Merchandising and supply-chain-management as motor for growth
Successful retailers know: boosting of consistency, consequence and precision in the design and steering of operative business models offers significant growth models. In this respect the involvement of innovative technologies and ways of collaboration create new possibilities. Operative networking, synchronisation and perfection releases additional turnover and profit potentials.
Likewise many questions arise, with an impact on the core of the operative business model:
- Where in the range of products can you find the optimal balance between market-oriented diversity and efficiency-oriented homogeneity? To which extend new orientations are possible – away from personal opinions directed at factual knowledge? And the other way round: How effective and efficient do the applied instruments steer the reasonable and needed multiplicity?
- How should the roles between marketing and merchandising be reasonably balanced regarding selection of product range in order to ensure a strategic brand orientation as well as a high product range rotation? How can this mix be supported via selection and structure of KPIs and incentive systems?
- How can processes and decisions between suppliers and merchandisers be interlinked and synchronised better in order to make processes more efficient and the marketing more effective? How can differences between single products and suppliers be used in a more sophisticated way?
- How comprehensive, detailed and consequent information to stores, products and sales is collected, exchanged and assesses? How strictly are conclusions once gained then involved in the planning, decision and steering chain?
- How can you design process, planning and steering systems to release merchandisers in data management and updating to enable them to focus more on recoverable activities like trend analysis and sales promotion activities; or expansion of stores and product ranges?
- Which implications do the new opportunities and challenges bring for the omnichannel-strategies on the operative business model? How do planning and steering structures, systems and priorities have to be adjusted?
The TME end-to-end approach in merchandising and supply-chain projects:
Precision: granular recording, provision, processing and evaluation of market-relevant data to stores and products
Consistency: synchronising of the whole – internal and external – value creation chain (market, operations, supply) as well as concerning all distribution channels (incl. omnichannel)
Consequence: continuous alignment of standards, guidelines, IT, tools, processes, interfaces, roles, reporting and decision procedures, incentive systems and qualification measures systems to the maxims quality, speed and reactivity
Full cyclic: full cyclic consideration of all actions in the product life cycle (pre-season planning, in-season-trading & forecasting, end-of-season activities, after-season sales & returns)