Automatic Substitution for unavailable items II
THE PROBLEM
Providing substitutes for unavailable items in customer orders is challenging. Some online retailers send their employees to physical stores to pick products. If an ordered item is unavailable, an employee typically chooses the same brand in a different size, or a different brand in a similar size, if these are available. Selecting different brands is difficult since few employees have in-depth knowledge of all products in the store. Also, employees are unable to take into account other customers' orders or warehouse inventory availability to make substitution decisions that maximize overall customer satisfaction. Thus, ad hoc decisions by employees often result in unsatisfactory order substitution.
THE SOLUTION
Our proprietary solutions can automate substitution of unavailable items in customer orders. Our solutions allow a customer to forbid her entire order or certain items in her order from being substituted. Alternatively, substitution can be performed based on customer preferences. Other products can also be restricted from being substituted, for example, if they are regulated items. Our solution can also forbid a substituted product from being the same as a product already in the customer order.
Customers are typically not that thrilled if their products have been substituted. Our solutions can regain customer loyalty using different techniques. For example, one way is to substitute an oversold non-premium item with a premium brand item. Another way is to substitute an oversold item with an item of the same brand but larger in size. However, the customer only has to pay the smaller size price. Yet another approach is that the customer does not even have to pay for the substituted item if such item has a short shelf life.
Sometimes, the supplier of an oversold product may want to determine the response. Our solution can alert the supplier when their item has been oversold. It can then be up to the supplier to decide what and how to substitute.
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