Urban Outfitters adds retail planning
By Retail Technology | Friday January 31 2014
Fashion and homewares retailer will integrate new retail planning software to support growing international and multichannel business
Urban Outfitters has selected TXT Maple Lake to support end-to-end retail planning across regions, brands and channels, from strategy through to assortment execution.
The variety retailer sells women's and men’s clothing, accessories and home furnishings in nearly 500 stores, e-commerce and wholesale channels under the Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People, Terrain and BHLDN brands globally.
Calvin Hollinger, chief administrative officer of Urban Outfitters, Inc. said today in a statement: “The rapid international and multichannel growth we are experiencing creates new levels of complexity from a planning and assortment standpoint.
"We need a solution to help us accurately plan inventory across our many product categories, channels and growing international business, then translate that demand into effective buying, merchandise and assortment plans. TXT can provide those capabilities within one integrated solution.”
Spanning planning processes spectrum
The new planning integration is designed to help the company manage the whole spectrum of its retail planning processes, including those managing both pre-season and in-season strategic and merchandise planning, store grading, open-to-buy (OTB) and assortment planning.
The software will enable planning teams to create and manage their planning processes and OTB across the retailer's channels at various levels as required within each brand. Next they will use this information to suggest the framework of an assortment Plan for the buyers. Buyers will be able to design the best assortments to drive sales and customer satisfaction.
Denise Albright, chief operating officer for Anthropologie in North America, added: “In addition to its advanced planning and analytic capabilities, we found TXT's collaborative, easy-to-use interface to be remarkably supportive of omnichannel decision making on a global scale.”
