Retailer’s Planning System Implementation Expected to Drive Growth and Success
Parker Avery guided this apparel retailer’s planning system implementation to streamline operations, improve inventory management, and establish a scalable foundation for growth.
Client Challenge
The client is a $100 million privately held retailer specializing in women’s fast fashion. While the retailer operates both catalog and e-commerce channels, most customers shop online. The company lacked a fiscal planning tool and operated inefficiently with siloed teams and redundant processes. Desiring to become a competitive digital-first business, the retailer partnered with Parker Avery for its planning system implementation, focused on merchandise financial, assortment, and item planning.
Parker Avery Solution
To begin the planning system implementation, Parker Avery collaborated closely with the retailer to assess its legacy systems and processes and ensure alignment between planning and product development. This included evaluating existing hierarchies and recommending changes to support the new planning tools.
The planning system implementation focused on the following key activities:
- Developed and implemented a comprehensive merchandise financial and assortment planning process within the new system
- Facilitated user acceptance testing sessions to ensure the solution met their needs
- Developed robust training materials and quick reference guides tailored to different user groups
- Communicated system changes and benefits to drive user adoption
Key project outcomes included:
- Replacement of off-line Excel-based planning functions with a streamlined, integrated, easy-to-use planning toolset
- Cohesive financial and assortment planning processes supported in a holistic end-to-end planning solution
- Well-defined data integration ensures a unified single source of truth for all system components
- Views and workflows support roles and responsibilities for all planning and buying teams
- Rapid deployment of all modules in a shorter time-to-value compared to traditional implementations
Results
Upon the completion of the planning system implementation, the retailer is equipped with full planning capabilities, from merchandise financial planning to assortment planning and purchase order execution. By rethinking and refining their planning workflows, the retailer transitioned from siloed, manual processes to a cohesive, technology-enabled approach. This transformation not only improved efficiency but also fostered greater collaboration across teams.
The retailer’s leadership embraced the process and technology changes and championed the training of their teams, which led to a higher adoption rate and healthy organizational change overall. With Parker Avery’s system implementation guidance, the client is positioned to streamline operations, improve inventory management, and establish a scalable foundation for growth.
Make sure your planning system aligns with your business needs.
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