Product substitute is a feature in your dashboard that can automate the product alternative process for your orders.
Your office pantry products often go through ebbs and flows of reliability. For instance, sometimes a pandemic can hit, and your favorite soda manufacturer is short on their supply of 12 oz cans 😣! Boom - they decide to stop all production of Fresca for an undetermined period of time...
Substitute allows us to proactively solve out-of-stock issues by sending our client(s) a substitute product. Substitute products can resolve the following issues:
- Missed items: preferred products that will not have available inventory in time for a client delivery
- Can’t pick items: preferred products that cannot be successfully picked by the warehouse team because they either did not exist or were discovered to be undeliverable during the picking process
It makes the client order placement process more efficient by reducing the need for manual adjustments.
There are two different types of product substitutes: global and local.
Global Substitute
A global substitute is controlled and managed by Crafty's Procurement Team. Global substitute function universally across all client orders that have missed items, and all client orders that can't pick items.
We use a global substitute for products where there isn't any brand preference, such as produce items like bananas and some milk products where we may have two brands that are equivalent in price and quality.
Local Substitute
A local substitute is set and managed within individual client inventory centers, and local substitutes will override any global substitutes that may exist.
Crafty's Account Management team will work with our clients to establish the right substitute to help automate the substitution process where possible.
Interested in setting up some local substitutes in your inventory center? Get in touch with your Account Manager to get these in action!
As a note... we do not currently show which products are connected in your Crafty Dashboard, but that is currently in our product roadmap!