Craig Harding

Craig Harding

Craig Harding is the president and founder of Direct Tech, Inc., provider of demand planning, inventory optimization, merchandise planning and analysis software.  Direct Tech is the industry leader, helping catalog and e-commerce merchants drive profitability, increase demand and optimize inventory investment by providing best-in-class applications and services for more than 20 years. Prior to founding Direct Tech in 1989, Craig was a consultant in the direct marketing industry and performed strategic planning, system development and system implementation services for direct marketing companies. He previously held leadership positions in finance and information systems at ConAgra and QVC.

6 Inventory Management Best Practices

Direct retailing has always been about adapting new media to market from a distance. Whether the medium is door-to-door selling, newspaper and magazine advertisements, mail order fliers, 300-page catalogs, specialty catalogs, infomercials, or e-commerce, direct retailing has always been about selling products to consumers from a distance. The format of the message and the speed of communications certainly change, but the fundamental process of selling products to consumers remains.

4 Keys to Improving Holiday Inventory Management

From an inventory management perspective, the fourth quarter holiday season creates a perfect storm of challenges: extremely high demand, a short selling season coupled with long vendor lead times, limited cash available to support increased inventory requirements, a bloated freight system, and inventory handling dependent upon over-stretched distribution center staff.