Luxury brands are constantly struggling with department stores’ need to markdown their merchandise, which hurts the prestige and high value of their brand. Over this Christmas season, brands such as Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors and Kate Spade are watching sales and inventory levels very closely each week. When possible, retailers are even monitoring daily, looking at sell-through percentages to determine if they need to mark products down to keep sales-to-stock ratios balanced. Customer buying trends of ordering online and returning the item to a brick and mortar store exacerbates the problem. Brands needs to be on top of the data to try to make recommendations that don’t result in retailers marking their merchandise down. The trick at the end of the holiday season is not to sell the most, but to end up with the least amount of unsold merchandise going into January. Using POS data and staying informed about where their merchandise is at all times helps brands alleviate the need to buy more than they need, “just in case”.
Source: businessoffashion.com
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