Why is there never an easy way to get a reliable view of my brand’s merchandise? Precious resources are spent managing datasets from our ERP, POS, e-commerce, and warehouse systems with little success in gaining visibility. For example, our fall/winter 2020 and spring/summer 2021 collections are in the warehouse, but my store associates cannot sell since there’s no communication between the POS and the warehouse inventory. I have an item master file, but nowhere to upload it. As a result, I am forced me to prioritize my e-commerce channel and lose focus on my stores.
Focusing on your brand’s e-commerce channels is justified. E-commerce sales grew by 44.5% in Q2’20. However, the problem comes down to categorizing e-commerce as the only variable of the digital war room. Yes, e-commerce possesses a heavy concentration of a brand’s digital initiatives. But, failing to understand that digital encompasses the store network and sales associates too, can lead to over-concentration and ultimately the downfall of a brand’s retail market share.
Launching pop up shops with endless aisle visibility and BORIS and BOPIS functionality, represents the first verified leg of a successful digital transformation. The shop establishes a new customer touchpoint, interconnects your brand’s store network, and empowers store associates to sell more.
With a platform in place that streamlines the communication between your ERP, POS, e-commerce, and warehouse systems, your brand can establish and scale the store of the future. At XY, merchandisers can upload a single master file into the XY system and have it updated across their online and offline channels. Merchandisers that work on the XY system reduce the amount of time they invest in cross referencing datasets and have more time to study their data to find trends and opportunities.
Does your merchandising team have the ability to create the following reports on-demand:
- What were my sales by month per category?
- Which categories have the highest penetration rates?
- What is the top selling subcategory by store?
- What is my sales variance by division?
Every merchandiser should have these easily accessible and customizable reports in their analytical arsenal. Request a demo today to see how merchandising is getting an upgrade through XY Retail’s unified data platform.
