What is Item Stratification?

Effectively managing inventory with minimal day-to-day effort

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Item Stratification, or stock stratification, is classifying items based on individual characteristics. The distributor categorizes inventory to ensure the correct items are stocked in the right quantities and locations. 

Item stratification helps companies make the right decisions about their storage. By ensuring they have the correct item in the right quantity and location, they prevent stockouts and overstocking.

Item stratification helps companies keep storage costs down by minimizing excess inventory and thus reducing the costs associated with storage and handling. 

You and your company can achieve improved inventory turnover with item stratification. By categorizing items based on how quickly they can be sold, companies can prioritize keeping the most in-demand items in stock.

Key Takeaways 

  • Item stratification, also known as stock stratification, is the process of classifying items based on individual characteristics to ensure the correct items are stocked in the right quantities and locations, helping avoid stockouts and overstocking.  
  • Item stratification helps companies reduce storage costs by minimizing excess inventory and associated handling costs.  
  • By categorizing items based on how quickly they can be sold, companies can prioritize keeping the most in-demand items in stock, thereby improving inventory turnover.  
  • Item stratification facilitates easier and more accurate data-based inventory decisions, ensuring better stock management and enhanced customer experience.  
  • The TrueCommerce VMI solution supports item stratification by allowing the assignment of specific codes to items optimizing their placement within supplier warehouses for improved efficiency and load times. 

How the TrueCommerce VMI Solution Helps 

  • The TrueCommerce VMI solution enables you to issue items with individual item stratification codes, allowing you to assign certain positions within supplier warehouses to specific products, e.g., faster-selling products closer to the entrance of distribution centers to optimize load times.  
  • Item Stratification results from a distributor's efforts to classify inventory, enabling the company to stock the correct item in the right quantity at the right location.  
  • By successfully stratifying stock, companies using TrueCommerce can benefit from:  
  • Increased fill rate  
  • Improved customer service levels