Insights

There are few things more damaging to a retailer than aging inventory. For seasonal items, the clock starts ticking as soon as the order is placed.   The challenge: to sell it all before – and only just before – demand runs out.   It is common to err on the side of caution; ordering excess stock

Consumers care about sustainability, and this is leading to more ethically conscious purchasing decisions. However, in contrast to this, many companies are still behaving in the same way as they have for decades. A surprising number of them still use ‘old practices’ to manage their inventory and supply processes. They lean heavily on squeezing as

The implementation of a responsive supply chain is a goal that many retailers and brands want to realize. Responsive supply promises a much more effective and efficient way of moving stock to where it is demanded, ensuring the best possible financial result.   Today, smart technologies and purpose-built software means that this longstanding dream has

Until now, merchandising and retail have been reliant on tradition-based and outdated practices, resulting in common industry failures, and being unable to adopt new processes and ideas. While many companies acknowledge the need for change, they don’t know where to start. All of this points towards a merchandising revolution. The first area where change is

Some of the biggest brands in Fashion and Sportswear today are proudly ‘focusing on the consumer’ and offering Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) initiatives of increasing depth and breadth.   Brands that have succeeded in executing this kind of strategy have benefited from additional margins and a much closer relationship with their ideal customers. D2C gives brands the ability

While enthusiasm about business models such as D2C (Direct-To-Consumer) is easy to find, there are numerous ways that multi-brand retailers can continue to retain a vital role in the market. They are able to provide irreplaceable value to the consumer, and the brands they come to buy.  Some ways that multi-brand retailers offer irreplaceable value: 

The concept of eCommerce is not new, as it has been an established way of buying and selling goods through an online or digital environment.  This could include all usage of any digital or electronic trading channels and platforms to buy and sell. It is important to mention that we shouldn’t limit the definition to

What is D2C and how does this model work? Some of the biggest brands in Fashion and Sportswear today are proudly ‘focusing on the consumer’ and offering Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) initiatives of increasing depth and breadth.   Brands that have succeeded in executing this kind of strategy have benefited from additional margins and a much closer relationship

Merchandisers and planners have the difficult task of creating optimised assortments that meet the requirements of our modern retail environment. An optimised assortment seeks to trim-down the selection to the best-selling items, while also giving a deep enough selection to provide for the customer needs. This includes certain ‘unique items’ that customers expect to find

Supply chains are not working the way they should. The habitual, endless pursuit of cost-reduction at the departmental level has led to a supply chain that is not aligned as a whole, and therefore cannot accurately meet demand. To survive, suppliers must resolve to make the right change now to become more effective today, and

Lead times are an inevitable part of any supply chain, so they often go unchallenged and remain unoptimized, despite having a huge impact on profitability. Some companies, however, are now challenging these assumed rules and reaping the rewards of shorter lead times that more accurately meet demand. Lead times exist because whenever a brand places an

Big-brand retailers of fashion and sportswear have invested heavily in digital technology. These have led to revolutionary changes to their business models. Many of these investments focus on adopting and leveraging digital technology to maximise profits and optimise operations. The most significant advantages have come from the automation of manual decision-making tasks. These handle complex

As data-driven decisions become the norm across all industries we can expect more online and multi-channel retailers to increase the use of EDI platforms. Today, a data-driven enterprise has the best chance to succeed, especially in a challenging market. Considering this, retailers need to consider using their existing EDI infrastructure to redeploy their own data

As data-driven decisions become the norm across all industries we can expect more retailers to increase the use of EDI platforms. Today, a data-driven enterprise has the best chance to succeed, especially in a challenging market. Considering this, retailers need to consider using their existing EDI infrastructure to redeploy their own data via smart software

Content The traditional merchandising approach has always relied on a combination of experience, skill, and guesswork. Although this has been the ‘least bad’ option available, it has always had less than perfect results.In today’s current environment, and with the advances in technology, it is now possible to make better merchandising decisions (which are backed up

Content Inventory is the largest single ongoing capital investment for most retailers. Therefore, it is vital to mimise the risk from inventory excess, while ensuring sufficient supply for items that sell well. This is no easy task. It requires an active process that regularly reviews stock velocity and dynamically adjusts budgets to ensure spending occurs

Content Merchandisers form a vital link between the supply chain and the consumer, with Marketing and Sales activities helping to make that final connection to the merchandise itself. However, merchandisers find themselves in an endless cycle of merchandise planning, year after year. Without much control over the broader supply process, their role has become more

Content As consumer sentiment (and buying behaviour) now shifts more quickly than ever before, it has become practically impossible for fashion retailers to produce a meaningful demand forecast. Collections are still typically produced many months in advance, meaning the potential margin of forecast error widens over time with increasing uncertainty about real demand. It can

Content Big data makes some big promises, yet many retailers are still failing to see the potential rewards of digitalization. Despite collecting vast amounts of valuable data, many organisations fail to convert their data into business intelligence, especially in retail. Instead, data is either allowed to simply accumulate in departmental silos, or it’s used to

Content What is visual merchandising? Fashion retailers have relied on visual merchandising to display their products and entice shoppers since ‘shopping’ was invented. The practice of visual merchandising aims to show potential buyers specific qualities of a product, or to show it in a certain context to encourage a sale. Window displays are one of

Content Traditional approaches vs. modern approaches The entire merchandising process is undergoing an evolution as more roles are taken over by smart algorithms, AI, and platform retailing solutions. Traditional ways of thinking are being replaced with more effective, data-driven merchandising processes that can react in real-time to actual demand. But what does this mean for

Content “Just like Netflix knows which movies to recommend local viewers everywhere, brands can recommend relevant assortments to local consumers everywhere. Using data and platform technology. On a platform, brands and retailers can respond to local retail demand by dynamically adjusting local retail assortments and adjusting the flow of merchandise to retail, while respecting agreements

Content “In light of these sweeping changes, a retail executive might be tempted to rip up the roots of their business model and institute hasty reforms. The wiser approach is to analyze granular details about customer preferences and remain agile in responding to them”. Richard Bezuidenhout, Global distribution operations manager, Daniel Swarovski Corp. The modern

Content “The fashion industry knew the system was broken but kept the wheel running all the same. Now it’s time for a reset.” Adriana Hoppenbrouwer, Partner at The Fabricant Our perspective is always 100% hindsight. According to our backward-looking viewpoint, fast fashion brands are doing remarkably well – despite McKinsey’s 2020 forecast of a 30%

Content “…what is now really clear when we re-open the stores [is that people] really want to meet us in both channels, physical stores and online. They want to do both.” Helena Helmersson Chief Executive, H&M Group What is patently clear is that there needs to be a balance between physical stores and ecommerce. Nowadays,

Content Retailers and brands had to deal with considerable constraints on their business as the COVID pandemic unfolded. Some of these constraints will remain dominant factors in retail for many years to come. Although we want to think that these events are an exception rather than a rule, retail operations should include resilience and contingency

Content Good inventory management in supply chain companies achieves two objectives:  To ensure a ‘proper visual display,’ for an attractive offer that makes consumers want to buy (the right stock).  To have enough to cater for sales, that can be expected until the next delivery (enough of it).  Dr Goldratt, founder of the Theory of Constraints and Throughput Accounting, and the author of the title

The Open to Buy or OTB is a common concept in the fashion industry, that is used by buyers and retail managers to control trends in a proactive way. Their main goal is to optimise inventory levels while maximising profits. Open to buy is often used as a control measure that aligns orders to ensure

Content Examples of vertically integrated businesses that are thriving There are numerous examples of vertically integrated businesses and they include some of the highest-valued companies on the equities markets and some of the most successful fashion and sportswear brands. One famous example is Amazon. Although this business started with a simple ‘asset-light’ model, it gradually

The advantages of vertical expansion While horizontal expansion has serious advantages in terms of the economies of scale and scope, it is a high-risk strategy. It is a perfect example of putting all your eggs in one basket. In contrast, vertically integrated companies can be successful even in dire situations where other companies fail. When

Content The strain of covid on retailers While the 2020-21 COVID 19 pandemic hasn’t been much fun, it has given us all the chance to re-evaluate our working methods and find new ways to succeed in challenging times. Despite considerable challenges in the past year, the light at the end of the tunnel is fast

Content   “Tell me how you measure me and I will tell you how I will behave. If you measure me in an illogical way, do not complain about illogical behaviour” – Eliyahu M. Goldratt  When we measure performance, we want to compare the actual output of something to a predefined ideal. A variance from the ideal should

Efficiency measures and cost-cutting is regarded a quick-fix tonic for ailing Key Performance Indicators, but they have left supply chains in the fashion industry addicted to a cycle of cheap production and unnecessary waste. Without investment in responsive and agile processes, many companies have been unable to adapt and cope with the new reality when

Table of Contents Being well-adapted is an advantage – but becoming too fixed in that adaptation becomes an existential threat when conditions change. A Responsive Supply Chain (RSC) is able to provide both the advantage of being well adapted (efficient), while retaining the flexibility to change quickly to new realities, thereby also being effective. Significant

Table of Contents Why Accurate Stock Forecasting Is A Top Priority Achieving the right stock level is a delicate balance, and there is a huge pressure to get it right. Despite being a top priority, forecasting often falls short, which results in avoidable losses and waste.The cost of inadequate inventory forecasting is a growth-killer, and

Last week, I attended a webinar, titled: Retail buying in uncertain times, aimed at multi-brand retailers of fashion and sporting goods. Multi-brand retailers buy from the brands and sell to consumers in a seasonal rhythm, where a season lasts roughly 26 weeks, including the sale period, where ‘everything must go’. The cash to cash cycle between concept and

When I write this, most brick and mortar retail locations we serve are closed and we, like our clients, are having to deal with a significant drop in monthly revenue and have taken necessary steps to reduce expenses and preserve cash positions. At Retailisation, we renamed ‘customer success’ to ‘customer care’ and are preparing for

Introduction The current interest in artificial intelligence and machine learning has been generated by advances in computer technology and the abundance of data.  Applications of this new technology are well known to be part of the operations of tech giants such as Google, Facebook, Linkedin, etc.  But what about the retail industry?  In this article,

While working as a merchandiser for big brands and retailers, I learned that work was never ‘done’. Seasons and deadlines came and went, and plans were made and beaten – most of the time ;-). We would look for market signals and make decisions on how to interpret them and then on how to act.

In one of my previous blogs, I explained that the biggest dilemma of retail inventory management is ‘to ship or not to ship’. Too much inventory leads to markdowns and unnecessary employment of capital and too little leads to lost sales and erosion of market share. Since then, I have received several questions about how

The goal of any inventory management process is to increase the output of a system while keeping investment and operating expenses under control. In a factory, this translates into increasing production while reducing work in progress. For retailers, it means increasing sales while controlling merchandise on hand. Here is the dilemma: in order to increase sales, you need enough inventory to beat the

To ship or not to ship, that is the question. Should you drive inventory levels down to increase shareholder value with great ROI but run the risk of being out of stock? Or, do you stack inventory high with hopes of selling more but risk having to mark it down at the end of the

Brick and mortar shops will always be able to satisfy our senses better than web-shops. Add platform technology for inventory management and you will have a sustainable competitive advantage over e-commerce. In the Netherlands, when we celebrate our birthdays, we serve a birthday cake. We usually buy a cake that everybody will like. Or we

We are pleased to announce the launch of Goods on Tap, our inventory management App for retail operations. The App complements our distribution management services (DMS). It will be available for download from the App store soon. Retailers (and store managers too) will use the App to:– have continuous insight into store & category performance–