Articles
Merchandise Planning: More Than Merchandise
March 13, 2008
•Case Study: Merchandise Planning More Than Merchandise
Founded in 1989 by Robert Redford, Sundance provides top-quality, southwestern motif product, including jewelry, apparel, home décor, furniture and gifts. Sundance began strictly as a catalog sales company, eventually launching its online operation, as well as a retail store in Lone Tree, Colo.
As its success grew, so did its reputation for out-of-stocks, backorders and missed opportunities. The results showed in the lack of communication within critical areas of the organization – and in the company's shrinking bottom line. With the implementation of Direct Tech's Forecast*21:Direct and the support of its consultants, Sundance was able to make dramatic improvements in its operations, its decision-making and its profitability.
Growing from just a few items to an inventory that averaged 5000 products and 25,000 SKUs, Sundance's planners relied on a mix of paper documents, spreadsheets, mainframe-based ordering and fulfillment tools, and their own memories to try to keep inventories at proper levels. As the business grew, the inadequacies of these disparate tools and methods fell further short of the mark and it showed – in the high incidence of errors, increasing out-of-stock items and overstocks and ultimately in the bottom line.
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