How Furnmart uses Netstock Demand Planning and AI to scale across Southern Africa

Operating across South Africa, Botswana, and Namibia, Furnmart, a major furniture retail group, manages 170 stores and a wide product range spanning furniture, appliances, and consumer electronics.

For the past 13 years, Netstock has played a central role in helping the business transform inventory planning, from slow, manual spreadsheets to a highly efficient, data-driven operation powered by Netstock Demand Planning, AI insights, and continuous innovation within its software.

Today, with a lean planning team supporting a growing multi-country footprint, Netstock remains a strategic engine behind smarter forecasting, better replenishment, and confident expansion.

The Challenge: Outgrowing manual planning

Before Netstock, Furnmart’s inventory planning was entirely manual. Teams relied on printed reports and spreadsheets, working line by line to calculate replenishment needs for every item in every store. While manageable in the early days, this approach quickly became unsustainable as the business expanded. “When you have 20 stores, manual planning can still work. But once you start expanding beyond that, you simply can’t operate that way anymore,” says Tanya Pretorius, Merchandise Planning Manager.

The business needed a smarter, scalable planning solution that could keep pace with growth while improving speed and accuracy.

Why Netstock?

When evaluating solutions, Netstock stood out for three key reasons:

1. Fast implementation with minimal disruption
2. Cloud-based simplicity, avoiding costly infrastructure and hardware
3. Affordability compared to expensive enterprise alternatives

“Software as a service suited the business perfectly then, and it still does today. It was fast to implement, easy to adopt, and highly cost-effective.”

Thirteen years later, that decision continues to deliver measurable value.

Netstock Demand Planner: A game changer for multi-location forecasting

As the business expanded across multiple countries and hundreds of locations, forecasting became increasingly complex.

Different stores require different products, quantities, and price points depending on geography, customer demographics, and demand patterns. Urban locations may favor premium electronics, while rural stores require different product mixes.

That made Demand Planning one of the most impactful additions to their Netstock environment.

Forecasting at scale

With so many locations, it is not feasible to forecast at a granular level for every product in every store. Furnmart uses Demand Planning to forecast at a regional or business-unit level, allowing planners to efficiently manage hundreds of products, while Netstock intelligently disaggregates forecast demand down to the individual store level. This ensures replenishment remains accurate at every location.

“The efficiency of managing hundreds and hundreds of product forecasts at a consolidated level, and having complete confidence that Netstock accurately disaggregates that demand down to each store for precise replenishment, is a transformational capability for the business.”

AI Opportunities: Daily insights

With thousands of products and locations to manage, it’s impossible to monitor every risk or opportunity across all our inventory data. That’s where Netstock AI Opportunities delivers immediate value. Used daily by leadership and demand planners, AI Opportunities highlights critical risks and recommends next steps for exceptions such as:

• Potential stock-outs at central warehouses
• Supply risks on imported items
• Ordering anomalies
• Inventory imbalances

Instead of searching for issues, the team now proactively acts on them, preventing costly supply disruptions before they occur.

“AI Opportunities give me instant visibility into the exceptions that matter most. I can’t monitor every item at every location, so having a tool that pinpoints problems and helps us resolve them in just 10 minutes a day is incredibly valuable.”

Lean team, big output

Despite its size, Furnmart runs planning operations with a remarkably lean team:

1 Planning Manager
2 Demand Planners
5 Replenishment Clerks

With Netstock, the eight-person team can support 170 stores across three countries by leveraging automation, real-time inventory visibility, and intelligent planning to drive growth.

Continuous innovation over 13 years

Over the past 13 years, one of the defining reasons the partnership has endured is Netstock’s continuous innovation and commitment to solving real operational challenges. As the Furnmart supply chain grew more complex, Netstock continued to introduce capabilities that delivered real impact. The Stock Projection module stands out, enabling forward planning across peak seasons, demand volatility, and long lead times.

By providing clear visibility into future demand, Furnmart can engage suppliers earlier, align on upcoming orders, and improve planning on both sides—strengthening relationships and driving greater efficiency across the supply chain.

In parallel, Netstock has transformed day-to-day operations by replacing manual planning with fast, automated workflows that improve efficiency, enhance forecast accuracy, and provide deeper visibility across stores, regions, and product categories. Smarter replenishment, supported by AI-powered insights, has reduced excess stock, improved availability, and enabled faster, more confident decision-making across the organization.

Together, these innovations have created a scalable, future-ready planning environment that continues to support the business’s growth across multiple countries.

Tanya sums it up: “The biggest return? Time. Netstock saves us hours every day while improving planning efficiency and accuracy. Our team spends less time on manual work and more time making informed decisions, with forecasts they can trust.