Ted Baker considers retail system upgrade

The fashion retailer helped Prologic develop the version it is running at present, after the two companies worked together on a review of its business practices. Ted Baker identified a number of allocation and replenishment process enhancements and these were incorporated into the software.

Ted Baker senior merchandiser Lee Greenwood said the retailer is achieving a return on investment from the introduction of version 7.7 of the system, including improvements to its grading, allocation and replenishment processes. He said: “The immediate benefit has been to halve the time spent by the teams in both setting up gradings and creating initial allocations.”

He added: “We have been able to spend more time on added value tasks, such as improving our stock allocation accuracy and using the new grading structures to ensure that the appropriate lines and levels of stock are in the right locations. This attention to detail will doubtless drive increased full-price sales, lower markdowns and a higher gross margin.”

Greenwood said that feedback on the system from staff making the most use of it has been positive, as the system’s intelligence has added value to the business. He said: “There has been a particularly enthusiastic response to the new system from our allocators and assistant merchandisers. They have found that amending stores’ individual allocation is now far easier, quicker and accurate – particularly useful should we be short shipped, or have stock delivered to us out of ratio. The biggest benefit though is the fact that the system performs the stock calculations automatically and immediately shows the quantity and percentage of each item and size that is being dispatched.”

The newly released version 7.8 has enhancements such as an integrated e-commerce platform and cross-channel functionality such as allowing retailers to offer multi-channel giftcards.