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Protect availability, and margin, from forecast to fulfillment

Connect demand, replenishment and fulfillment on one intelligent platform, so you can serve customers reliably and reduce waste and cost

The Ocado Smart Platform helps grocery retailers turn changing demand into better inventory decisions and a customer promise the operation can keep. It connects the decisions that determine what to stock, where to place it and what to promise shoppers. As demand changes, forecasting, replenishment and slot-specific availability work together to help protect sales, reduce waste and use working capital more effectively across the network.

Shopper selecting fresh vegetables while holding a shopping basket
Less than 1% food waste and purge
Ocado Retail: 98 % velocity-weighted availability
  95 % of recommended purchase orders accepted unchanged
Over 25 years operating online
grocery at scale

Availability depends on connected decisions

Grocery demand changes by product, location, day and delivery slot, while fresh and perishable ranges leave little room for error. Too little stock loses sales and weakens the customer promise. Too much ties up working capital and increases waste. When forecasting, purchasing, replenishment and online availability rely on separate data and planning cycles, teams spend more time reconciling decisions while local conditions keep changing. Retailers need a connected system that turns expected demand into inventory action and a credible promise to the shopper.

How Ocado strengthens the supply chain

Forecast demand
Machine learning models use historical demand and live signals, including in-cart activity, to predict what shoppers will want by product, location and delivery slot.
Automate replenishment
Recommended purchase orders and replenishment decisions are generated across the network, reducing routine planning work and helping teams focus on exceptions.
Accurate availability

Slot-specific availability shows customers what can be delivered within their chosen service window, so the promise reflects available stock and fulfillment capacity.

Learn from outcomes
Demand, fulfillment and replenishment outcomes feed back into the models, helping forecasts and recommendations improve over time.

From forecast to customer promise

Supply chain planning dashboard displayed on a laptop
Demand forecasting

Improves the view of expected sales at the product, location and slot level where inventory and service decisions are made.

Warehouse worker wearing a hard hat and high-visibility vest using a tablet beside stacked pallets
Inventory intelligence

Helps retailers position inventory across the network and respond as demand changes.

Person using a laptop beside boxes and packing materials
Recommended purchase orders

Reduce routine planning work so teams can focus on exceptions and commercial judgment.

 

Two staff members monitoring operational dashboards across multiple screens in an Ocado control room
Slot specific availability

Aligns the digital promise with available inventory and the operation’s ability to fulfill the order, including freshness and minimum-life commitments.

Grocery store employee using a tablet beside fresh produce
Continuous optimization

Uses actual outcomes to refine forecasting and replenishment decisions over time.

A leaner supply chain that serves customers better

High availability and low waste depend on connected decisions. Better forecasts improve purchasing and replenishment. Better inventory positions make availability more accurate, reducing the risk of substitutions or disappointment after checkout. Within Ocado Smart Platform, these supply chain decisions connect with ecommerce, fulfillment and last mile so the promise shown to the shopper reflects what the wider operation can deliver.

Customer shopping for groceries on a laptop

Built through live grocery operations

Ocado began as an online grocer and has spent more than 25 years solving the operational trade-offs between availability, freshness, waste and margin. That experience now extends across live commerce and fulfillment operations for grocery retail partners. We work with each retailer from operational discovery through deployment and ongoing optimization, using live outcomes to improve performance as demand, ranges and priorities change.

Where could a connected supply chain create more value?

We start with the demand patterns, inventory pressures and service risks shaping your grocery operation, then identify where better forecasting, replenishment or availability decisions can create the strongest return.

If the constraint lies in physical warehouse flow, we can also assess whether mobile robotics or storage automation should form part of the wider roadmap.

Explore related solutions:

Ready to build a more efficient and connected supply chain?

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about Ocado grocery solutions.

Ocado Smart Platform forecasts demand by product, location and delivery slot, so purchasing, replenishment and availability decisions reflect how customers actually shop.

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