Development provides complex planning capabilities for international confectionery retailer

Development provides complex planning capabilities for international confectionery retailer

Hotel Chocolat recently engaged Manchester-based software provider Quantiv to design and build it new merchandise and store planning software, called Planner.

Capable of meeting the stringent demands of the British chocolatier’s diverse multichannel, multi-territory business model, the software has been designed to optimise service levels and profitability throughout the company.

The Planner application is tailored to ensure the right product is available at the right time across Hotel Chocolat’s range of physical stores: including on the High Street and concessions, online retailers and café concept stores in the UK, as well in the US, Europe, the Middle East and its St Lucia plantation hotel.

Simplifying store planning processes

It provides a system for unifying, accessing and analysing data across various channels, territories and products. And it is capable of helping merchandise planners to analyse trends, create plans, report and take decisions in-season to increase sales and optimise profit margins.

Also designed to tackle the complex issue of analysing and planning using spreadsheets, which are still heavily relied upon by merchandisers across the globe, Planner is significantly reducing the time-consuming process of analysing stock and sales on a daily or weekly basis.

Simon Shutt, head of merchandising at Hotel Chocolat, stated: “We operate in a fast-paced, ever-changing environment, so we need a solution that is powerful, robust and flexible enough to cope with the complexity of our merchandising needs.

“Planner, being one of the most revolutionary and adaptable tools on the market, fits our requirements exactly. In addition, Quantiv’s implementation and development philosophy, along with the company’s can-do attitude and reputation for delivery and service, makes Planner the ideal choice for us.”