contributes to a more positive in-store shopper experience.
Direct store delivery software is a crucial service for a perishable foods business. In order to stay relevant in this competitive field, you have to have the most efficient delivery system possible. That’s where Harvest Food Solutions comes in. Give us a call today to find out how our systems can help your business.
