The retail world is evolving at speed – and any software that wants to remain cutting-edge must evolve at the same pace.
At Inventory Planner by Sage, we are committed to leading the field in demand forecasting and purchasing. As part of the Sage family, we continuously invest in R&D, not just listening to customer ideas and suggestions but acting on them.
In the coming months, we have lots of exciting updates and features planned. We recently hosted a webinar to reveal the features and improvements we’ve been working hard on behind the scenes.
The full webinar is now available on catch-up, but here’s a handy round-up of some of the most exciting announcements.
1. Enhanced Shopify connector
We’re getting ready to enhance our integration with Shopify that reflects the latest improvements to the Shopify platform, including an emphasis on B2B sales and better catalogue support.
Matthew de Beer, Senior Product Manager at Inventory Planner by Sage, explained: “Data is at the heart of our customer success.”
“The key part of Inventory Planner’s success is how we unlock data through our wide range of native connectors. In the last six months, we’ve delivered updates to our connectors to Vend, Lightspeed, Zoho, ShipBob, Odoo, BigCommerce and Amazon.”
“Thanks to our relationship with Shopify, we’re making under-the-hood changes to our Shopify connector to ensure we are always aligned with the latest Shopify changes and improvements.”
2. New GA4 connector
Released in August, our latest Google Analytics connector supports multiple properties for the first time.
Matthew said: “A major benefit is that customers can now connect each online properly to the relevant data source connector for targeted insights.”
3. Advanced CSV connector
Our CSV connector has always been a well-used option for customers that want to connect data from a custom source that doesn’t have a native integration, but we received feedback from customers that processing times and a lack of data fields sometimes caused issues.
Our advanced version, which will be released in September to Early Adopters, simplifies the uploading process, offers progress visibility and error reports.
Matthew said: “We are happy to announce that we are developing our Advanced CSV connector. It will offer reduced file sizes and a full range of data fields so you can benefit from the 200+ metrics that already exist on Inventory Planner.”
4. Easy access forecasting insights
Updates to Inventory Planner’s standard and premium plans will provide key insights at a glance.
This will help you understand how forecasts were calculated so you can confidently make purchases. It will also help you easily monitor sales performance for signs of deviation from forecasts, so adjustments can be made at the earliest opportunity.
5. Multi-delivery and Split Blanket PO functionality
Over the last few months, Early Adopters have already been benefitting from the ability to create Multi-delivery POs – combining multiple POs for a single vendor while retaining individual delivery locations.
Matthew said: This has the huge benefit of allowing retailers to meet supplier MOQs (minimum order quantities) and access bulk pricing, while maintaining the ability to see and manage granular detail.
Now, we are taking this further and preparing to launch Split Blanket POs. This will enable retailers to create a blanket PO with a supplier in order to meet MOQ and get bulk pricing, and then to split the order for delivery to different destinations as location-specific demand emerges.
This exciting feature will launch to Early Adopters later this year.
Want to be the first to access our new features? Apply to join the Early Adopter program now.