“With Optiply, our stock has decreased by 30%. This allows for new product additions and efficient stock allocation.”
Roel Linders, Non-food Buyer at XXL Nutrition
More forecasting
Better insight into sales, trends, stock outs and delivery times
The right integration
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More real-time insight
Responding to market demand with the right data
XXL Nutrition: from hobby to brand among athletes
Dietary supplements help athletes recover better between training sessions, replenish essential nutrients, to have more energy and improve performance. XXL Nutrition is a sports nutrition brand providing athletes with sports and lifestyle products on a daily basis.
Founder and owner, René van de Zel, also calls XXL Nutrition a hobby that got out of hand, where there were gradually a lot of opportunities: “We started out in bodybuilding, but we soon saw that there was also interest in our product in other quarters. Where I once did everything myself in the beginning, we now have a team of 65 and growing. We arrange everything in-house, including product development, webshop maintenance, warehousing and logistics. We have only outsourced the production, but all products are made from our own recipes.”
A stock out of balance
XXL Nutrition has now become a household name among athletes. By offering the highest possible quality as the basis of their products, XXL Nutrition has been able to scale up in company size. This increase in success has also created the necessary challenges. René says:
“Obviously you don’t want your products to run out of stock. It was a huge challenge to determine when to order. We worked with minimum and maximum order quantities that we set. As soon as the stock dropped, we started ordering. This seemed useful at first, but it’s a static way. Changes in sales are not included in this, so we were either always too late or too early to order. We wanted something more dynamic that updated automatically.”
Ordering too late or too early caused an inventory to be out of balance, where overstock and stockouts threatened to increase. XXL Nutrition needed a tool that could make better predictions to better maintain stock levels.
Your purchasing process is becoming too time-consuming? Discover what Optiply can do for your e-commerce business.
Data forecasting for the right purchasing strategy
In the current system, XXL Nutrition’s buyers could work with minimum and maximum stock, which was insufficient for stock optimisation. After Optiply was integrated with Exact, purchasers could immediately start purchasing based on sales history. The team works with multiple buyers in the Optiply app. Roel Linders, purchaser of non-food products, explains how he now purchases:
“I use the tool on a daily basis. I look at the sales figures and the purchasing advice from Optiply, and adjust my purchasing numbers accordingly. It shows in real-time what you expect to sell in the future so that I know that I always buy on time.”
Room for new product additions
Having very little control or insight into stock is a stumbling block for many shops. XXL Nutrition has overcome this challenge. By means of the ABC categorization, Optiply prioritises products with a higher gross margin and deposits a higher reserve stock for them. The predicted stock is translated into purchasing advice that is updated in real time based on the data from Exact.
The AI purchasing algorithm not only analyses different product categories but trends, seasons, stockouts, delivery times, volume discounts and supplier performance. XXL Nutrition works for most products with one supplier, and for products with multiple suppliers. The best supplier at that time is automatically recommended in the purchasing advice.
Insight into the flow of goods has allowed XXL Nutrition to focus on new products and other things that continue to grow the brand to this day: “Since using Optiply, our stock has decreased by 30%, which means that we have more room for new product additions and our stock is organised much more efficiently.”
“The biggest advantage of Optiply is that you have an idea of your expected sales figures. I adjust the purchases accordingly here and there. We do not have excess stock, which means that you retain more liquid assets in your company.”
Your purchasing process is becoming too time-consuming? Discover what Optiply can do for your business.
Fewer no sales and higher customer satisfaction
With the AI purchasing algorithm, the sports brand has been able to get a better grip on market demand. Roel explains: “It is actually two-part. On the one hand, I have insight into how well we are actually doing with our stock and whether we can answer market demand. On the other hand, I can determine exactly what I should buy.”
The purchasing process has been simplified considerably so that the right products are ordered in the right quantities: “No sales have fallen by 25%. That is not only good for turnover, it is also good for customer satisfaction because our products are in stock at all times.”
More customer satisfaction and turnover with a healthy stock
A reduced stock and few stockouts are an important goal for XXL Nutrition. As a result, the sports brand has managed to achieve a high delivery rate. This is positive for customer satisfaction. The chance of no sales is smaller and fewer unnecessary costs are incurred on stock. With this, XXL Nutrition achieves the necessary turnover with minimal stock and, according to Roel, they have enough room for further growth:
“The biggest advantage of Optiply is that you have an idea of your expected sales figures, here and there I adjust the purchases accordingly. That is why we do not have excess stock, which means that you retain more liquid assets in your company.”
With Optiply, XXL Nutrition achieved:
%
Less stock
%
Less no sales
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Start with data-driven purchasing
Do you experience challenges in the field of purchasing? Is your stock always out of balance because you always miss out on the right numbers? Do you find it difficult to determine when to start buying?
Schedule a demo! Within 30 minutes, we’ll talk to you about how Optiply can help you optimise your inventory.