Inventory

Anda Pho, head of marketing at True&Co., the lingerie retailer that uses an online fit quiz to size bras for women of all shapes and sizes, explained yesterday at NEMOA’s directXchange 2016 Fall Conference how the company has revolutionized the bra-buying process. Data is Everything “Making a bra is like making a car,” Pho said. There…

Exactly what a “size six” is can be a mystery to your customers. Sizes are defined differently from manufacturer to manufacturer, and even from year to year. Some designers may change sizes for strategic reasons. For example, a decade ago a garment would have been labeled a size 16, but it’s a size 12 today in…

Welcome to the first video in our new Retail Video Spotlight Series. The first series is all about concept stores. Today, we're talking to Rachel Shechtman, founder of STORY, a retail store in New York City that takes the viewpoint of a magazine, changes like a gallery, and sells product like your standard brick-and-mortar store. Hear…

Michael Kors isn't very happy with the excessive discounts department stores give on its products. CEO John Idol says that come February, the brand will no longer participate in family-and-friends sales or accept coupons for its products. Michael Kors plans to cut back on the amount of merchandise it ships to department stores in an…

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,…

Target  is asking many suppliers to take on up to an extra 3 percent to 5 percent of the cost of promotions and price cuts after slow sales so far this year. Retailers often use price discounts combined with promotions to sell slow-moving items and make room for newer products. Suppliers also have their own offers and…

The ability to collect and harness data is a key opportunity for retailers that want to truly enable a consumer-centric supply chain. According to a recent Boston Retail Partners study, 62 percent of retailers named customer identification and personalization of customer experience among their top three customer engagement priorities, more than any other initiative. However,…

We’ve all been there — going online to see if a specific piece of merchandise is currently available at a particular retail store, before taking the time to drive to said store or calling the store directly. If the online site shows that a product isn't currently available at that store (or the store location…

Retailers that manage their inventory using spreadsheets or other antiquated systems are costing themselves a lot of time, which is ultimately money lost. Not having systems in place that automate inventory management is costing retailers money. From the redundancies and productivity losses incurred from paying employees to perform manual tasks that could be automated, to…

Out-of-stock inventory continues to be a huge problem for retailers and suppliers alike. There’s nothing more frustrating for consumers than an empty shelf, and even just one instance of an out-of-stock item can have lasting consequences in terms of customer loyalty and lifetime value. Consider some recent findings from the Trading Partner Alliance consisting of…