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•Case Study: 7-ELEVEN Finds LXE Is The Right Fit For In-Store Productivity

By LXE

7-ELEVEN - The famous 7-Eleven name is actually shared by two different convenience store chains: the multi-national Southland conglomerate and a 106-store privately owned convenience chain in Oklahoma that shares its brand through a long-standing licensing agreement. President Ron Brown leads the family-run, Oklahoma City-based retailer, whose history stretches back more than 50 years. Oklahoma 7-Eleven stores specialize in understanding and meeting the needs of each neighborhood in the four counties where they operate, offering a varying mix of food, fuel and fast service.

Whether it's a 31,600-store chain or one a fraction of that size, accurate in-store inventory is key to controlling costs while always being in stock with the items customers demand. So when 7-Eleven of Oklahoma decided the time was right to implement handheld computers in stores to better track inventory, they wanted a brand that would stand up to the job – and a vendor that would stand behind them. LXE fit the bill on both counts, enabling the chain to implement its first automated in-store receiving and ordering solution and lower its overall inventory carrying costs.

No More Manual Inventory
"It's quite a change for us," says Gayle Crouch, director of IT for Oklahoma 7-Eleven. "We've been using a manual system, but with this system we can reduce inventory and do a better job in ordering, basing it on inventory and historical data."

Oklahoma 7-Eleven does not operate a warehouse, so inventory shipments are delivered right to its stores. The company had developed standard stock orders for each location, so each store received a location-specific list of the same items in the same quantities, no matter what had actually sold. That meant too little of some items and an excess of others – a real challenge in store locations with no backroom storage, and a source of frustration for customers when their favorite product was out of stock.

To address this issue, the company chose Retalix DemandAnalytX software. The application manages the receiving process for each store, and then uses historical POS and ordering data plus in-store inventory levels to calculate the right quantities for each store at each delivery.

Accurate data is the lifeblood of the system. 7- Eleven needed a handheld computing terminal that would offer ease of use, lightweight, and reliable performance. A color screen was important to properly display all of the Retalix software features. The retailer tested several brands in a pilot at headquarters to determine the best fit for the organization.

Click Here To Download:
•Case Study: 7-ELEVEN Finds LXE Is The Right Fit For In-Store Productivity