Home Decor Retailer Captures Better Assortment Insights with New System

The client is an American big-box retailer specializing in home décor products with a broad assortment of over 50,000 unique items. The company struggled to balance inventory needs by category and by store. They did not have adequate assortment planning expertise or a formal process and did not differentiate, or tier, their assortment mix by location. This approach resulted in smaller volume stores holding excessive inventory, while larger volume stores were challenged to stay in stock on key programs. This dichotomy caused a combination of both missed regular-priced sales and excessive clearance inventory. There was also inconsistent use of product attribution which made it difficult to analyze and optimize product offerings. The client’s existing item planning process was time-consuming, performed in a cumbersome spreadsheet-based tool, and disconnected from the assortment planning process and purchasing.​

Parker Avery partnered with the client throughout the assortment planning and item planning (APIP) solution assessment, selection, and implementation. Providing direction and industry expertise, Parker Avery led the following activities:​

• Reviewed existing assortment and item planning processes and guided workshops to outline future-state requirements​
• Facilitated a detailed review of all attribution needs against the current state process and created new process standards for attribution​
• Facilitated a system selection, including expert review and scoring of multiple software options, to find the right system that would drive long-term growth​
• Documented detailed configuration design requirements based on a review of selected tool capabilities and configuration options​
• Supported functional testing to ensure quality and alignment with client’s requirements​
• Led comprehensive user acceptance testing (UAT) to validate that the system functionality and configuration met their business needs​
• Created detailed training materials to guide end-users through step-by-step system utilization and business processes​
• Led train-the-trainer program to transfer knowledge and build mastery for super users to support assortment planning expertise and long-term sustainment​
• Facilitated end-user training, hands-on workshops, and one-on-one coaching to ensure adoption and to integrate the new assortment and item planning capabilities into their end-to-end business processes​