RPA Platform
UiPath
Industry: Retail & Consumer Goods | Solution: Intelligent RPA & Data-Driven Distribution Planning
Intelligent SKU DistribuIntelligent SKU Distribution Automation for Retail Operations
1. Problem
Efficient product distribution across retail stores requires organizations to analyze historical sales performance, current inventory levels, product information, and business-specific allocation rules.
The existing SKU distribution process relied heavily on complex Excel-based calculations and manual data consolidation from multiple sources, including InstoreView. This made distribution planning time-consuming, difficult to maintain, and susceptible to calculation inconsistencies.
As product volumes, store locations, and allocation criteria increased, maintaining consistent distribution decisions across customers and stores became increasingly challenging.
2. Approach
We designed an automated, data-driven SKU distribution solution to streamline the end-to-end allocation process.
The approach combined historical SellOut data, current Stock data, product information, and configurable business rules to calculate recommended product quantities for individual retail stores.
The solution was designed to:
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Consolidate sales and inventory data from multiple sources.
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Analyze historical sales performance across brands, customers, and stores.
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Apply configurable allocation criteria based on business requirements.
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Adjust distribution quantities according to historical performance and stock-related conditions.
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Generate a structured Excel output to support distribution planning and operational decision-making.
Implementation
- Data Collection
- Retrieved SellOut and Stock datasets from InstoreView and loaded the required business inputs from Excel.
- Data Preparation
- Processed and organized sales, inventory, product, customer, and store-level information for subsequent calculations.
- Sales Analysis
- Calculated brand contribution and relative sales weights across relevant customers and stores using historical sales data.
- Rule-Based Allocation
- Applied configurable distribution criteria to determine store-level quantities. Depending on the selected criteria, the solution adjusted allocations based on required quantities, historical stock references, brand contribution, and store sales performance.
- Period-Based Calculations
- Evaluated the relevant historical months specified in the business input file and performed the required calculations to determine appropriate allocation values.
- Output Generation
- Produced a structured Excel file containing recommended SKU quantities for each store, ready for business review and downstream distribution planning.
4. Results
The automation established a standardized workflow for processing sales and inventory data and calculating store-level product allocations.
Key outcomes include:
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Reduced dependence on manual Excel-based calculations.
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Improved consistency in applying distribution rules across stores and products.
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Streamlined consolidation and processing of sales and inventory information.
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Enabled repeatable allocation calculations using configurable business criteria.
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Improved visibility into recommended SKU quantities through structured output reporting.
Quantitative performance improvements, such as processing time saved, number of SKUs processed, store coverage, and reduction in manual effort, can be added once validated project metrics are available.
5. Business Impact
The solution supports more efficient, consistent, and scalable retail distribution planning by transforming a complex manual calculation process into a repeatable automated workflow.
By combining historical sales insights with current stock information and business-defined allocation rules, the organization can make more structured distribution decisions and reduce the operational effort required to prepare allocation plans.
The automated approach also provides a foundation for scaling distribution planning across additional products, stores, customers, and allocation criteria as business requirements evolve.
Tech Stack
Data Sources
InstoreView SellOut and Stock reports
Data Processing
Excel, structured data transformation, and rule-based calculations
Business Rules
Configurable Excel-based allocation criteria
Output
Excel-based SKU distribution recommendations
Technology stack reflects the described workflow and should be verified against the final SDD before publication.