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PrologicÂ’s Fashion Line Merchandising pays dividends during 2011 for British designer brand

Prologic’s Fashion Line Merchandising pays dividends during 2011 for British designer brand

 

Contemporary British designer fashion brand Hobbs has boosted performance and productivity levels following an implementation of Fashion Line Merchandising system (FLM) from Prologic last year.

 

The provider reported its FLM product has also significantly reduced the issue of stock shortages in best performing stores and higher levels of markdown in lower rate of sale stores holding excess stock at the end of the season for Hobbs.

 

Automating time-consuming processes

 

As FLM automates and continuously updates stock plans, Hobbs can now quickly react to sales performances of individual lines and fine-tune stock levels across its entire store and concession estate and website.

 

Since the implementation, stock levels and size availability have improved and are now more closely aligned with the sales mix performance which has resulted in a higher full price sell through.

 

Susan Millin, merchandising director at Hobbs, commented: “FLM has significantly improved availability in our 30 best performing stores.”

 

Hobbs has also seen a significant reduction in the amount of time spent by the branch merchandising team manually planning store level replenishment. Millin added: “The implementation of FLM has enabled us to set parameters so that we automatically review sales and stock data for the entire range at size level each week – a situation that was not achievable with our branch merchandising resource before the implementation of FLM.”

 

Improved stock allocation levels

 

Initial stock allocation has also improved. “FLM has given us the confidence to reduce our initial allocations by up to 25%, as we are confident that FLM will focus the replenishment onto the best selling stores for each line, based on actual performance rather than pre-set store or category gradings,” she added. As a result Hobbs is not left with excess terminal stock, therefore reducing its markdown spend.

 

“A typical FLM managed line is now available for replenishment to our top performing stores for significantly longer that it was previously,” Millin continued. “This means we maintain a credible display to the customer for longer and have a greater opportunity to achieve a higher full-price sellthrough.”

 

Millin concluded: “It’s exciting to understand that we can also look forward to ongoing improvements as we continue to fine tune our use of the solution.”