Inventory Management

The holidays are quickly approaching, which means retailers are once again planning for the busiest shipping season of the year. According to the National Retail Federation, holiday sales are expected to reach $656 billion in 2016. Many retailers are finalizing their processes for handling these high shipping volumes. Here are some key strategies that even the most…

As I go through the discovery process with prospective SPI customers, there's a moment in almost every engagement when one of the planners or allocators shows their current multitab, multidimension, multipivot table, holographic (OK, I exaggerated on the last point) homegrown Excel spreadsheet. It always impresses. I'm genuinely in awe of the complex usage of…

After spending months — or in many cases, years — toiling over the many aspects of bringing a product to life, it’s every retailer’s dream for that product to be adopted by consumers with hefty enthusiasm for their business. In the past, this excitement was likely to build gradually over time through word-of-mouth endorsements or…

As new forms of shopping develop, so do new forms of fraud. There is an ongoing battle between retailers and those looking to make

With the back-to-school (BTS) shopping season over and retailers shifting their attention to the all-important holiday selling season, it begs the question: What can retailers do after the BTS cycle is over to set up stores for a successful end-of-year push? Priority No. 1 for all retailers is to move BTS inventory out of the…

In a previous article, I reviewed inventory management strategies that retailers can implement after the back-to-school (BTS) season to help make room for the holiday product line. Now I'll focus on the opportunities retailers have to incorporate learnings from the BTS shopping cycle into the critical holiday season. BTS activity serves as an excellent testing ground…

In a struggling retail industry, Ulta Beauty is a bright spot. The cosmetics and beauty products retail chain reported sales increased 21 percent last year, profits were up 24.5 percent and it opened 100 new stores. That positive momentum has continued in 2016, with sales up 23 percent year to date, net income up 29…

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Every area of retail operations is vital to the success of the business. Although it might seem as if there are grand differences between them, the reality is they all share one element: the barcode scanner. From inventory control to shrinkage prevention, the barcode scanner is a central tool in any retail environment. Not surprisingly,…

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