Urban Outfitters uses Buyer’s WorkMate® to get the fashion right for their customers!

Urban Outfitters, Inc., a lifestyle specialty retail company, operating retail stores under the Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People, and Terrain brands, recently completed the initial phase of implementation of ITR Software Buyer’s WorkMate® suite of solutions for Business Intelligence, Assortment Planning and Purchasing. All modules are linked together and seamlessly integrated to Urban Outfitters other operational systems.

According to Joe Apprendi, President of ITR Software, when ITR began working with Urban Outfitters, the objective was clear. “Here we have one of the highest profile and most successful retailers in the country and our challenge was to implement our Buyer’s WorkMate Suite (BWM) in such a way as to support and complement their creative and innovative culture. In so doing we were able to effectively marry our Assortment Planning modeling capabilities with their merchandise strategy and at the same time, provide a standardized approach to the assortment planning and buying process.”

From an assortment planning perspective, one of the key elements was to blend the quantitative modeling functions provided by BWM with the visual assortments being developed by the Urban product design and buying teams. Working the numbers to meet overall budgeted unit and dollar plans and linking those values to the visual assortments for both new season merchandise purchases, as well as monitoring in season performance, enable the buying teams to react quickly to market trends by location.

"BWM complements the "art of the retailing" by suggesting buy quantities based on historical sales information. The strong visual components then help us prepare a well coordinated fashion assortment." states Suzanne Johnson, Urban IT Manager. "BWM’s sizing and pre-pack optimization provide additional "science", further helping our merchants create a compelling customer experience".

Since BWM tracks all merchandise at the SKU and location level, assortments are tailored to the specific preferences of Urban’s customer by location. By getting the assortment right at the outset of a new season, Urban is able to minimize the costly stock-outs and deep markdowns that erode margins. In 2009, Urban Outfitters will be implementing ITR Software new Forecasting module giving them an even greater ability to quickly react to changing marketing trends.

Urban Outfitters’ retail stores offer fashion apparel, footwear, accessories, gifts and decorative items, furniture, books, candles and novelties, pillows and shower curtains, rugs, lighting and antiques, table top items, and bedding products. Each brand chooses a particular customer segment, and once chosen, sets out to create sustainable points of distinction with that segment. Stores are innovative and offer an eclectic mix of merchandise in which hard and soft goods are cross merchandised. The emphasis is on creativity with a goal to offer a product assortment and an environment that is compelling and distinctive so that the customer feels an empathetic connection to the brand.

ITR Software Inc. (ITR) is a leading provider of collaborative Decision Support for the retail industry.
With a reputation for innovative, quality products and services, ITR Software helps their customers achieve a significant and quantifiable return on investment through increased sales and margin productivity as a result of optimized product assortments in the store.

In addition to developing and implementing product solutions, ITR Software provides a set of comprehensive services. Included are Project Management, on-site and remote training as well as postimplementation support to ensure optimal utilization of the company’s products. For more information about this latest release please contact Richard Asselta at 856-309-2080 ext 309 or via email at rasselta@it-res.com.

Download press release in PDF format