Because cash is similar to other store products, optimizing its supply chain is nothing but a logical next step. However, as cash requires very specialized handling processes and has special seasonal usage patterns, custom solutions and forecasting, and planning software is required.

Retailers receive Point-of-Sale cash revenues (mostly mid or larger denominations) and in return provide “change” to their customers (small denominations and coins). These must be seen as different products with little substitution possible, which imposed a difficulty in retail for a long time: Retailers were often missing required denomination inventory and traffic data needed to manage the cash inventories. In recent years, retail back office automation has advanced the innovation and today, back office hardware infrastructure has become a key enabler for cash supply chain optimization, not only safeguarding values but also keeping accurate counting information and facilitating reconciliation efforts. Smart (deposit) safes, cash recyclers or similar devices have all required data available any time. In effect, retailers now know which cash products are “in-store”. In addition, banks are now offering innovative products to retailers such as Provisional Credit Lines or Bank-owned Cash in order to enable the retailer to receive credit for the cash in branches and avoid costly frequent cash transports to achieve that balance.

In this overall landscape, finally the retail industry is ready to reap the full benefits of automation and reduce the costs of cash transportation to the necessary amount. And planfocus provides the right supply chain intelligence to keep the right cash products in stores at the right time.

And the responsibility of the retailer for cash is growing: As bank branches are being reduced and retail customers are finding it increasingly convenient to receive cash as part of their shipping experience, retail is responding. In fact, “Cashback” is increasingly becoming a service that shoppers expect. As a result. The planning to maintain the appropriate cash supply in store is challenging. On certain days, customer cashback withdrawals reach significant volumes, requiring significant attention by the retailer. As usual, planfocus solutions step in to automatically analyze the data and predict requirements, allowing retail to preplan to successfully satisfy demand. With over 15 years of cutting-edge experience, planfocus has all the solutions to help the retailer manage in-store cash levels adequately in advance and as just-in-time as necessary and economical.

ATMs in retail outlets are already a welcome sight in many countries, providing the customers with ready access to cash and increasing the retailer’s sales as a result. Historically, these ATMs have been run by FIs and IADS, separate from the retailer, but this is changing. The technology of automated deposit and recycling now makes it easier for retailers to fill ATMs themselves. Self-filling of ATMs is not allowed in all countries, but Planfocus’ cash supply chain intelligence handles this perfectly for those retailers able to benefit by providing the sevice.