RELEX Solutions assists fashion retailers with successful planning & allocation

RELEX Solutions, Europe’s fastest growing supply chain solution provider, announces its planning and allocation management solution for the fashion, sportswear and textiles industries. Combining in-memory computing technology with the rapid implementation of inventory management and forecasting tools, RELEX helps fashion retailers address challenges they face especially with in-season management and stock allocation.

Tommi Ylinen, VP of Product at RELEX Solutions, comments: “Few businesses are as complex and challenging as fashion with highly seasonal items, multiple variations of colours and sizes and long lead times. Retailers now have the tools to make better informed decisions around planning and allocation and ensure the right stock is in the right location, at the right time.”

To help fashion retailers to make optimal planning and allocation decisions, RELEX recommend, in its new Fashion e-book, to divide the in-season management process into four steps:

• Pre-Season – planning for a great season with pre-packs. 
  In pre-season planning, there are two essential tasks – 1) forecasting and managing seasonal replenishment 2) building automated orders and optimal pre-packs.
• Season Launch - getting initial allocation right. 
  Getting the initial allocation wrong can lead to lost sales or the likelihood of huge markdowns.
• Mid-Season - monitoring performance smartly.
  While many crucial seasonal decisions have long since been made before the season starts, there are still lots of ways to improve your effectiveness during the season.
• End of Season - mastering markdowns and final push.
  The end of season is all about ensuring retailers sell as much as they can at the best possible price, with as little stock left over as possible.

By following these four steps, retailers can maximise sales with less shortages & excesses, manage & forecast seasons and promotions effectively, allocate optimal packs to each store, reduce logistics & handling costs, optimise markdowns, and increase margins.

Furthermore, RELEX Planning & Allocation solution has been developed with fashion businesses for fashion business, as Ylinen explains: “At RELEX, we work with retailers and wholesalers across the spectrum, which gives us an overview of supply chain in its many forms. Some of the principles and approaches we’ve seen, or have helped develop, translate very well from one area of retail to another. Yet, equally, in many respects, the fashion, sportswear, and textiles sectors face unique challenges, and in close collaboration with our customers in the field, including Intersport and Marimekko, we’ve developed our technology to support even the most complex of fashion supply chains.

RELEX explains each of the four steps to successful retail planning and allocation in their e-book which you can download here.