For more than half of the products they sell, retailers often have no correct data on the quantities available in the stores. Cashier errors and theft are only two of the many reasons why discrepancies occur between the actual quantities in the store and those listed in the inventory system. As the latter provide the basis for most merchandise orders, the phenomenon of inventory discrepancies presents a major problem for retailers. The consequences are lost sales, inefficient staff deployment and food waste.

Together with distinguished colleagues from the University of North Carolina, the University of Chicago and the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstatt, and in cooperation with a leading German retailer, Prof. Dr. Andreas Holzapfel, holder of the Professorship for Logistics Management and Head of the Department of Fresh Produce Logistics at Hochschule Geisenheim University, is investigating how food retailers can use Big Data to achieve more accurate inventory data in their IT systems as part of an international research project.

Holzapfel and the adjunct instructor for retail management at Geisenheim, Dr. Michael Sternbeck, recently visited the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill to work on this topic and to intensify cooperation among the institutions. The University of North Carolina is one of the three oldest universities in the USA. The Kenan Flagler School of Business, where the cooperation partners are based, is regularly among the top 20 business schools in the world. As well as extensive expert discussions, the program also included exchanges with other professors of the Department there and a workshop with PhD students at Chapel Hill.