Dive Brief:

• Oracle Retail recently launched a new service aimed at helping retailers track, access and manage inventory in-store using the technology company's Retail Cloud Service Platform.

• The new service, dubbed Store Inventory Operations Cloud Service, is meant to give store employees visibility into available warehouse stock, as well as the ability to request items directly from the warehouse, Oracle said in a press release.

• The new service can also provide visibility according to specific sizes and colors, and the ability to pinpoint an item's location down to a specific store if a search is being conducted across a large network of multiple stores and locations, according to the release.

Dive Insight:

The ability to more accurately track inventory and give stores the power to influence inventory sell-through has got to be a top item on any large retailer's wish list at this point. This is especially the case for fashion apparel and footwear retailers.

Some of the biggest names in these segments have seen their worlds turned upside down by the so-called "fast fashion" sector and other retailers whose inventory is responsive to demand. As our sister publication Supply Chain Dive has reported, fashion retail is about placing "big bets" on how well consumers will like your inventory.

But, if retailers have full visibility into inventory — and can help customers receive inventory they might not otherwise have had access to because it just wasn't in-store at the right time — then they can start to make more dynamic judgments about the inventory they have across their logistics network.

Finding a way to build this "store-up" approach can also alter how customers feel about the value of in-store visits and the level of service they receive from store associates. Oracle said the Store Inventory Operations Cloud Service has an intuitive mobile interface that will reduce training time for employees that need to use it. Giving individual stores the ability to see and order specific items from anywhere in the broad fulfillment system and multi-store network allows those store employees to offer more personalized treatment and the potential to provide a more satisfying conclusion to customers' in-store visits — even if they don't walk out with the items they wanted in-hand.

Being able to find an item by type is important, and getting to be almost table stakes for many retailers nowadays. But being able to track by size and color is even more significant to the customer experience because it means finding customers exactly what they want.