By Lukas Fischer

Inventory has become one of retail's biggest competitive advantages. The retailers pulling ahead aren't necessarily carrying more inventory or spending more on technology. They're making better decisions about where inventory goes, when it moves and how quickly they respond as demand changes.

Across Europe, leading retailers are proving that AI isn't just improving planning, it's changing how inventory decisions are made. Instead of waiting for planners to identify problems, AI continuously analyzes demand signals, inventory positions and business priorities, recommending actions before missed sales or excess inventory become expensive.

Here are three retailers showing what AI-driven inventory decisioning looks like in practice.

Fiba Retail built a stronger foundation for inventory decisions

Operating multiple global brands across hundreds of stores means every inventory decision has a ripple effect. Forecasting isn't just about predicting demand, it's about ensuring every downstream decision starts with the best possible information.

Fiba Retail, which operates brands including GAP, Marks & Spencer and Banana Republic, modernized its planning process with invent.ai's demand forecasting solution. More accurate forecasts gave the business greater confidence when making inventory decisions across stores and ecommerce, helping teams respond faster as buying patterns evolved.

The real value wasn't simply improving forecast accuracy. It was giving every planning function a more reliable starting point for inventory decisions.

FLO made inventory allocation work harder

Allocation is one of retail's highest-value decisions. Put inventory in the wrong location and it quickly becomes either a missed sale or an unnecessary markdown.

FLO, one of Europe's largest footwear retailers, implemented invent.ai's AI-powered allocation and inventory planning capabilities to continuously determine where products should be placed across its stores and distribution network.

The results speak for themselves:

• Product availability increased from 71% to 94%
• Lost sales fell from 15% to 3%
• Inventory costs declined while reducing excess and obsolete stock

Rather than relying on predefined allocation rules, FLO continuously adjusts inventory placement as demand changes, improving customer availability while keeping inventory lean.

Boyner turned inventory transfers into a growth driver

Inventory sitting in the wrong store has little value. Moving it quickly to where customers are buying is what creates results.

Boyner manages hundreds of brands across multiple merchandise categories, making inventory transfers a constant balancing act. By implementing invent.ai's transfer optimization alongside store and distribution center replenishment optimization, the retailer dramatically improved how inventory flows across its network.

Transfers that once required significant manual effort can now be completed in about an hour, allowing products to reach high-demand locations much faster. The business also achieved a 4.8% increase in sales, showing how faster inventory decisions translate directly into commercial performance.

One approach, different outcomes

These retailers weren't trying to solve the same problem. One focused on forecasting. Another improved allocation. Another transformed transfers.

What connects them is the way decisions are made.

Instead of relying on static plans, scheduled reviews or manual analysis, AI continuously evaluates what's happening across the business and recommends the next best action. Inventory decisions become ongoing instead of occasional, allowing retailers to react while opportunities still exist, not after they've appeared in a report.

The result is inventory that's consistently better aligned with customer demand, higher product availability, lower operational waste and planning teams that spend less time chasing exceptions.

Inventory performance is about decisions

Most retailers already have dashboards, reports and more data than they know what to do with. The differentiator isn't visibility anymore, it's execution.

AI decisioning closes the gap between insight and action. It continuously evaluates demand, inventory, pricing and merchandising signals, then recommends or automates the decisions that improve business performance.

The retailers leading this shift aren't replacing planners. They're equipping them with intelligence that helps them make faster, better-informed decisions across every stage of inventory planning.

The lesson from Europe's leading retailers is clear: competitive advantage no longer comes from having more inventory. It comes from making every inventory decision count.

Discover what’s possible when inventory decisions move beyond static plans and become continuously optimized with AI.

Lukas Fischer, Sales Director - EMEA at invent.ai