Merchandising, Buying, Planning and Allocation

We have worked with clients on all aspects of their merchandise related functions, assisting clients with streamlining activities, increasing margins, improving in-stock positions and reducing costs.

Organization
SD Retail has worked with many companies to shape and refine the organizational structure of the merchandising and marketing functions to ensure efficient processes and clear lines of communications, aligning merchandising activities with company goals.

Buying Effectiveness
We have developed and implemented best buying practices, including reengineering key processes, prioritizing tasks, developing vendor measurement, improving analysis capabilities, and creating measurement to help buying organizations better manage their business.

Planning and Allocation
Getting the right amount of product into the right locations at the right time is one of a retailer's biggest challenges. We have worked with companies to improve this core competency by identify improvement opportunities in structure, systems, statistical analysis and process changes. This has resulted in reduced time to market, improved sell-through, better replenishment flow, reduced inventory holdings, fewer vendor returns and a reduction of store workload.

Pricing, Markdowns and Clearance
Setting of prices, executing price changes, taking markdowns and disposing of clearance merchandise all have significant impacts on a retailer's performance. SD Retail has worked with many retailers to make the decisions that optimize margins and minimize labor requirements.

Promotional Process and Effectiveness
In today's highly promotional environment, a retailer's ability to select, negotiate and produce meaningful promotions is key to success. We have worked with many companies to improve promotional planning and execution among merchandising, marketing and stores and helped develop metrics to measure the effectiveness of both the products and events.

Vendor Income
SD Retail works with buying, marketing and finance to identify all sources and types of vendor income and establish a controlled process to maximize income. We also have developed measurement and vendor scorecards and trained buying organizations to better negotiate with vendors.