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Blog

How multi-brand retailers can benefit from automated ordering

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

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October 29, 2021
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Blog

How data integration can reduce costs, improve resilience, and increase sales

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

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September 27, 2021
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Blog

9 retail merchandising trends to succeed in a post covid world

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

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September 23, 2021
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Blog

Evaluating the role of Assortment planning in retail

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

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August 10, 2021
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Blog

Departmental integration: the key to meeting consumer demand

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

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August 10, 2021
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Blog

Demand forecasting: 5 best practices to deal with volatile demand

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

The impact of Data, Analytics, and Business Intelligence in fashion retail

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

Visual Merchandising: New approaches in the digital age

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

Adapt or die: how to survive the merchandising evolution

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

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July 27, 2021
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Blog

Merchandising evolution and the future of merchandising

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

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July 27, 2021
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Blog

What is the role of omnichannel experience on merchandising evolution?

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

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July 27, 2021
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Blog

Why demand driven production is the solution for the (near) future

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%

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July 27, 2021
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Blog

The future of retail operations in an omnichannel world

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,

How fashion retail operations have needed to adapt post-COVID

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

Retail Performance KPIs That Drive A Responsive Supply Chain

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

rethinking Open To Buy Management

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

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May 12, 2021
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Blog

How vertical integration helps fashion leaders grow?

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

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May 12, 2021
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Blog

The advantages of vertical expansion – in good times and bad

Content 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.

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May 12, 2021
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Blog

The strain of COVID on retailers – how vertical integration gives companies resilience

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

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May 12, 2021
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Blog

Why Traditional Retail Performance Indicators Fail

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

How a Responsive Supply Chain helps your brand to survive and thrive – no matter what happens

Table of Contents 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

How the supply chain can evolve from a stock risk to a collaboration with profit for all parties

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

Time To Ditch The Spreadsheets And Automate Your Inventory Flow

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

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February 18, 2021
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Blog

Platform Retailing: No Push, No Pull, Just Flow

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

New Retail Dimensions

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

How can machine learning improve retail inventory management?

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,

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December 5, 2019
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from spreadsheet magic to porfolio optimisation - inventory management

Blog

From Spreadsheet Magic to Portfolio Optimisation- Inventory Management

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.

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November 7, 2019
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Blog

Understock and Overstock Explained

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

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October 2, 2019
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Blog

What is the inventory management goal?

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

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September 24, 2019
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Blog

To ship or not to ship – let the machine decide

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

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September 2, 2019
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Blog

A platform for brick and mortar retail

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

Our New Inventory Management App for Retailers: Goods On Tap

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–

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January 29, 2018
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eBook

Nike’s Responsive Supply Chain Success

Nike’s Responsive Supply Chain Success Learn more about how leading brands implement responsive supply chain methods to thrive in a complex and fast-moving industry. What can you expect from this White Paper? In 2017 Nike announced a range of responsive and agile strategies aimed at ensuring the company’s top market position in the future. This

How To Overcome Retailer’s Dilemma

How to overcome retailer’s dilemma How do retail industry leaders improve their profit? Starting with dynamic inventory management is essential. Content of the ebook Retail Fragmentation has diluted your merchandise offer and made it more and more difficult to match your supply to consumer demand everywhere. This will lead to more overstocks and more shortages,

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December 10, 2020
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eBook

Unique Cloud-Based Inventory Management Platform

Retailisation: an Introduction to a unique cloud-based inventory management platform for retail In this brochure, you will get an overview of who we are, how we got started, and what we do. Our cloud-based inventory management software will help you to improve sales, margins and stock-turns. Content of the ebook The goal of Retailisation is

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December 10, 2020
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eBook

Latest Machine Learning Applications In Retail Inventory Management

Machine Learning Applications in Retail Inventory Management With improved computation and digital storage technology, those in the retail sector will have to learn how to utilize machine learning solutions to obtain maximum value from the data at their disposal, in order to remain competitive players. Content of the ebook In this ebook, we will touch

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December 9, 2020
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Infographic

Retailisation as your inventory management partner

Whether you sell your merchandise from your own stores or via web-shops, shop-in-shops or franchise outlets, it is critical that you keep control over its distribution to sustain a high and profitable conversion at retail. By subscribing to our platform, you convert the typically linear supply chains of each of those retail channels to one

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December 10, 2020
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Webinar

The Merchandising Revolution

Getting the flow of merchandise right is business-critical. But how do you do that in a post-pandemic world defined by overcapacity and reduced budgets? In this webinar we will explore the art and science of merchandising, where do we draw the lines between the two and how much of it is science, and how much

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November 30, 2021
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Webinar

The rise of data-led decisions in eCommerce

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

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October 4, 2021
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Press Releases

Retailisation extends successful partnership with SPS Commerce

Retailisation, an inventory management software working with leading companies in the apparel and sporting goods industries, has chosen to advance its partnership with SPS Commerce, a global leader in retail analytics. The partnership integrates both software solutions to optimize inventory management, reduce costs and increase responsiveness towards consumer demand for wholesale and retail businesses focused

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November 9, 2021
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