Merchandise management systems can bring some stability during unstable times

It's probably no surprise to you that retailers are facing increased competition and shrinking margins. Delivering increased financial performance and customer loyalty depends on your ability to make the most of what you have. It takes a savvy mix of pricing, category management and space assortment to maximise each sale.

Successful merchandising is all about offering the right quantity of the right merchandise, in the right place, at the right time, whilst meeting your financial goals and customers' expectations.

Whether you're a brick-and-mortar, multi-channel or Internet retailer, a merchandise management system could bring you the best of the retail industry's business practices. Adopting a fully functional merchandise management system can help support your daily operations and decisions, and provide predictive solutions.

A good merchandise management system records and controls virtually all of your business information and ensures consistent, accurate data across all integrated systems. This gives you access to information critical for day-to-day merchandising activities. In addition, it allows you to focus on key decisions that will keep your business in synch with your customers and drive profitability.

With a merchandise management system, you can implement pricing and space optimisation strategies down to the level of detail they need to drive improved margin performance. The system provides visible and controlled information from all areas of inventory performance, which enables you to better establish a balance between margin and space. This means that you can focus on meeting customer requirements and provide the value that differentiates you from the competition.

A good merchandise management system will provide you with integrated merchandising, assortment and space optimisation, price optimisation, and promotion effectiveness, as well as the following benefits:

• A significant reduction in markdown analysis and implementation time
• Application of consistent, best-practice, markdown rules
• An objective review of needs and results
• Immediate feedback on markdowns

Demand forecasting

With increasing forecasting challenges, demand forecasting has become a very important aspect of merchandising. A merchandise management system allows you to use forecasting algorithms and modelling techniques to produce accurate forecasts with little human intervention.

Systems are now flexible enough to forecast at many levels of your product and organisational hierarchies. They can also support the integration of forecasts throughout your supply chain planning. This is key to bringing together forecasts for replenishment, merchandise planning, financial planning and collaborative planning.

There are great benefits in using demand forecasting tools, not just for you, but for your trading partners as well.

Benefits for you:

• Increased revenue through reduced lost sales
• Accurate merchandise planning processes
• Accurate forecasts for new products across all levels
• Quick processing of large amounts of data
• Easy adaptation of your company's organisational needs

Promotion forecasting

If your store displays, inserts and direct mail efforts are becoming harder and harder to coordinate, you may want to consider using promotion forecasting software. A good programme will let you plan, track and analyse the profitability of your entire promotion, or the effectiveness of specific promotional features and components.

The potential benefits of using promotion forecasting software include:

• Pointing out promotions that work and don't work
• Improving your promotional pay-back
• Reducing promotional markdown
• Focus on campaign strategies
• Improving your advertising budget