Inventory Management

Merchandise and inventory planning for catalog retailers used to be a thorough, highly detailed process from start to finish. The goal,

The item-level inventory accuracy enabled by RFID tagging will be a critical element for Chico's as it seeks to maximize sales opportunities from buy online/pick up in-store occasions. The confidence of knowing which items are actually available in each store will allow the retailer to arm store associates with customer-specific purchase history data, enabling highly effective cross-selling and upselling when the shopper comes into the store. Chico's Director of Store Technology Ken Silay and COO Kent Kleeberger laid out the technology and process pyramid that will be needed to fully enable this cross-channel appointment shopping. 

Retailers of all types — brick-and-mortar, internet, catalog and multichannel variations of the three — are facing the same inventory challenges, yet still view their issues from the bias of their primary channel. I was reminded of this while attending the recent National Retail Federation (NRF) Convention. Three observations that the Direct Tech contingent brought back from NRF seem to support this view: 

For 30 years I've advocated for more detail in the planning process. Now, however, I believe the best response to this overwhelming new reality is "less." Less data, less complexity, less time planning insignificant details. It's time to focus on the right planning, to free up your time and brain so you can make sound decisions that affect sales, profits and cash flow. 

For operations professionals in the cross-channel retail industry, the risks and rewards of the holiday shopping season are well known. Order peaks can be five times to 15 times higher than the average week. If you get behind processing orders, you may not recover until Christmas is over. For many companies, the entire year's profit results from fourth-quarter sales.

Lowe's is engaging the services of Microsoft to help improve its customer service. The company has agreed to implement Microsoft Office 365 across more than 1,745 stores, 200,000 employees and its corporate offices in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Office 365 will help the home improvement retailer improve customer service by providing collaboration tools to increase communication among its stores and employees. "Office 365 is another tool we're using to help redefine customers’ home improvement experiences," said Paul Ramsay, senior vice president of IT solutions at Lowe's. 

PVH Corp. will open 600 Izod shops inside J.C. Penney department stores in September, Women’s Wear Daily reported. The new in-store-shops will range from 600 sqare feet to 1,000 square feet in size.

Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren is scheduled to give a deposition in July in a contract dispute with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., Bloomberg reported. Macy’s sued to stop Martha Stewart Living from executing a sales agreement with J.C. Penney. Cincinnati-based Macy’s said it has the exclusive right to sell Martha Stewart-branded products in certain categories. J.C. Penney acquired a 17 percent stake in Martha Stewart Living for $38.5 million. Lundgren is scheduled for a half-day of questioning on July 3 in advance of a July 13 hearing.

HanesBrands, the parent of Champion and Hanes, said it plans to narrow the focus of its worldwide imagewear business by restructuring to exit noncore segments and reduce risk. The company announced the sale of its European imagewear division and, in the U.S, the exit from the private-label category and the planned divestiture of its OuterBanks brand. Imagewear, which sells basic apparel to wholesalers in the screen-print market, accounts for 8 percent of the company’s sales before the actions. Hanes expects to incur pretax charges in the second quarter of up to $85 million to $95 million.

Workers at a Cambodian garment factory that makes clothes for Levi's, Gap and other well-known international brands are striking for more pay and better working conditions. More than 5,000 workers from the Singaporean-owned SL Garment Processing (Cambodia) Ltd. failed to reach an agreement with their employers Tuesday to end an 11-day strike. Ath Thon, director of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers, said workers are demanding an increase in their base pay of $61 a month for 8-hour days, six days a week. He said they want a $5 salary hike and an extra $25 a month for transportation and housing.