Why are Initial Allocations so important today in retail?

Why are Initial Allocations so important today in retail?

Putting together a range for today’s specialist retailers takes a huge amount of effort, the design, the review of the competition, the trends taking into account supplier capabilities. Extensive range reviews moving onto the purchase order process. To then fall down at one of the final hurdles because of lack of system capabilities can easily be avoided by the right allocation system.

So why are initial allocations so important?

Customer satisfaction One Size does not fit all!

Hands up if you have seen the latest collection from a retailer, quick marched down to the store only to be sorely disappointed by not having the right size of the item that you need. One of the key challenges retailers face today is the ability to really drill down on the typical size profile which a store needs and curate that for their initial allocation leading to lost sales and ultimately customer disappointment.

Store Sales, Space & Type

How many retailers would love to really manage their stores and channels at lower levels when allocating? Really get into the detail with regards to the personality of the store and it’ s customer profile? Use the fact that this store is amazing at leather jackets, another’s customer base is much more focused on evening wear and for some reason this store cannot get enough of cashmere jumpers. How wonderful to have all that amazing knowledge woven into a system which can be then used by its Allocation team make the decisions faster and even more fine tuned

Quick response & Buy Back In

Where allocations are sprayed and not curated there is less likely to obtain the pulse of what is selling and not selling and respond accordingly

The Impact on Retail Sales & Margin

Ultimately the right Allocation tool will be flexible to use depending on where a retailer is in the calendar year. It will be able to consider previous sales trends, forward plans, static and dynamic stock levels, the type of store and the customer’s desires who shop there. The size mix of that customer and also which types of categories of items they typically sell.

Get all this aligned with a tool which supports and the key benefits will be both qualitative and quantitative.

Including

· Higher staff retention in the allocation team

· Happier staff

· Increased sell through

· Less mark down at the end of the season

· Stores representing the brand in a great way

Island Pacific Allocation Manager

Island Pacific Allocation Manager helps retailers ensure that allocations out to their many channels are as effective as they can be to ensure that they are making the optimum use of their stock based on the demand of each selling channel. Its key focus is to simplify the Allocation process across a retailer’s channels whilst providing allocation methodologies which adapt to a retailer’s schedule and supporting the teams with as much automation as possible thereby allowing more time to focus on exceptions and where the opportunities are.

Island Pacific Assortment Manager
Island Pacific Planning Allocation