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CASE STUDY | RETAIL | xP&A

South African E-commerce Retailer Transforms Merchandise Planning

Solution Overview

Industry

Retail

Solution

Merchandise Planning solutions implemented by Decision Inc.

Client

A leading online retail platform in South Africa. The client provides a diverse selection of products ranging from electronics and books to fashion, home essentials, and more.

Requirement

Their spreadsheet-based processes in place lacked the accuracy, detail, and clarity needed to turn strategic goals into effective merchandise plans. With multiple divisions and departments, and each having different needs; the retailer faced significant challenges in managing their planning effectively across divisions.

Location

South Africa

Results

Real-time consumer insights

Optimised inventory management

 

Improved cost analysis

 

Faster collaboration between executives

 

Improved efficiency

 
Jump to results

After implementing Board’s Merchandising Planning solution, the client improved how they managed inventory, made better forecasts, simplified their processes, and used data to make decisions, leading to higher profits.

The Client

An innovative ,online retail platform operating primarily in South Africa, the client offers a wide range of products including electronics, books, fashion items, home goods, and more.  
Known for their convenience and extensive product selection across the country, they aim to provide a seamless shopping experience through their website and mobile app, catering to the diverse needs and preferences of their customers. 
 

The Requirement

Existing spreadsheet-based processes did not provide the data accuracy, depth, or clarity needed to effectively turn strategic goals into actionable merchandise plans. The online retailer has multiple divisions and departments, each with unique requirements, therefore there was a strong need for:
  • Empowerment of merchandising teams to work more efficiently and collaboratively  
  • Automation of time-consuming manual planning steps  
  • System integration to ensure a single source of the truth 
  • Enhanced insights into merchandise performance, accelerating informed decision-making  

 

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The Solution

The merchandise planning solutions implemented by Decision Inc. on the Board platform enables strategic decision-making and dramatically improves operational efficiency. 
In consultation with the client, it was identified that the Merchandise Financial Planning (MFP) and Weekly Sales, Stock and Intake (WSSI) Board solutions would be the ideal fit for their immediate needs.

Decision Inc. delivered a tailored implementation of these solutions to provide an optimised client environment for driving sales, profitability, and collaboration between merchandisers, finance, and operations teams. The solution incorporates an integration into their data warehouse to surface relevant and timely historical information, used as the basis for plans.

The MFP solution enables planners to identify key trends and opportunities by analysing consumer behaviour. Using this information, planners are able to produce multi-year bottom-up merchandise plans by product, region, and other dimensions to align to top-down strategic plans. The WSSI solution enables the optimal allocation of Open-To-Buy (OTB) and improved in-season purchasing decisions based on real-time insights. Additionally, the solution provides the ability to compare forecast inventory levels with forecast warehouse capacity, to reduces operational inefficiencies and overstocking.

For the first time, the client is empowered with real-time insights and multi-dimensional planning capabilities, allowing the entire retail business to plan in a single platform utilising one source of truth. 

The solution enables the following benefits: 

The company has seen many benefits after being able to visualise their data:
Real-time consumer insights that empowers executive action, improving resilience and driving profitability throughout the business. 
Optimised inventory management, reducing stockouts and overstocking. 
System integration and automation of manual planning activities, including OTB management. 
Faster collaboration between executive, merchandise, finance, and operational teams to significantly improve efficiency and reduce costs. 
Contact one of our experts

About Decision Inc.

Decision Inc. is a global digital partner that enables businesses to reinvent themselves to realise their full potential.
We deliver agility, resilience, and intelligence to any enterprise, enabling them to adapt quickly and thrive through innovation and opportunity. Our teams have engaged with more than 400 clients globally over the past 15 years, providing them with the expertise to build, operate, and optimise their digital businesses.
We achieve this by leveraging the world’s best technology to drive our client’s business ambitions forward into tomorrow’s reality.

Our success is ultimately driven by our entrepreneurial culture, industry exposure, and the passion of our people. We have three key cross-functional teams – Functional and Specialist Consulting, Development, and Engineering teams. Based in four global offices, our exceptional consultants focus on delivering value to clients by keeping them at the centre of our service delivery.