Of course, it’s not about football here, it’s about fashion and clothing. How do we get to the most popular sport in the world? Quite simply: after the game is before the game, as legendary coach Sepp Herberger already knew. And in a slightly modified form, the famous quote also fits into our business: After the order is before the order – and probably the most important time of the season, with which more and more stands and falls, up to the point of existence.
After the order is before the order!
Procurement, production and replenishment have never been as demanding as they are today: What do I produce in what quantities for which location? – Planning was never child’s play, but these essential questions can no longer be answered “on the fly”, especially with the constantly growing number of individual sales channels and locations.
Each additional area increases the complexity of planning the right assembly at the right time. Numerous factors such as demographic data, consumer preferences, local competitors, seasonality of the products, delivery time, shipping time, shipping costs, weather influence the stocking of the individual locations, offline as well as online Availability of the products. The reluctance of insecure end consumers weighs even more heavily. Rising energy and food prices have a negative impact on the consumer climate, as current figures from the Federal Statistical Office show: In June 2022, sales were 8.8 after adjustment for inflation
Percent below the previous year’s level – the largest decline compared to the same month last year since 1994. Even the successful online trade recorded a decline of 15.1 percent compared to 2021. It hit the textile trade particularly hard, whose sales were a total of 10.1 percent lower compared to 2021. According to the HDE (Handelsverband Deutschland), there is no improvement in sight.
Uncertainty is accompanied by a new awareness: According to a current survey “How will we shop in the future” by the Institut Français de la Mode (IFM) and the Première Vision fabrics fair, the top 3 answers from European consumers are: 1. less and better, 2 .more sustainable products and 3. more used clothing aka second-hand fashion.
Goodbye black hole, hello customers!
For retail this means: more profit for fewer sold products, ie minimization of “dead capital”, ie unnecessary inventories and remainders, in order to avoid unnecessary discounts as far as possible and to achieve the highest possible returns.
In order to make money and survive, retail has to do one thing: sell its products. This is becoming increasingly difficult – it has never been more important than today for retailers and brands to adapt to the real dynamics of consumers – to meet them on an equal footing and, ultimately, to satisfy their needs and wants with their products.
Sounds complicated to impossible? Far from it – if you are willing to break away from static processes such as 1-to-1 replenishment or fixed targets.
Just be as dynamic as your customers, we will help you! Chainbalance puts you in a position to make the right decision every day, automatically, reliably and based on data. With our help, you will know exactly where which product is needed and in what quantity. We’ll tell you where “big hits” need to be refilled in order to unfold hidden growth potential and where “bums” cannot be taken care of or replaced. With our help, you minimize overstock that has to be mined or resold to third parties – at kilo prices that are extremely damaging to margins – or, in the worst case, as garbage drastically corrects your carbon footprint downwards – causing both guilt and guilt contributes to bad press.
And although the last round of orders is just behind us, now is the ideal time to start planning for the new season. The fashion business was always unpredictable, and when in doubt, the weather was to blame. Hoping for the right weather is not enough in times like these – plan efficiently, dynamically and at eye level with your consumer: inside – whom you can get to know better with our support.
Find out, with our help, how he ticks in order to understand what he needs and wants. We will be happy to explain how we do this on the
IX partner day of INTEX on October 29, 2022 at 10:00 a.m.
Goodbye black hole, hello customers, it’s no rocket science, it’s just Chainbalance!