Men's Wearhouse Adds Save-the-Sale Inventory Visibility at POS

Last month Men's Wearhouse added save-the-sale capabilities in its stores, giving its associates the ability to view and source items from the retailer's e-commerce fulfillment center when in-store stock isn't available to meet customer needs. The retailer added the new functionalities at the beginning of its third quarter, which started July 31, 2011, according to CEO Douglas Ewert.

"We've now added functionality at the store's POS level for visibility into our e-commerce fulfillment distribution center," he said during a recent conference call discussing Q2 financial results. "Our store personnel can now directly source from that inventory in order to satisfy individual customer demands that cannot be handled from in-store stock. This will be done in one seamless transaction to the customer, with the ability for the shipping of those items directly to their home or back to the store, the latter at no charge," Ewert added.

The retailer has built up its Web inventories, both to support this new initiative and because online sales have been rising dramatically. "Our Web sales are up 127% year-to-date, and we're continuing to make significant investments in both systems and people to position ourselves for even more meaningful growth in this channel," said Ewert.

Men's Wearhouse also foresees growth in its brick-and-mortar segment. The retailer is planning to increase its base of traditional (non mall-based) stores by approximately 18% over the next five years, growing from its current total of 591 such stores to 700 locations. "We're continuing to downsize our mall-based Men's Wearhouse and tux stores and are targeting a store base of 300 within five years," said Ewert.

The retailer currently operates a total of 1,178 stores under the Men's Wearhouse, K&G and Moores Canada banners, as well as a global corporate apparel and workwear group. During the second quarter, the company's retail segment achieved $586 million in net sales, a 10.1% increase over the same period the previous year. Comparable store sales at Men's Wearhouse stores rose 10.9% compared to Q2 of 2010.