Multi-channel operation is a key reality of modern-day business for most fashion retailers, making effective planning even more important for profitable merchandising.
Good merchandise and assortment planning has been used for many years to put the right goods in the right stores at the right time - but customers now also buy online, through mail-order and call centres and some will increasingly want to reserve goods for later collection in-store.
This obviously leads to a need for sophisticated stock systems as well as complexity in the order fulfilment and returns processes. These are in the domain of transaction processing software.
However, this complexity means that merchandise and assortment planning systems also have to be capable of working with and providing critical information across multiple channels.
The scope and complexity of the information will obviously vary from retailer to retailer and, right now, there is no 'one size fits all' solution.
The Buyerplan solution is delivered by a combination of two modules: Merchandise Planner provides a multi-dimension WSSI system with Channel as a dimension. Range Planner provides assortment planning to reflect the relative weighting of the channels at the retailer's stage of development.
For example, if web-sales have been added to a predominately store based operation then treating ecommerce as a store will normally be appropriate. A more balanced split of channels with teams dedicated to each will normally result in a separate Range Planner for each team with requirements brought together at the ordering stage.
In both cases the pool of styles is developed and progressed using the Range Buyer module and is drawn into each of the range plans as appropriate.
With such a combination of flexible functionality in the software and high levels of support and periodic enhancement to reflect a given retailer's unique situation Buyerplan meets the multi-channel planning and reporting needs of today's fashion retailers.
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