Retailers get fashions to shelves faster — sign of trouble?
Posted by: admin in Marketing and AdvertisingFiled under: Marketing and advertising
A piece in the USA Today reports that top retail chains have improved their supply chain management to get the hot new fashions in stores more swiftly before.
Sounds great, right? Maybe not. According to the article. “With the tighter economy squeezing retailers industrywide, several companies have hit on a successful formula for propping up earnings: They’re speeding up the time it takes to get the latest fashions into their stores.”
Obviously increased efficiency is great and there’s nothing not to enjoy about improved ordering, fewer markdowns, etc. But it could be creating a false sense of optimism if it’s allowing for the frontloading of sales. $30 million in sales in the first quarter and then $10 million in the second is the same as $20 million in each quarter: but if you don’t know about the differences in inventory situations, you could have a false sense of optimism at the end of the first quarter.
Time will tell whether superior supply chain management is messing with the distribution of sales throughout the year.
Entries (RSS)