A Proprietary System to Help Store Operators Stay in Stock, Order Best-Selling and Delete Slow-Moving Items  

In the early 1990s, 7-Eleven developed a proprietary Retail Information System (RIS), which deployed to all stores by 1999. The system builds efficiencies into ordering, distribution and merchandising processes and is designed to provide timely, accurate sales information on an item-by-item basis.

Implementation of the first phase, which automated basic in-store accounting processes, began in 1994 and was completed in 1996. The second phase, completed in late 1999, provides information about important aspects of the store's operation and facilitates inventory management. RIS includes:

• Touch-screen point-of-sale (POS) cash registers with scanners, 
• The integration of credit-card authorization and gasoline sales into the POS register, 
• Item-level information to assist in making product-ordering decisions, 
• Hand-held Mobile Ordering Terminals to facilitate ordering, 
• Tools to help store personnel determine appropriate product assortment and slow-moving items, 
• Daily weather reports and merchandising information and updates, 
• The automation of some daily reporting requirements, such as merchandise and gasoline sales, and 
• A payroll time-keeping mechanism.

By effectively using the point-of-sale cash register and the in-store processor, 7-Eleven franchisees and store managers have immediate access to the information needed to make informed ordering decisions by store, by day and day-part and by item. Additionally, the product assortment tools supply necessary data to improve decisions on deleting slow-moving items and to make room for top-selling and new items, all with the goal of making sure the right product is available at the right time for each customer.

The system is not designed as a time-saving tool as much as a tool to use time more effectively and to make sound business decisions that will boost store sales and profits.