How Dunn Lumber is streamlining its merchandising
Dunn Lumber, a Seattle-based supplier with nine locations in the Puget Sound area, has partnered with LEAFIO AI Retail Solutions to streamline its operations. The project's goal is to implement the LEAFIO Shelf Efficiency solution for space optimization and merchandising automation.
Dunn Lumber is a family-owned company founded in 1907. It specializes in the supply of lumber and building materials for homeowners and their contractor customer base. The chain, which carries about 18,000 SKUs, includes nine stores and one distribution center.
Before implementing new technology, the company’s merchandising department faced several problems with the manual management of merchandising processes, such as:
- Inconsistent use of shelf space due to the lack of a unified system for developing and integrating planograms.
- Limited flexibility and scalability when working with planograms and layout planning as a result of the need for a large amount of manual labor.
- Difficulty in tracking the implementation of planograms, which carried the risk of inconsistencies and possible sales losses.
- Lack of analytics on the effectiveness of display and use of the sales floor space.
These issues limited Dunn's capabilities and made it difficult to control the display of goods on the shelves. To overcome these challenges, Dunn Lumber decided to implement LEAFIO Shelf Efficiency, a cloud-based merchandising automation solution.
- “I am thrilled to be collaborating with LEAFIO AI and their innovative Shelf Efficiency solution. This solution will revolutionize the way we implement and execute planograms and store designs, ensuring a more efficient and dynamic retail environment. We are confident that this partnership with LEAFIO AI will greatly enhance our operational efficiency and provide our customers with an even better shopping experience,” said Tyler Banken, Dunn Lumber's VP of purchasing and technology.
Dunn anticipates that the implementation of the new tech will provide: - Balanced planograms where attractiveness equals efficiency.
- Optimized product planning and reduced staff workload.
- Easy layout management in all of the chain’s nine stores.
- Guaranteed compliance with the planogram thanks to simple monitoring mechanisms.
- Resources saved by eliminating printed materials in favor of effective digital tools.
The new tech implementation is currently in progress, and Dunn says the project is ahead of schedule as the first stage, which involves studying the company’s processes, is nearing completion.
Dunn Lumber expects that the implementation will optimize resources for merchandising processes -- and generally increase customer satisfaction.
