Receiving inventory in stores
Senior Product Designer • React Native
Watch a video walkthrough of this project here! (11 mins)
PROBLEM
The existing process for receiving inventory in stores had many challenges for both store teams, and Foxtrot's corporate teams.
It was a clunky process and the receiving tool in Backbone, our internal web tool, had not been updated in a long time, so it was clunky and led to user frustration and lack of consistent use from store teams.
That lack of consistent use then led to a lack of visibility to corporate teams into what was actually received in stores vs. what was ordered.
SOLUTION
Create a receiving experience in Quickstep, our mobile app used in stores. By receiving inventory on a mobile device, store teams were able to receive inventory with more efficiency and accuracy. Increased adoption led to better inventory accuracy and more informed decision making for our corporate teams.
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Inventory accuracy up 60% across all stores
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Better adoption of receiving operational processes in stores, with a 90% success rate* of POs in Q4 (up from 74% at launch in Q3)
*Success rate means the PO is received or marked as a no-show within 24 hours of expected delivery
Old receiving functionality in Backbone
PROJECT BACKGROUND
The team that I worked on at the time owned two internal products, Backbone (a web based tool) and Quickstep (a mobile app). Our tech and product strategy was to move all store team tasks that require technology from Backbone to Quickstep. Since store team members are extremely busy and constantly moving throughout the store, we wanted their key activities to be able to be completed on a mobile device.
Receiving inventory was one of those tasks that was still being completed in Backbone, but we believed that redesigning and rebuilding the receiving experience in Quickstep would make the receiving process easier and more efficient for store teams, and would also give us the opportunity to solve for several challenges that existed with the old receiving process.
MY ROLE
As senior product designer, I owned the research throughout this project, which included user interviews, user observation, stakeholder interviews, and usability testing. I also managed stakeholder alignment, as the receiving process concerns many teams at Foxtrot and it was crucial to keep all stakeholders informed of the design progress. I also owned the design of the UI, from initial iterations to final documentation shared with engineers.
RESEARCH: UNCOVERING KEY CHALLENGES
Adoption of the existing receiving tool was low, Purchase Orders were often not closed out in Backbone, even if the inventory was delivered to the store
INVENTORY INACCURACIES
Inventory would not get updated to accurately reflect the items on the shelves. This would lead to missed sales if an item showed as out of stock online, but actually had inventory.
It also led to further inventory inaccuracies since our automated ordering systems relied on inventory numbers to place future orders.
LACK OF VENDOR ACCOUNTABILITY
The merchandise and supply chain teams did not have a reliable way to confirm if what was ordered was received.
They could not track if any delivered items were damaged or even entirely missing from the order, and therefore could not follow up with vendors to remedy any issues.
RESEARCH: STAKEHOLDER ALIGNMENT
I had frequent conversations with stakeholders to define their needs and to review iterations of the initial flows before building out the designs further.
STAKEHOLDER GOALS
We aligned with stakeholders regularly throughout the project, since there were many key stakeholders and each group had unique goals they were concerned with.
RESEARCH: USABILITY TESTING
THE SOLUTION
A two part process for receiving - the first part requiring users to mark an order as 'delivered' to check it in, and the second part being the actual receiving of inventory
CHECK IN A DELIVERY
High level overview of expected contents of a PO
'No show' and check in functionality to help hold vendors accountable to agreed upon delivery dates
RECEIVE INVENTORY
Functionality to report issues to enable vendor accountability
Scanning functionality allows for blind receiving, so store teams can focus on inputting the items that were received
RESULTS
Our receiving functionality in Quickstep has been in use at all 32 Foxtrot stores since mid-2023, with hundreds of users and nearly 50,000 POs received. The feature had a major impact on our key metrics, including:
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Inventory accuracy up 60% across all stores
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Better adoption of receiving operational processes in stores, with a 90% success rate* of Purchase Orders in Q4 (up from 74% at launch in Q3)
*Success rate means the PO is checked in and received or marked as a no-show within 24 hours of its expected delivery
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