Press Release

7thOnline Announces Size Optimization: Enabling Retailers and Suppliers to Match Size Distribution to Local Demand

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - September 13, 2006 - 7thOnline, the premier provider of assortment planning and optimization solutions to the apparel, footwear, and accessories community, announced today the availability of 7thOnline SIZE OPTIMIZATION. The solution enables retailers and suppliers to determine the optimal merchandise size distribution to meet unique store-level demand and to maximize profit potential.

Given the lack of adequate tools, most retailers and suppliers are forced to use national or chain average size performance or to apply local sales ratios by size blindly in order to determine size distribution. Consequently, a significant portion of retail sales and gross margin are lost due to a mismatch between store size distribution and local demand.

Retailers and suppliers can avoid these unnecessary sales and margin losses with 7thOnline's powerful size analytics and optimization capabilities. Through historical POS analysis and an optimization algorithm, 7thOnline SIZE OPTIMIZATION enables merchants to determine the optimal size distribution by style attribute by store that will maximize gross margin. For case pack styles, the system enables suppliers to determine the optimal size mix for each pack size for their buy accounts and enables retailers to optimally distribute case packs to each store.

"Markdowns and overstocked inventory are often not a result of misguided assortment strategy, but rather a result of poor execution of merchandise allocation and distribution," stated Saman Hong, VP Analytics and Optimization Solutions. "Size distribution is a large component of this execution. With 7thOnline SIZE OPTIMIZATION, retailers and suppliers can be confident that they are executing a size distribution strategy that best matches their customers' local buying behavior, minimizes size breaks, and maximizes sell-thru."

About 7thOnline
7thOnline is the premiere provider of web-centric assortment planning and optimization solutions targeted to the global apparel, footwear, and accessories community. 7thOnline's offerings encompass visual and quantitative top-down and bottom-up assortment planning tools, powerful analytical and optimization engines, and automatic order transmission capabilities in multiple formats. The collaborative capabilities enable users to share up-to-date information at any time via the system, both internally with colleagues and externally with trading partners. Customer results include higher sell-thru and lower markdowns through better assortments at the door level, better inventory matching due to earlier supply/demand visibility, shorter cycle times due to the streamlined process, and reduced operational costs resulting from significantly reduced administrative tasks and error rates. 7thOnline's user community currently includes Belk, Dillard's, Federated Department Stores, Jones Apparel Group, Kellwood, Kohl's, Liz Claiborne, Saks Inc., and many others.