Top 6 Reasons Retailers are Transforming Merchandising Operations < HOME >

TOP 6 REASONS RETAILERS ARE TRANSFORMING MERCHANDISING OPERATIONS

Modern merchandising systems are the foundation for innovation throughout retail operations; they are the source that feeds predictive analytics, informs personalization algorithms and drives change. It is a dynamic that calls for a new approach, one that replaces aging on-premises systems with cloud services that gives business teams the ability to support more customer journeys and allows IT teams to focus on what is most important— customer focused initiatives—faster and more effectively.

New Insights From Leading Retailers Most retailers know that they need to transform to stay competitive and relevant, but some haven’t decided what or how to change. For many, merchandising operations should be on top of the list. Only by “Merchandising systems are the changing their core operations will they set themselves up for growth and the ability to adjust to new customer journeys in the future. Industry analysts are saying the primary reason retailers are transforming heart and lungs of retail. Ensuring that and in some cases, moving to the cloud, is the need for agility and speed across the business. they are modern and flexible is key to keeping pace with change, The move to transform is typically motivated by retailers’ need to instill best practices and simplify often complex integration. But what if you could reduce maintenance, heighten security and more readily take from supporting customer advantage of emerging technologies? These types of transformative changes allow IT to focus on more experiences to reducing costs.” important customer facing activities.

– Lara Livgard, Senior Director In a variety of customer and industry gatherings, Oracle Retail has gained insight into what retailers are doing Merchandising, Analytics to ensure transformational success as well as the myths surrounding cloud migration. It is apparent that & Enterprise, Oracle Retail merchandising system upgrades are critical to keeping retail operations current with business needs. But at what juncture do retailers initiate change when existing systems are heavily customized and outdated?

Here are six reasons retailers are undertaking a major merchandising operations transformation.

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“Merchandising is the heart of REASON # Enables Growth our operations, in the sense 1 that it enables us to deliver the right product at the right time to our customers, and to deliver a seamless experience It Impacts Everything between the channels.” While retailers upgrade commerce, store, distribution center and other systems, merchandising is often the last to change. Since merchandising data drives everything from pricing to inventory and financials, – Bruno Mourão, Head of Business retailers are reticent to disturb these foundational systems. Many are built in-house, others began as pre- Demand and IT Architecture, Sonae built applications but were heavily customized over the years, creating something entirely different. The environment is further complicated by homegrown integrations attaching to other retail applications.

Reliance on entrenched, highly-customized IT systems also means that aging merchandising systems are more likely to impede growth than to enable it. Over time, store, commerce, marketing and planning teams find themselves working around the limitations of the merchandising platform rather than using it to pave the way for new initiatives.

How Healthy is the Heart of Your Retail Operations?

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“Cloud-based retail solutions provide REASON # Provides Competitive companies with a competitive 2 Advantage advantage. Brands can dedicate resources to act on insights instead of maintaining legacy systems. Retailers that innovate will continue to widen the gap between their peers with lower From IT to Innovation operating costs, improved customer

experience and maximized margins.” A modern merchandising solution will provide competitive advantage to support today’s variety of customer journeys. Customers expect to be able to shop on their terms – buying from any retail touchpoint and having – Lara Livgard, Senior Director nearly full flexibility with their fulfilment options. Without an efficient and modern core merchandising solution Merchandising, to provide accurate pricing and inventory information, tracking all inventory movements and recording the Analytics & Enterprise, Oracle Retail financial implications, retailers can’t deliver on their promise to the customer.

However, forward-thinking retail brands are not only focused on improving customer experience, but are also driving innovation through cloud-based solutions. Cloud solutions streamline processes, make data analytics easier to access, and provide a continuous delivery of new features and functions. Oracle Retail is unique in that it offers a deployment choice to customers for their Merchandising operations solution. By having deployment choices, retailers can take advantage of the benefits of a cloud solution, on their terms.

“To grow from $200 million to $400 million in revenue, we have changed the way that we invest in and use IT. The Oracle platform scales optimally to support our near and long-term growth objectives, while changing the way that we work and how we drive performance across categories and market segments.”

– Jeff Wollen, CIO, Wiggle Watch the Wiggle Video John Lewis A JOURNEY TOWARDS A SINGLE VIEW OF INVENTORY

British retailer, John Lewis operates throughout the United Kingdom. John Lewis began trading in 1864 on London's Oxford Street, and has grown to become the largest omnichannel retailer in the UK.

ABOUT JOHN LEWIS

John Lewis 50 Stores across the UK A JOURNEY TOWARDS A SINGLE Department Stores: VIEW OF INVENTORY 36 John Lewis at home and stores at St Pancras International and 12 Heathrow Terminal 2, as well British retailer, John Lewis operates throughout the as johnlewis.com British retailer, John Lewis operates throughout the United Kingdom. John Lewis began trading in 1864 United Kingdom. John Lewis began trading in 1864 on London's Oxford Street, and has grown to become on London's Oxford Street, and has grown to become Partners the largest omnichannel retailer in the UK. the largest omnichannel retailer in the UK. 30,000 Annual Gross Turnover: 10B < HOME > % 45 Online Business ABOUT JOHN LEWIS British retailer, John Lewis operates ABOUT JOHN LEWIS throughout the United Kingdom. Need for Change ManagementJohn Lewis began trading in 1864 on Better serve customer needs and meet London’sexpectations Oxford Street, and has for convenience, choice and experience.grown to become the largest omni- channel retailer in the UK. Stores across the UK Challenges at John Lewis Stores across the UK • Inconsistent processes 50 • Spaghetti of legacy systems 50 • Inconsistent data Retailer View from John LewisDepartment Stores: Department Stores: “John Lewis wanted to implement a full end-to-end Customer Experience & the Right Information 36 solution that fully integrated with the supplier. The new 36 process would give us the information around a product John Lewis at home and stores and ability to launch a product online. Fundamentally, the benefits we’re driving will increase the speed to market at St Pancras International and with a seamless process working with new and The overwhelming reason that retailers12 adopt Heathrowa modern Terminal merchandising 2, as well system is to enable their business existing systems.” – Susan Young, Head of Merchandising Heathrow Terminal 2, as well Strategy, John Lewis Partnership teams to have insight to what is happening in asthe johnlewis.com business.

Partners BUSINESS IMPACT According to leading U.K. retailer John Lewis, when considering an upgrade toPartners their merchandising platform, 30,000 Deployment of Oracle Retail Merchandising System, it came down to the customer experience. The role of merchandising in delighting the customer is about Oracle Retail Price Management, and Stibo Product Annual Gross Turnover: Information Management has: getting the right product at the right place at the right time, and that also means reducingB returns. Over time, the company had evolved its aging merchandising system, making additions along10 theB way. Reduced the time it takes to % launch new products – bringing However, the result was disjointed. At one point, merchandising45 Online assistants Business had to work with two screens on 1. JLP in line with competitors their desks, because product data and stock information differed depending on which system they checked. + Consistent product information enabling customers to make Ultimately, the team wanted one version of the truth that they could trust. By implementing Oracle Retail comparisons, and better- Merchandising, they established thatNeed reliable, for Change foundational Management source. informed purchasing decisions 2. Better serve customer needs and meet expectations Better serve customer needs and meet expectations for convenience, choice and experience. for convenience, choice and experience. Improved productivity in the Buying Offices by creating streamlined, standardised Challenges at John Lewis processes across all departments • Inconsistent processes 3. • Inconsistent processes • Spaghetti of legacy systems • Spaghetti of legacy systems • Inconsistent data • Inconsistent data Improved data quality which will improve customer decision making processes 4. “John Lewis wanted to implement a full end-to-end solution that fully integrated with the supplier. The new solution that fully integrated with the supplier. The new Automation of daily tasks process would give us the information around a product 5. and ability to launch a product online. Fundamentally, the MERCHANDISING SOLUTION BENEFITS benefits we’re driving will increase the speed to market Oracle Retail Merchandising puts business analytics at the heart of with a seamless process working with new and every process — enabling collaboration and empowering associates with the context to make better decisions faster. existing systems.” – Susan Young, Head of Merchandising 80 % INCREASE in productivity through more streamlined integrated processes Strategy, John Lewis Partnership 80 % REDUCTION in invoice matching time 200+ merchandising processes supported and driven by science 60 % REDUCTION in purchase order maintenance ZERO Number of custom reports needed to monitor inventory status BUSINESS IMPACT BUSINESS IMPACT scalable platform 1 solution to support multiple business types and omnichannel journeys Deployment of Oracle Retail Merchandising System, Oracle Retail Price Management, and Stibo Product “John Lewis deployed Oracle Retail Merchandising Information Management has: System, Oracle Retail Price Management, and Stibo Product Information Management, the heart and lungs of these core tools will keep our business going for years to come.” – Rachel Callan, Business Lead ERP Project, John Lewis Reduced the time it takes to launch new products – bringing LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW JOHN LEWIS HAS CONTINUED JLP in line with competitors TO ADOPT NEW TECHNOLOGY TO BETTER SERVE 1. CUSTOMER NEEDS AND MEET EXPECTATIONS FOR 1. CONVENIENCE, CHOICE, AND EXPERIENCE VIEW THE OIC PRESENTATION

Consistent product information Copyright © 2018, Oracle and/or its af liates. All rights reserved. Oracle and Java are registered trademarks + Consistent product information of Oracle and/or its af liates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. 052318 enabling customers to make comparisons, and better- informed purchasing decisions 2.

Improved productivity in the Buying Offices by creating streamlined, standardised 3. processes across all departments

Improved data quality which will improve customer decision making processes 4. 5. Automation of daily tasks MERCHANDISING SOLUTION BENEFITS

Oracle Retail Merchandising puts business analytics at the heart of every process — enabling collaboration and empowering associates with the context to make better decisions faster. % INCREASE in productivity through more streamlined integrated processes 80 % INCREASE in productivity through more streamlined integrated processes % REDUCTION in invoice matching time 80 % REDUCTION in invoice matching time merchandising processes supported and driven by science 200+ merchandising processes supported and driven by science % REDUCTION in purchase order maintenance 60 % REDUCTION in purchase order maintenance Number of custom reports needed to monitor inventory status ZERO Number of custom reports needed to monitor inventory status ZERO

scalable platform scalable platform solution to support multiple business types and omnichannel journeys 1 solution to support multiple business types and omnichannel journeys

“John Lewis deployed Oracle Retail Merchandising System, Oracle Retail Price Management, and Stibo Product Information Management, the heart and lungs of these core tools will keep our business going for years to come.” – Rachel Callan, Business Lead ERP Project, John Lewis

LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW JOHN LEWIS HAS CONTINUED TO ADOPT NEW TECHNOLOGY TO BETTER SERVE CUSTOMER NEEDS AND MEET EXPECTATIONS FOR CONVENIENCE, CHOICE, AND EXPERIENCE VIEW THE OIC PRESENTATION

Copyright © 2018, Oracle and/or its af liates. All rights reserved. Oracle and Java are registered trademarks ofCopyright Oracle and/or © 2018, its Oracle af liates. and/or Other its af liates.names may All be rights trademarks reserved. of Oracletheir respective and Java owners.are registered 052318 trademarks of Oracle and/or its af liates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. 052318 < HOME >

“The power of vanilla gives us the REASON # Continuous Solution Enhancements 3 opportunity to update constantly to take advantage of Oracle’s future enhancements. It gives us an opportunity to get new technology One of the biggest reasons to select a packaged software solution has always been the vendor’s commitment to invest in the platform, enabling retailers to take advantage of it in the future. Unfortunately, and enhancements, allowing us to many retailers never realized this objective as they modified the solution so heavily that they couldn’t afford to stay ahead of the curve.” upgrade when the new versions eventually arrived. However, with the new agile development of the cloud, new features, functions and even completely new services are added frequently — many of them enabling – Robert Kagenski, Director of simplification, mobility, and ease of use. Financial Systems, Kirkland’s

The continuous release and even more importantly, immediate uptake, of new development adds to the appeal of using a cloud services approach. All customers, however, regardless of deployment method, benefit from the more agile development and delivery as they can see quick progress in the solution and prepare for future change. By staying as “vanilla” as possible, on-premises customers are able to upgrade easier than ever before, while cloud customers realize the benefits immediately without ever doing another upgrade.

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“The thought leadership, collective REASON # Flexibility 4 wisdom, and drive to accomplish what we have accomplished this year is unprecedented.”

Taking a Modular, Hybrid Approach – The Gap Inc. comments on their partnership with Oracle Retail Unlike solutions from other industry providers, the Oracle Merchandising solution is not ‘all or nothing;’ its optional modules allow retailers the flexibility to implement areas of the footprint that address their business problems, instead of being forced to adhere to a strict implementation sequence. In addition, Oracle recognizes that for many retailers, a hybrid systems environment that mixes cloud and on-premises systems will be the norm.

Oracle Retail’s merchandising deployment options and robust integration infrastructure mean that whether you choose to go on-premises or cloud for your core merchandising operations, the solution will integrate with other cloud or on-premises solutions in your ecosystem.

An open cloud architecture allows retailers the flexibility to still tailor the solution to unique business processes through configurations or extensions. Some retailers build their own micro-apps using the open architecture of APIs and web services, while the growing cloud-experienced partner network further boosts a retailer’s ability to strike the right balance for them.

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“The Oracle Retail Reference Library gave a really good starting point to drive standardization, to drive a conversation with the Easily Deploy Industry business; to say that we need to REASON # work in a standardized way and 5 Best Practices this is why. Everyone has evolved their roles to how they like to work, and the Reference Library gave us a benchmark, a way to look at how other people do this, why other The Oracle Retail Reference Library is a key differentiator of Oracle’s merchandising solution and it becomes people do this, and we used the even more critical in a cloud deployment to facilitate business change and adoption. The collection of reference library quite a lot.” detailed implementation information includes business process models, architectural diagrams, and more.

This intellectual property helps partners and retailers accelerate their implementations by providing the basis – Rachel Callan, Business Lead of for best practices for global, market-leading retail operations. The framework allows retailers to operate Pioneer Project, John Lewis successfully from the start and lets them focus on areas that are unique to the business.

Fast Fashion Success: Keeping Pace with Markets

When rapid growth pushed one fast fashion apparel retailer to replace its legacy system, speed was a driver. The retailer required an efficient implementation and a solution that would appeal to young, fast-paced employees.

Oracle Retail Merchandising Cloud Services and Oracle Retail Store Inventory Management ushered in sweeping change. Store associates embraced the newfound ability to use iPhones to receive, track, and transfer inventory. Because stores can see their own inventory alongside other locations, there is an increased sense of ownership of item sales, item accuracy Watch the John Lewis Video and customer service. Being able to do things like messenger an item the same day from another location, without having to actually pick up the phone, enhances associates ability to consult with customers.

The Oracle Retail Reference Library, which defines process flows and architecture across the entire Oracle Retail Merchandising Cloud Services suite, instilled a ‘best practices’ approach to operations. A single, accurate version of the truth enables individuals and business teams to be consistent across buying, planning, and finance teams.

The new system lends greater flexibility and control across the field organization and its buying teams. The retailer tracks performance of items, and consecutive dashboards give everyone the same insight to how inventory is turning, how much cost is owned, where liabilities reside, and what kind of inventory buyers need to chase. < HOME >

REASON # Simplicity “For us, in addition to the business 6 benefits, the greatest win has been creating a simplistic way for our teams to get their work done, Ultimately, the core value of moving to a world-class merchandising cloud system is to avoid the cost and the Oracle Cloud solution has and complications associated with building your own solution from scratch. By upgrading to a modern enabled us to do that.” merchandising solution, retailers are able to dramatically simplify ongoing integrations (and future upgrades) with the array of financial, store, commerce, supply chain, planning and other operations that rely on – Merchandising Director, Fast merchandising for critical item and inventory data. Fashion Retailer

SINGLE VIEW OF OPERATIONS

“Rather than just wanting one version of the truth, merchandise assistants wanted just one version. We needed to get one core system across what we did, so we could believe in the data and we could actually make more informed decisions and spending our time on the right things.”

– Susan Young, Head of Merchandising Strategy, John Lewis

“Our transformational initiative allowed us to evolve and efficiently prepare for growth opportunities today and Watch the John Lewis Video tomorrow. By gaining visibility into inventory and adopting industry best practice, we can better anticipate demand and plan inventory placement. The robust Oracle solution provides a consistent and reliable core operations engine.”

– Frederico Santos, CIO & CFO, Parfois < HOME >

7 REASONS TO CONSIDER CLOUD MERCHANDISING

Talking with retailers worldwide, there are several reasons why leaders elect to move merchandising operations to a cloud solution.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Reducing Risk Stopping the Cycle Always-On Gaining World-Class Using Industry Best Adopting a Common Moving Quickly Innovation Security Practices User Interface Moving to an Once in, cloud When an acquisition, established and services rollout Making new features Security demands Leading cloud Modern user brand launch or well-supported upgrades and readily available is continue to escalate, applications provide interfaces are market expansion cloud environment new features in a a transformative making it nearly business teams with browser-like, calls for business reduces many of continual manner – change, one that impossible for retail built-in, modern behaving more upgrades, cloud the risks inherent to effectively ending caters to a culture of teams to keep abreast best practices. like the apps that implementations major on-premises the age-old cycle of innovation. of new threats. By Rich features and are familiar to offer a faster, more implementations disruptive rip and moving to a cloud functionality help to employees in other streamlined approach – including cost replace types of service supported ensure the solutions aspects of their lives. to achieving results. overruns due to upgrades. by global specialized require few to no This reduces the delayed schedules security teams, modifications. learning curve for or unanticipated IT retailers gain deeper new employees and challenges. resources while boosts productivity. reducing business risk. John Lewis A JOURNEY TOWARDS A SINGLE VIEW OF INVENTORY

British retailer, John Lewis operates throughout the United Kingdom. John Lewis began trading in 1864 on London's Oxford Street, and has grown to become the largest omnichannel retailer in the UK.

ABOUT JOHN LEWIS

50 Stores across the UK Department Stores: 36 John Lewis at home and stores at St Pancras International and 12 Heathrow Terminal 2, as well as johnlewis.com 30,000 Partners Annual Gross Turnover: 10B % 45 Online Business

Need for Change Management Better serve customer needs and meet expectations for convenience, choice and experience.

Challenges at John Lewis • Inconsistent processes • Spaghetti of legacy systems • Inconsistent data

“John Lewis wanted to implement a full end-to-end solution that fully integrated with the supplier. The new process would give us the information around a product and ability to launch a product online. Fundamentally, the benefits we’re driving will increase the speed to market with a seamless process working with new and existing systems.” – Susan Young, Head of Merchandising Strategy, John Lewis Partnership

BUSINESS IMPACT

Deployment of Oracle Retail Merchandising System, Oracle Retail Price Management, and Stibo Product Information Management has:

Reduced the time it takes to launch new products – bringing 1. JLP in line with competitors

+ Consistent product information enabling customers to make comparisons, and better- informed purchasing decisions 2.

Improved productivity in the Buying Offices by creating streamlined, standardised 3. processes across all departments

Improved data quality which < HOME >will improve customer decision making processes 4. 5. Automation of daily tasks MERCHANDISING SOLUTION BENEFITS CONCLUSION Oracle Retail Merchandising puts business analytics at the heart of every process — enabling collaboration and empowering associates with the context to make better decisions faster. For many retailers, the next wave of progress begins with 80 % INCREASE in productivity through more streamlined integrated processes transforming merchandising systems, and with full executive 80 % REDUCTION in invoice matching time 200+ merchandising processes supported and driven by science leadership support, will allow the business to remain flexible and 60 % REDUCTION in purchase order maintenance progressive. The sooner dying legacy systems are transformed, ZERO Number of custom reports needed to monitor inventory status the sooner other aspects of the organization benefit. Gains are scalable platform immediate and long-reaching as merchandising informs and enables 1 solution to support multiple business types and omnichannel journeys new strategies across marketing, fulfillment, mobile, commerce, “John Lewis deployed Oracle Retail Merchandising store, planning and other operations. From the start, retailers enjoy System, Oracle Retail Price Management, and Stibo Product Information Management, the heart and a modern set of applications that are intuitive and pre-integrated lungs of these core tools will keep our business going for years to come.” with omnichannel operations and customer journeys. – Rachel Callan, Business Lead ERP Project, John Lewis

LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW JOHN LEWIS HAS CONTINUED To learn more request a 1-1 Demo of the Solution or review these merchandising resources. TO ADOPT NEW TECHNOLOGY TO BETTER SERVE CUSTOMER NEEDS AND MEET EXPECTATIONS FOR CONVENIENCE, CHOICE, AND EXPERIENCE VIEW THE OIC PRESENTATION

Copyright © 2018, Oracle and/or its af liates. All rights reserved. Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its af liates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. 052318

Blog: Parfois Establishes Data sheet: Oracle Retail Blog: Dubai Duty Free PR: Gap Inc. Deploys Video: The Gap a Foundation for Merchandising Cloud Completes Upgrade Oracle Retail Cloud Interview – Digital Accelerated Growth Services in 8 Months Services in Six Months Disruption in Retail & Thinking Autonomous < HOME >

ABOUT ORACLE RETAIL

Oracle provides retailers with a complete, open and integrated suite of business applications, server and storage solutions that are engineered to work together to optimize every aspect of their businesses. Twenty of the top 20 retailers worldwide—including fashion, hardlines, grocery and specialty retailers—use Oracle solutions to drive performance, deliver critical insights and fuel growth across traditional, mobile and commerce channels. For more information, visit http://www.oracle.com/goto/retail.

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October 2018

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