Blockchain technology, a game changer for the global retail market

According to the “Global Blockchain for Retail Market Growth (Status and Outlook) 2021-2026” report by HTF Market Intelligence, the importance of blockchain technology will continue to grow in this sector over the next five years. Modex has also been included in the report, alongside major players like IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Coinbase, Binance, Chainalysis, ConsenSys, TIBCO, Salesforce, SecureKey Technologies, SAP, Mastercard, Guardtime.

The report, which can be consulted in full here, presents a comprehensive overview, market shares, and growth opportunities of Blockchain for Retail market by product type, application, key players and key regions and countries. The study also contains different market predictions related to revenue size, production, CAGR, consumption, gross margin, price, and other substantial factors. While emphasizing the key driving and restraining forces for this market, the report offers a complete study of the future trends and developments in this particular market.

Blockchain in retail: optimizing inventory management

Loading, unloading and managing inventory in the warehouse, that’s what inventory management is all about. Managing inventory requires a huge amount of time, effort and many people. The problems surrounding managing inventory in the warehouse include food spoilage, dead stock, storage cost, stock-outs, employee errors, etc. Most of the existing systems which keep track of inventories are outdated, so there’s an obvious need for something revolutionary to improve the industry.

In managing inventories, especially in large warehouses, you cannot always generate more revenue, but there’s always room for reducing costs. With blockchain in place, there’ll be complete transparency in the network which provides the trust among involving parties and helps users track the exact path of the item including its origin. By seeing everything in real-time, it is much easier for the employees to manage excess inventory, clearing stocks, managing stock-outs and helps reduce employee errors. The inaccuracies can be easily calculated which helps reduce costs and maximize revenue which is what a potential business always strive to achieve. Lower costs also serve as a competitive advantage, so your business will always be more efficient than competitors. Also, by keeping track of the sales cycles and production on a daily basis which is always easier on the blockchain, businesses can benefit by looking on it and plan necessary changes and implementations. Here’s where Modex BCDB (Blockchain Database) comes in.

Gaining a competitive edge with Modex BCDB

Thanks to its groundbreaking features and its true agnostic approach to both data and blockchain engines, Modex BCDB (Blockchain Database) can optimize real-time inventory management while providing accurate forecasting, transparency, better risk management. With Modex BCDB, companies in inventory management can keep a better track of production and sale, thus gaining a competitive edge and consolidating the effectiveness of the business.

Modex manages to bring quantifiable trust to the supply chain industry with its innovative Blockchain Database (BCDB) solution that fuses traditional database engines, a core element of supply chain management systems that is also utilized by manufacturers, retailers, transportation firms and other actors involved in the supply chain flow with blockchain, a technology that acts as an invisible framework that guarantees data integrity, traceability visibility and trust.

Streamlining the supply chain with blockchain technology

The supply chain can be seen as the circulatory system of our modern world, where goods are transferred from one place to another, to be transformed from raw resources to end products that are delivered to shops all throughout the world and even to our doorstep. The issue is that the current supply chain system functions on an outdated model that is already showing a number of stress fractures accumulated over the years as a result of its increasing complexity.

The features unlocked by Modex BCDB have a transformative impact on the supply chain flow because they unlock a number of benefits that mend a series of chronic pain points:

Fast document verification: Through Modex BCDB, supply chain actors have access to a distributed ledger of data that holds all the necessary documentation in an easily accessible medium that is available 24/7. As such, transportation firms no longer need to wait at queues at customs as document verification is performed almost instantly with the hit of a button

No more conflicting documentation: The supply chain is composed of multiple segments that need to collaborate seamlessly especially on documentation. Often than not information gets disjointed and disparate when so many actors are involved. Modex BCDB removes the need for costly and time-consuming documentation reconciliation because it ensures that every party involved has the same version of the data

Cost-effective and fast audit: The Modex BCDB technological layer makes audit processes simple and less time consuming by offering complete data traceability

What Modex brings to supply chain management

By leveraging its blockchain component, Modex BCDB gives access to a series of features that can streamline operations across every aspect of the supply chain:

Decentralization and distribution – Due to its design, blockchain promotes a new working model that operates on the basis of collaboration. Each supply chain segment has access to the shared blockchain ledger which means that participants can add data to the network in real-time.

Data immutability – By combining cryptography with hashing algorithms, blockchain ensures data immutability, a feature that brings unprecedented levels of trust to the data utilized in SCM. In turn, immutability provides data integrity which drastically simplifies audit processes, while providing proof to stakeholders that the information has not been altered.

Data accuracy – Once data has been introduced in a blockchain network, its integrity is ensured by the complex inner workings of blockchain. Data cannot be altered without compromising the entire data chain. Any data discrepancies are automatically detected by the system, which allows companies to pinpoint in real-time any tampering attempts.

Streamlined auditing – As an append-only structure, blockchain provides an indisputable record history of all the data that has been introduced in the network.

Traceability and record history – Blockchain is an append-only structure. This means that it does not follow the traditional CRUD paradigm of standard database systems. Information is never deleted. When a record suffers a modification, a new entry is created and appended to the system. This means that a complete historical version is of every version of the data is maintained in the system. As an industry that is heavily reliant on audit processes to resolve everything from shipping errors to malfunctioning, substandard or perishable products, the supply chain sector can benefit immensely from this feature.

Ideal settlement ecosystem – Data traceability, immutability, integrity, and a complete record history can reduce costly business-related disputes from months and even years, to a couple of days.

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