As changing weather continues to play havoc with expected retail forecasts, it becomes clear that retailers need science and analytics, flexibility and dynamic management of information in order to understand the wants and behaviour of their customers.
The 2014 Forrester Wave report on Retail Planning Solutions states that “the number of new product introductions and line extensions of promotional variants continues to grow at a furious pace, with apparel brands like Zara managing 22 collections each year rather than the more leisurely four seasons of yesterday’s couturiers.”
Meeting this challenge is the key to success amid the rapid turnover of collections in fashion retailers’ product lines - accurate forecasting and assortment decisions as well as making the right in-season adjustments are critical. Why? 92% of consumers polled in our 2014 research ‘The New Retail Democracy’ indicated they will simply not wait for the desired products to come into stock.
Retailers need to make it a priority to understand and track demand origination via all touchpoints: store, online, social, mobile, kiosk, and catalogue. Especially social and mobile channels are driving the ever increasing pace of changing trends, and are incredibly valuable channels to gain insight from. Most merchants however do not possess the tools to gather and make sense of these huge quantities of data.
We can help. Watch out for what's new in Oracle Retail Planning solutions with our upcoming V14.1 release, announced at the NRF BIG Show 2015 in New York.
