Cannabis distributors and brands have been facing difficult challenges in today’s economy, forcing them to operate with the utmost care in how they plan their production, and manage their marketing and sales. With supply of cannabis flower and products almost 2-3x that of the demand, margins have become increasingly thin, and operators are starting to think more deeply about how to optimize the supply chain, resulting in the need for technology that solves real-world problems today.
One key problem facing the industry is access to real time inventory visibility. In the pursuit of becoming more effective in managing the supply chain, brands and distributors rely on retailer data that is often available at a broader level than needed to operate optimally and avoid unnecessary revenue loss. Having insights into what’s selling, what’s not selling, the cost of having and not having a product on the shelf, how certain campaigns are performing and so on, requires access to things like product velocity and current inventory, which are not easily available to most vendors. Retailers, already bogged down from endless tasks, have to field endless requests for the aforementioned, leading to aggregate effects of inefficiencies that harm the supply chain as a whole.
This is why we’re proud to announce Distru Connect as a way to help improve the dynamics of the vendor-retailer relationship by ensuring all parties have access to the same inventory data, sell-thru rates, days to stock out and other tools needed to operate efficiently in the market today. Specifically, Distru Connect equips brands and distributors with powerful tools that enable them to:
- Forecast opportunities
- Shorten the order cycle
- Control inventory costs and production risks with inventory visibility
- Set inventory par level alerts
- Optimize their product mix and more
-
The key to vendor success is in managing product costs more diligently, driving a shift toward more of a just-in-time manufacturing production model whereby inventory is created to meet demand instead of in surplus. Knowing how to spend and tracking return on investment are of the utmost importance, and Distru Connect is positioned to help them do just that.
Downstream in the supply chain, Distru Connect empowers retailers by:
- Helping them avoid costly stock-out events of their top selling products
- Reduce payments to brands by optimizing days of inventory on hand
- Minimize the back and forth requests around communicating inventory levels and campaign effectiveness
-
Retailers get a supplemental look into their inventory performance across multiple locations with normalized, Metrc-backed inventory data, that is also visible to their vendors. This frees up valuable retailer time from responding to reorder requests where current inventory levels are required to be communicated as vendors have access to the same data. In short, Distru Connect provides vendors and retailers with a dashboard they can trust and helps drive productive dialogue and collaboration.
At Distru, we believe the time is now for cannabis businesses to start thinking differently about how they work together to create efficiencies and improve margins for all players in the ecosystem, and it is our thesis that this will only happen with transparency and the sharing of Metrc-backed inventory (and associated) data in a safe and secure environment. Although there are others in the space trying to offer retail visibility and enable vendor-managed inventory, we at Distru are working closely with our brand partners to rethink retail procurement altogether.
To learn more and/or to request a personalized demo, please visit Distru Connect
