Inventory
October 28, 2016 at 12:43 pm
As I go through the discovery process with prospective SPI customers, there's a moment in almost every engagement when one of the planners or allocators shows their current multitab, multidimension, multipivot table, holographic (OK, I exaggerated on the last point) homegrown Excel spreadsheet. It always impresses. I'm genuinely in awe of the complex usage of…
October 26, 2016 at 1:17 pm
It's estimated that the Chicago Cubs World Series appearance will break retail records. The Cubs haven’t played in a World Series since 1945, or won one since 1908. That's the longest championship drought in baseball, and there are plenty of loyal Cub fans ready to scoop up World Series merchandise as a result. Forbes reports…
October 7, 2016 at 1:24 pm
With the back-to-school (BTS) shopping season over and retailers shifting their attention to the all-important holiday selling season, it begs the question: What can retailers do after the BTS cycle is over to set up stores for a successful end-of-year push? Priority No. 1 for all retailers is to move BTS inventory out of the…
September 16, 2016 at 12:08 pm
Anda Pho, head of marketing at True&Co., the lingerie retailer that uses an online fit quiz to size bras for women of all shapes and sizes, explained yesterday at NEMOA’s directXchange 2016 Fall Conference how the company has revolutionized the bra-buying process. Data is Everything “Making a bra is like making a car,” Pho said. There…
September 13, 2016 at 9:54 am
Exactly what a “size six” is can be a mystery to your customers. Sizes are defined differently from manufacturer to manufacturer, and even from year to year. Some designers may change sizes for strategic reasons. For example, a decade ago a garment would have been labeled a size 16, but it’s a size 12 today in…
August 17, 2016 at 10:42 am
Welcome to the first video in our new Retail Video Spotlight Series. The first series is all about concept stores. Today, we're talking to Rachel Shechtman, founder of STORY, a retail store in New York City that takes the viewpoint of a magazine, changes like a gallery, and sells product like your standard brick-and-mortar store. Hear…
August 11, 2016 at 12:01 pm
Michael Kors isn't very happy with the excessive discounts department stores give on its products. CEO John Idol says that come February, the brand will no longer participate in family-and-friends sales or accept coupons for its products. Michael Kors plans to cut back on the amount of merchandise it ships to department stores in an…
June 21, 2016 at 9:38 am
Every area of retail operations is vital to the success of the business. Although it might seem as if there are grand differences between them, the reality is they all share one element: the barcode scanner. From inventory control to shrinkage prevention, the barcode scanner is a central tool in any retail environment. Not surprisingly,…
June 9, 2016 at 12:11 pm
Target is asking many suppliers to take on up to an extra 3 percent to 5 percent of the cost of promotions and price cuts after slow sales so far this year. Retailers often use price discounts combined with promotions to sell slow-moving items and make room for newer products. Suppliers also have their own offers and…
June 1, 2016 at 10:57 am
The ability to collect and harness data is a key opportunity for retailers that want to truly enable a consumer-centric supply chain. According to a recent Boston Retail Partners study, 62 percent of retailers named customer identification and personalization of customer experience among their top three customer engagement priorities, more than any other initiative. However,…
