Product category:
Point of purchase, retail design
News Release from: Darwin Retail Planner | Subject: Darwin Retail Planner
Edited by the Marketingservicestalk Editorial
Team on 02 May 2007
Planning software aids retail stock
decisions
Darwin Retail Planner software analyses sales data to help retailers achieve the optimum assortment of products for each shop to prevent over-stocking or running out of popular lines.
Fashion retailing is driven by seasons and collections The first eight weeks of a new season are crucial to sales
By using planning software, retailers can be proactive in their approach and achieve the optimum assortment per shop.
By analysing sales data for particular products in particular seasons, planning software can help get the product balance right from the beginning, rather than having to test the market and then move stock around between shops.
Even if you group shops in clusters, not all shops are equal.
Each has its own characteristics; each individual shop has its own strengths.
Our team at Darwin has a decade of experience in the fashion industry, having developed planning software for wholesalers, which drew the attention of retailers who wanted a solution for their planning needs.
So four years ago we began development on a Microsoft .NET project based on SQL Server and available as a web application.
The decision on technology was made in response to retailers asking us for a solution that wasn't too complex, one that could be relied on to have the correct data and was not too expensive.
Darwin Retail Planner meets these needs by providing a standard set of functions.
Fashion retailers set up a budget some months before the season they are planning for.
They use two different points of view, thinking in terms of regions or shops on the one hand and in terms of product range (collections) on the other hand.
A third pillar in the planning process is the open to buy situation, a black art that involves keeping enough stock in the shops to meet demand, without over ordering.
The two views, of outlets and product lines, are adjusted to meet gross profit targets and reflect the planners' gut feelings about external factors, such as trends, economic climate and competition, and are reconciled throughout the process.
Once the budget is current, planners get a view of how sales are going, both at full price and mark-down, and the current and predicted stock positions.
Darwin Retail Planner knows that a product is targeted to sell in a particular season and can therefore flag it as old stock once the season is over.
There's a lot of marketing knowledge in POS data, which can be used to compare an individual shop with its peers and also the performance of shops or collections with comparable seasons.
Using this 'genetic profile' a retailer can make a big win by making a better first allocation of stock to the shop for the fresh launch of a new season.
Darwin Retail Planner is aimed at retailers with 20 shops or more who need a planning add-on for their existing central system they are happy with.
It draws down data from the central system.
Implementation takes 10 days over a six to eight week period, during which we talk to management about how they want it set up - how their shops are clustered, for example - and the interface is designed.
The data is then tested, the environment built and training given to the retailer's staff.
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