Making Money with Technology, Part 2
Prior to the pandemic, growth in Food Service was one the c-store industry’s largest trends. Today, c-store operators see that trend accelerating once again and since the average margin on a food service item is over 40%, everyone is paying attention. Last week I spoke with two c-store chains about their challenges with Food Service. Inventory was a very common theme and a huge pain point.
Prior to Taiga, I worked in the hospitality industry for 15 years. When it came to food and beverage services, the old saying was: “My profits always end up in the trash.” This came from the fact that even though these items have high margins, the cost of waste can easily wipe out any profits. For an independent c-store chain, preparing too many breakfast sandwiches can wipe out profits and preparing too few will cost you customers. How can operators satisfy customers while minimizing waste?
StoreKeep uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze historic sales, customer traffic, and precisely forecast inventory requirements.
- Every store has unique traffic patterns and customer preferences and to further complicate things, customer preferences change on a regular basis. To prepare the right amount of food, operators need to analyze each store independently. A chain with stores 50 miles apart will often find that they need a different menu let alone unique inventory requirements. StoreKeep provides customer traffic analysis and detailed analysis of each item on your menu all the way to the market basket.
- StoreKeep’s AI tracks and predicts the inventory requirements for every item at every store by the hour. Knowing your inventory in depth means that you know how many baskets of chicken tenders to prepare at 11AM and how many more to prepare for your late night shoppers at 10PM.
- Since StoreKeep is tracking the sell through rate of every item at a store, it will detect if your coffee sales have stopped at 8AM and alert the store manager to brew more coffee.
- StoreKeep also sends notifications if the forecast exceeds inventory on hand. Resolve any issues before an item sells out!
Knowing the exact inventory requirements for each store is crucial to maximizing sales of high-margin food service items and minimizing waste. “Knowing your Inventory in Depth” is a perfect example of the application of “Business Intelligence” to convenience store management.
The large chains spend five times more on Business Intelligence software than on accounting software. Why do they spend 5 times more? Because Business Intelligence is the technology that makes them money. Until now, Business Intelligence has been too expensive and too labor intensive for an independent chain. StoreKeep, from Taiga Data, makes Business Intelligence feasible and affordable for independent c-store chains. Compete with the big players! Click Here for a live demonstration.
