How Automated Stockout Management Protected Revenue and Generated 1855% ROI for Lojas Rede

Lojas Rede is one of the largest cosmetics chains in Brazil and maintains a highly complex omnichannel structure. With significant order volumes and major seasonal peaks, the company invests in technology to ensure efficiency, sales continuity, and revenue protection during critical moments in the commercial calendar.

Black Friday represents one of the most critical periods for Lojas Rede’s digital operations—especially regarding stockouts. Historically, the product substitution journey was performed manually, with team members contacting customers individually whenever an item was unavailable. This process was neither scalable nor sustainable during high-demand periods.

In 2025, anticipating high volume for Black Friday, Lojas Rede made a strategic decision: eliminate manual substitutions. The team lacked the operational capacity to maintain this workflow without compromising other essential processes—a situation that put thousands of orders at risk during the campaign.

Stores become crowded and operate on extended hours. Inventories connected across various sales channels combined with in-store queues create the perfect recipe for stockouts—a problem that, no matter how refined your strategy is, cannot be fully prepared for when thousands of customers have baskets full of their favorite viral creams and products. Furthermore, our timeframe is short: we deliver within 1 hour through our stores in over 25 cities in Minas Gerais, and the volume during this date makes individualized intervention with customers to handle discrepancies unfeasible. Inevitably, the cancellation rate would be massive and there wasn’t much we could do; we needed something that could quickly reach the customer with suggestions and negotiations in a scalable way.

— Fabio França, Superintendent of Digital Strategy and Innovation

The challenge was clear: How to ensure product substitution at scale, without manual effort, while avoiding order cancellations during Black Friday?

• Build an automated product substitution journey focused on high-volume periods.
• Avoid order cancellations caused by stockouts during Black Friday.
• Reduce dependence on the human team during a critical operational window.
• Ensure speed, clarity, and autonomy for the customer at the moment of decision.
• Put the solution into production before Black Friday.

To address this specific challenge, Lojas Rede hired Inspiria, a partner specialized in implementing and customizing projects with the VTEX CX Platform. The project was designed and developed with a total focus on Black Friday, from the journey design to the solution’s scalability.

Inspiria was responsible for the strategy and configuration of intelligent agents dedicated to product substitution, utilizing VTEX CX Platform as the technological foundation. These agents were prepared to operate autonomously, even in high-volume scenarios.

The journey functions as follows:

1. Upon identifying a missing item, the picker selects available alternatives in the store for the customer;
2. After the selection is complete, the internal store system sends this information to the AI Agent, allowing it to understand the situation and initiate contact with the customer, explaining the occurrence and presenting the substitution options;
3. Once the customer makes their choice, the intelligent agent returns the decision to the picking system, ensuring the order proceeds for delivery without further issues.

With Inspiria’s expertise, the solution was developed and put into production in just two weeks, enabling activation before November and ensuring stability and confidence for Black Friday.

The integration was developed in a simple and objective way, bringing more agility to the operation. With it, the store team maintained their focus on in-store service, while contact with ‘Click and Collect’ customers became fully automated, increasing productivity and improving the customer experience. We still see great potential for evolution, with expectations to further expand results in our customer relationships.

— Lucas Torres, Tech Manager

• WhatsApp as the primary channel for the journey.
• VTEX CX Platform as the platform for orchestrating agents and interactions between systems.
• Integration with the internal logistics system and the VTEX platform for order information and modifications.

• Engagement: 40% of product substitution notifications were answered within 30 minutes, preventing cancellations and preserving revenue.
• High ROI: 1855% return on investment in the solution.
• High-volume service without overloading the team.
• Elimination of the manual process during a critical period.

These results validated Lojas Rede’s decision to invest in automation at the most strategic moment of the year. By automating the substitution journey, the company transformed a potential scenario of millionaire losses into a strategy for revenue protection, operational continuity, and consistent experience.

The decision to eliminate the manual process before the peak allowed for safe scaling, preservation of thousands of orders, and generation of positive ROI in a critical period. More than just solving a specific problem, the project set a new standard for handling stockouts at scale. Automated substitution has ceased to be an operational alternative and has become a strategic business lever.

The case demonstrates that in high-complexity retail, protecting revenue is as important as generating new sales—and that technology-driven decisions, when implemented at the right timing, can redefine the outcome of an entire campaign.