Breaking Through the Limits of Traditional Retail Planning
Biyoute Trading Co. Ltd. is one of Northeast China’s largest supermarket chains, operating 113 directly owned stores across 28 cities with annual sales exceeding RMB 10 billion. With a workforce of 17,000 employees, seven distribution centers (DCs) and central warehouses, and an assortment of more than 20,000 SKUs, Biyoute has become the only supermarket chain in Northeast China to surpass both 100 stores and RMB 10 billion in annual revenue.
The company has built its reputation on a daily-replenishment supply chain model based on centralized purchasing, consolidated distribution, and daily store replenishment. This operating model enabled Biyoute to support rapid growth while maintaining high service levels across its network.
As the business continued to expand, however, traditional planning methods reached practical limits. Ordering and inventory decisions remained largely dependent on planner experience and manual judgment. While the supply chain itself was highly developed, manual processes continued to create ordering errors, simultaneous stockouts and excess inventory, warehouse bottlenecks during peak trading periods, and increasing labor costs. Biyoute recognized that further growth would require a reimagined approach to planning, moving from experience-based decision-making to AI-driven optimization.
Rebuilding Supply Chain Decisions Around AI
Biyoute began evaluating supply chain planning solutions in 2025 with the objective of replacing legacy system with algorithm-driven forecasting and replenishment. The retailer wanted to improve inventory health across stores, eliminate manual decision errors, and continue expanding its network without proportionally increasing inventory investment.
RELEX was selected to provide AI-driven demand forecasting and multi-echelon supply chain optimization across Biyoute’s three-tier supply network. Working alongside implementation partner Beijing Times Consulting, RELEX deployed demand forecasting and replenishment across stores, DCs, and central warehouses. The project also included forecasting and replenishment for fresh products, together with smart production scheduling for in-house fresh food processing.
A key differentiator for Biyoute was the RELEX self-adaptive forecasting model, which continuously adjusts forecast parameters as market conditions change. Rather than relying on planners to manually update forecasting logic, the system automatically responds to changing demand patterns while optimizing replenishment decisions across the entire network.
The implementation reflected the strong collaboration between Biyoute, Beijing Times Consulting, and RELEX. The project went live in just 171 days, significantly ahead of the original 210-day implementation plan.
Supporting Growth While Improving Efficiency
The transition to AI-driven planning has evolved how Biyoute manages its supply chain. Today, all store ordering and replenishment decisions are algorithm-driven, replacing manual judgement with automated forecasting and optimization.
Forecast accuracy now exceeds 89% at item level and over 92% across packaged goods. These improvements helped Biyoute maintain store availability above 98% while improving overall inventory turnover by 8 days.
Biyoute is also now able to support continued expansion. DC inventory value has remained flat year over year despite supporting an additional 30 stores across the network, allowing Biyoute to generate substantially more business without increasing inventory investment.
The operational improvements became particularly visible during the Chinese New Year trading period, traditionally the retailer’s busiest season. DC picking volumes fell by 29% while warehouse inventory decreased by 9% year over year, reducing operational pressure during one of the most demanding periods of the retail calendar. Packaged goods inventory turnover also greatly improved, falling from 20.5 days to 16.7 days.
Automation has also delivered meaningful productivity gains across the organization. Procurement teams have reduced time spent creating purchase orders by one hour daily, while store department managers also save an hour daily through automated order reconciliation. This allows employees to spend more time supporting customers and merchandising stores rather than managing administrative tasks.
Beyond the original project scope, Biyoute has expanded the platform to include forecasting and smart production scheduling for fresh food processing. Adoption of AI-generated fresh ordering has increased from single-digit levels to more than 70%, while automated production order adoption has exceeded 40%, helping improve planning for highly perishable products and reducing manual intervention across fresh operations.
“The real advantage in retail now comes from the intelligence behind planning decisions, not just the movement of goods.” said Xiao Hongtao, President of Biyoute Group. “We had already developed a highly capable supply chain, but we knew traditional optimization had reached its limit. RELEX has helped us change how we make planning decisions, enabling us to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and continue growing without increasing inventory at the same pace. Just as importantly, the close collaboration between our teams allowed us to deliver the project well ahead of schedule.”
Building on the project’s success, Biyoute is now expanding into category-level planning, digital merchandising, and shelf optimization with RELEX. With AI now embedded across its supply chain, the company is continuing its journey toward becoming a national benchmark for intelligent grocery retail operations.