Assortment Planning


Every retailer is challenged with how to effectively plan and execute unique store-level assortments that match local consumer demand.  In order to determine the styles, colors, and sizes of merchandise to deliver to each store for each delivery period, retailers must consider financial and strategic objectives, historical performance, local demographics, market trends, and many other factors.  In apparel, footwear, and accessories, the process is further complicated by the short life cycle nature of the merchandise.

7thOnline Assortment Planning provides an intelligent platform to coordinate, analyze, and share this dynamic information in real-time and to translate it into actionable decision making.  The solutions begin with top-down planning and culminate in bulk order placement, with built-in optimization engines for clustering, sizing, and assortment breadth and depth. Management has complete visibility into all planning activity to ensure that plans are aligned with corporate objectives and to react to opportunities and challenges as they arise.


KEY FEATURES
  • Input or upload financial and unit plans
  • Generate optimal store clustering
  • Review weekly POS data by class, SKU, and location
  • Build and analyze assortments by class, unit, dollar, price point, door and size leveraging industry specific reporting and analytics
  • Built-in assortment optimization generates optimal category, class, and SKU breadth and depth to meet local demand while incorporating the necessary constraints
  • Automatically generate initial placeholder plan based on historical data and defined parameters
  • Integrate visual and quantitative planning
  • Leverage 7thOnline's Collaborative Buying Platform to:
    • Access vendor product catalog information and images in real-time
    • Auto-populate plans with up-to-date vendor product data and images
    • Generate EDI purchase orders with one-click
  • Access assortment plans and analyses 24/7, from any Internet browser
  • Import and export to and from Excel
  • Seamlessly integrate with financial planning and ERP systems
KEY BENEFITS
  • Higher sell-thru/reduced markdowns through better assortments at the door and size level
  • Assortment planning/buying process is automated and integrated in a real-time, "1 version of the truth", web based solution
    • Cross organizational access and visibility, 365, 24/7
    • Corporate objectives immersed in collaborative process
    • One click ordering, electronic order integration, collaboration
  • Increased management visibility throughout the process leads to more informed decision-making
  • Optimization algorithms solve for maximum profitability seeding unit plans at the Store/Color/Size level