Merchandising Provides Better Business Insight

By Christina Zarrello
Merchandising remains a core differentiator as well as an important investment area in retailing. Merchants are heavily investing in merchandising solutions in order to get closer to demand, gain inventory visibility across channels as well as optimize allocations and assortments. Here's a look at some of the merchandising initiatives recently announced at major retailers including Abercrombie & Fitch, Chico's, Aéropostale, Family Dollar and others.

• Abercrombie & Fitch implements Oracle Retail merchandising and store applications to support its international expansion plans and long-term growth strategy. The retailer adopts a centralized business model and is deploying Oracle Retail Merchandising System across the globe to support its international expansion strategy. As part of this effort, Abercrombie & Fitch implements Oracle Fusion Middleware SOA suite components including the Oracle BPEL Process Manager to orchestrate the data exchanges between the Oracle merchandising environment, its legacy systems and other new systems.

• Aéropostale adds Merchandise Allocation from SAS in order to fulfill merchandise demand. Allocations created through this solution are based on fashion and seasonal trends, customer demand and store, channel and location attributes. Aéropostale also uses SAS Merchandise Allocation to optimize allocations for each product at the store-size level, increase productivity through automation and reduce distribution costs.

"SAS Merchandise Allocation improves the allocation accuracy of our initial floor sets by ensuring that our customers are able to purchase the styles they want when they want them," says Barbara Pindar, senior vice president of planning and allocation, Aéropostale.

• Meijer gains business insight across marketing, merchandising, capital expenditures and operations with Applied Predictive Technologies (APT) Test & Learn Management System. Meijer chose to license APT's Test & Learn Management System after a four-month pilot and found that APT's software suite allows the retailer to quickly and efficiently make better decisions and drive bottom-line value.

• Family Dollar is another retailer leveraging APT's technologies and is gaining enhanced business analytics with a Market Basket Analyzer to capture and analyze vast quantities of intricate transaction log data. Family Dollar also uses APT's Test & Learn platform software to optimize several strategic initiatives including labor operations, capital investment, marketing and merchandising.

"Family Dollar is expanding its analytic capability by integrating APT Market Basket Analyzer into its decision-making process," said Dorlisa Flur, executive vice president and chief merchandising officer, Family Dollar. "The integration of APT Market Basket Analyzer with Family Dollar's existing Test & Learn capability will allow more precise measurement and optimization of marketing and merchandising initiatives, helping Family Dollar to be a compelling place to shop for its customers."

• Modell's Sporting Goods implements JDA Software's Merchandise Management System (MMS). The integrated merchandising and warehouse management system will drive inventory optimization and streamline processes for the 143-store chain.

"We needed an end-to-end, robust merchandise management solution that offered core merchandising, warehousing and financial capabilities and could enhance inventory management efficiencies," says Hans Kantor, vice president of IT, Modell's Sporting Goods.

• Chico's FAS is another retailer that relies on JDA's Merchandising suite to drive more profitable replenishment and optimize the merchandise management processes. In order to improve merchandise planning, demand forecasting, inventory management and customer service levels, as well as help increase sales across its three retail brands including Chico's, White House | Black Market and Soma Intimates, Chico's implements a suite that includes Enterprise Planning, Assortment Planning, Allocation, Channel Clustering, Size Scaling, Performance Analysis and Enterprise Knowledge Base.

"We needed proven, integrated software solutions based on retail best practices that would help us effectively balance our inventory investments with sales goals and consumer demand, and enable us to leverage every opportunity to drive revenues and increase profits," says Jeff Jones, chief operating officer, Chico's FAS.

• Belk implemented TradeStone's Merchandise Lifecycle Management suite of software solutions to help enhance the performance of its growing private label program. Belk uses TradeStone's software solutions to help reduce the private brands design, production and delivery cycle time, thus improving its ability to deliver fashion-forward merchandise to stores and customers in a timely and efficient manner. The TradeStone system also provides Belk with a central repository for capturing and storing all necessary information to support the design to delivery merchandise lifecycle.

"We're committed to the continued growth and success of our private brands program," said Diane Hartjes, project manager and director of private brands operations, Belk. "We found that TradeStone truly understands the complexities of private label design and development and has an excellent track record in the industry for providing software solutions to address the special needs of this business."

• A.C. Moore Arts & Crafts implements Oracle Retail merchandising applications to help support long-term growth plans across its more than 130 stores. The art-and-crafts superstore leverages these applications to helping increase sell-through of seasonal merchandise, preserve margins and derive more value from the business.