Why Store Inventory Visibility Is Crucial in Omnichannel Retail

In today’s omnichannel retail environment, stores are no longer mere endpoints but vital supply chain nodes. This shift is reshaping how retailers manage inventory, labor, and fulfillment.

Leading technology partnerships, such as GreyOrange and Zebra Technologies, are pioneering near-real-time, location-specific inventory visibility inside stores. This capability enables retailers to tightly close the loop between store execution, inventory planning, and supply chain decision-making.

Stores Become Critical Fulfillment and Planning Assets

Stores used to be seen primarily as sales points with inventory accuracy treated as a backend concern. Now, thanks to innovations like Zebra’s SmartLens RFID technology combined with GreyOrange’s gStore execution platform, retailers gain actionable insights at the inventory location level—where stock sits on sales floors or in back rooms, updated roughly every ten minutes.

Why does location matter? In ship-from-store environments, even slight delays finding items can wipe out the cost benefits of local fulfillment due to increased labor and slower shipments.

Closing the Loop from Store Execution to Supply Chain Planning

The real value lies not merely in tracking inventory but in using this data to prioritize tasks, trigger replenishments, and optimize labor inside stores. This creates a closed feedback loop where store-level activities such as merchandising changes or promotions dynamically inform upstream decisions like warehouse allocation and transportation planning.

Addressing Persistent Visibility Gaps

Despite progress, visibility gaps remain a thorny challenge, especially in complex wholesale and multi-brand ecosystems where inventory visibility is fragmented. Without timely shared visibility downstream to upstream, even sophisticated forecasting models degrade in accuracy. Retailers are demanding tighter, real-time feedback loops connecting stores and warehouses to maintain planning precision.

AI as a Practical Tool Within Workflows

While artificial intelligence is often touted broadly, Gupta warns that AI’s power is only realized when embedded in specific, tangible workflows like inventory location accuracy, task prioritization, and execution speed.

Transforming Store-Level Decision Making and Labor Allocation

Traditionally intuitive store decisions—how to replenish, where to allocate labor between fulfillment and customer service, and how to plan visual merchandising—are moving towards data-driven precision. This labor and execution intelligence directly impacts fulfillment effectiveness, service levels, and overall supply chain responsiveness.

Strategic Implications for Retailers and Supply Chain Leaders

The shift towards real-time, location-aware store inventory intelligence signals a maturing omnichannel supply chain approach focused on resilience and integration rather than isolated retail optimization. Retailers must treat stores as integrated supply chain assets rather than informational dead ends to improve speed, reduce costs, and make better decisions across planning, fulfillment, and labor management.

Real-time store inventory visibility is rapidly becoming indispensable in omnichannel supply chains. By linking inventory location data to execution workflows and upstream supply chain planning, retailers can create more agile, accurate, and efficient operations. As Akash Gupta highlights, data-driven, AI-embedded solutions targeting specific problems unlock true value beyond abstract AI promises.

Investing in integrated inventory intelligence builds supply chain resilience grounded in information flow instead of mere physical redundancy. Retailers and supply chain leaders should prioritize closing visibility gaps to sustain planning accuracy and operational excellence in a complex, omnichannel world.

Learn more from the original analysis at Supply Chain Management Review.