Merchandising & Buying
Vendor submission and sample triage
Screen unsolicited vendor product submissions against range gaps, price architecture, margin thresholds, and compliance requirements, so buyers review the genuinely relevant ones first.
40–60%
reduction in submission review time
Opportunity assessment
Minor improvement. Small efficiency gain with limited effect on overall turnover or bottom line.
Relatively straightforward. Off-the-shelf tools handle the core task. Implementation is well-understood with good examples to follow.
Light data requirements. Uses straightforward inputs — documents, product descriptions, customer records — that are usually accessible with minimal prep.
Low risk. Limited external exposure. A human reviews output before it reaches anyone outside the team.
Light people impact. A new tool slots into an existing workflow. Minimal training needed. Most people will adapt quickly.
Tooling required
Things to consider
Buyers ignore most submissions because there is no time, which means genuinely good products are missed at random rather than on merit. Screening changes that from random to reasoned.
Do not auto-reject. Rank into tiers and make sure the bottom tier still gets a quarterly human skim, because novel products by definition do not match existing range gaps.
Vendors will learn what the screen rewards and write to it. Refresh the criteria periodically and weight actual product attributes over submission wording.
Experiment starter: Score a year of past submissions and check where the ones you actually listed ranked. If most listed products landed in the top tier, the screen works; if they are spread evenly, your criteria are not capturing what buyers value.
Go deeper in the playbook
Section — Opportunity Identification, including the AI Opportunity Assessment ScorecardSection — RAG and Knowledge Systems: Unlocking Proprietary DataThis is an decision support opportunity — see the relevant playbook section for how to approach it.More in Merchandising & Buying
Product description writing
Generate first-draft product descriptions from attributes, imagery, and brand guidelines. Buying team reviews, edits, and approves before publish.
Supplier spec sheet extraction
Extract structured product data from unstructured supplier spec sheets, PDFs, and email attachments. Outputs clean records ready for system upload.
Range review analysis
Summarise sales performance, markdown rates, and return data by category to surface underperformers and inform ranging decisions.
AI Transformation Playbook
Ready to assess your own opportunities?
The playbook gives you the full 150-opportunity directory, scoring tools, and 100+ templates for every stage of an AI transformation programme.