It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words but most information produced by retail information systems is still text and numbers. 

Retailers don’t expect your customers to buy their products without seeing what they look like but many expect their buying and merchandising staff to bring those products to market using non-visual tools.

Of course, this is not to say that pictures are not used at all in retail. For instance most selection meetings will use storyboards showing the range with its colour template and fabrics.  It’s just that a lot of effort, time and money go into their production, but they can only be in one place at a time and their subsequent use is limited.

Imagine a situation where once a sample arrives it is photographed and from then on its picture is there whenever anyone is considering that product. It can be used to aid recognition, help explain what has happened, compare it to others in a range, and better inform people of actions to take. 

Even if you use pictures like this are you able to bring them together instantly in any way, such as selected by collection/story, product type, or supplier; filtered by phase/pack, status or distribution grades; or sorted by price point or order value?

This is not a fanciful new idea. It has been proven-in-practice by Per Una where every new style is treated in this way. Even before a sample arrives a design sketch is used to specify the requirements to the supplier. On the sample’s acceptance a digital photograph replaces the sketch. This image is then used whenever line detail data is entered or edited.

The image can be dragged and dropped into position whenever the look of a range is being considered.  It is used to illuminate critical path reports that are shared by buyers, merchandisers and suppliers.  It appears on the brief the M&S stores receive for each collection that will arrive the following month. It is also used as part of the “Monday Books” report that George Davies gets each week to monitor and react to sales performance.

The examples on this page are representative of the many varying reports showing products in this way in the Buyerplan® merchandise planning system.  As you might expect Buyerplan does much more than present image based screens and reports.  For example it has comprehensive Assortment Planning and WSSI facilities, in addition to giving full visibility and control of the product development and fulfilment process that spreadsheet-based methods cannot deliver.

“September Specials” shows the ability to bring together garments planned in separate product categories in a collection without copying images and data from the one place they have been stored. Sophisticated filtering and drag-and-drop mean just about any combination of garments can be brought together in this way.

 “Progress Summary with Images” shows that similar filtering can bring together garments from the Critical Path facility and make them easily identifiable in meetings.

“Product Performance” shows that the pictures are used throughout the whole process through to a post-season review of strong versus weak performers.