IBM Case Studies Shop Direct: Making good things easily accessible to more people

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	Shop Direct: Making good things easily accessible to more people IBM

Shop Direct: Making good things easily accessible to more people

IBM

Technology Category	Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Database Management & Storage
Applicable Industries	Retail
Applicable Functions	Business Operation Sales & Marketing
Use Cases	Demand Planning & Forecasting Inventory Management Supply Chain Visibility
Services	Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services Software Design & Engineering Services System Integration
Challenge	Shop Direct, a multi-brand online retailer, has been transitioning from a catalogue-driven business into a world-class digital retailer. With 86 percent of the company’s sales made online, it is critical for Shop Direct to ensure that the right product is available in the right place and at the right price. However, with its business growing, the group found it increasingly difficult to manage rapidly expanding numbers of products and related information. The previous approach to product management and stock planning was largely manual, with most buyers working from their own spreadsheets. This resulted in a lack of a consistent way of managing and forecasting inventory, and a limited view of products and pricing across the group. Read More
About Customer	Shop Direct Group is a multi-brand online retailer that trades through digital department stores including Littlewoods.com and Very.co.uk. The group has grown to become one of the UK’s largest online retailers, with more than GBP 1.8 billion in annual sales. Shop Direct has been making big changes to its operating model in recent years, transforming from a catalogue-driven business into a world-class digital retailer. Today, 86 percent of the company’s sales are made online, with more than half originating from mobile devices. To remain the go-to choice for savvy online shoppers, it is critical for Shop Direct to ensure that the right product is available in the right place and at the right price. Read More
Solution	Shop Direct decided to re-engineer the way it manages products and pricing. The group turned to Oracle to provide the retail software platform that would sit at the heart of its new approach to product management. As a first step, Shop Direct worked to centralize data across multiple brands and departments into a single repository, built on Oracle Product Information Management (PIM). The PIM repository is integrated with a new financial and assortment planning application, developed using Oracle Retail Predictive Application Server (RPAS). With the new planning solution, merchandising teams can easily manage estimates, buying and selling prices, and offers for all group products. Shop Direct also takes advantage of Oracle Fusion Middleware solutions to serve as the strategic backbone for the bulk of its application landscape. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Database Management & Storage

Applicable Industries

Retail

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Sales & Marketing

Use Cases

Demand Planning & Forecasting

Inventory Management

Supply Chain Visibility

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services

Software Design & Engineering Services

System Integration

Challenge

Shop Direct, a multi-brand online retailer, has been transitioning from a catalogue-driven business into a world-class digital retailer. With 86 percent of the company’s sales made online, it is critical for Shop Direct to ensure that the right product is available in the right place and at the right price. However, with its business growing, the group found it increasingly difficult to manage rapidly expanding numbers of products and related information. The previous approach to product management and stock planning was largely manual, with most buyers working from their own spreadsheets. This resulted in a lack of a consistent way of managing and forecasting inventory, and a limited view of products and pricing across the group.

About Customer

Shop Direct Group is a multi-brand online retailer that trades through digital department stores including Littlewoods.com and Very.co.uk. The group has grown to become one of the UK’s largest online retailers, with more than GBP 1.8 billion in annual sales. Shop Direct has been making big changes to its operating model in recent years, transforming from a catalogue-driven business into a world-class digital retailer. Today, 86 percent of the company’s sales are made online, with more than half originating from mobile devices. To remain the go-to choice for savvy online shoppers, it is critical for Shop Direct to ensure that the right product is available in the right place and at the right price.

Solution

Shop Direct decided to re-engineer the way it manages products and pricing. The group turned to Oracle to provide the retail software platform that would sit at the heart of its new approach to product management. As a first step, Shop Direct worked to centralize data across multiple brands and departments into a single repository, built on Oracle Product Information Management (PIM). The PIM repository is integrated with a new financial and assortment planning application, developed using Oracle Retail Predictive Application Server (RPAS). With the new planning solution, merchandising teams can easily manage estimates, buying and selling prices, and offers for all group products. Shop Direct also takes advantage of Oracle Fusion Middleware solutions to serve as the strategic backbone for the bulk of its application landscape.

Impact #1	By introducing a centralized, consistent way of accessing and managing product data, Shop Direct is making it quicker and easier for teams to load products onto e-commerce platforms, and update product information as required.
Impact #2	Moving away from manual, spreadsheet-based processes to a standardized, automated product information management solution has sharpened group-wide insight into products, pricing and suppliers, and has vastly improved data quality.

Impact #1

By introducing a centralized, consistent way of accessing and managing product data, Shop Direct is making it quicker and easier for teams to load products onto e-commerce platforms, and update product information as required.

Impact #2

Moving away from manual, spreadsheet-based processes to a standardized, automated product information management solution has sharpened group-wide insight into products, pricing and suppliers, and has vastly improved data quality.

Benefit #1	Established a central team of 12 people to load products onto e-commerce platforms.

Benefit #1

Established a central team of 12 people to load products onto e-commerce platforms.

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Overview

Shop Direct: Making good things easily accessible to more people

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit