Arcadia Group chooses Oracle Retail Platform

This article is brought to you by Retail Technology Review: Arcadia Group chooses Oracle Retail Platform.

Arcadia Group's commitment to its customers' experience across all of its brands is a key part of its global expansion strategy. The Group has invested in Oracle Retail solutions to help ensure that whatever country a consumer is in, they can receive the best experience possible, supported by enhanced inventory management which delivers the right products to the right market segments, targeted to the needs and tastes of different global consumers.

Arcadia Group, the international fashion group, has chosen Oracle Retail Merchandising Operations Management, Oracle Retail Merchandise Planning and Optimization, and Oracle Commerce applications to create a platform to help optimise retail operations and support its developing international business.

Arcadia Group will use Oracle Retail applications to improve core merchandising and supply operations and enable the business to better meet customer demand in its 2,507 owned stores and 600 international franchised outlets across 36 countries.

The Oracle Retail platform offers greater visibility to inventory management and tracking throughout the supply chain to determine requirements at the item and location level.

The Oracle Retail Planning and Optimisation solutions, including Oracle Retail Merchandise Financial Planning, Oracle Retail Item Planning and Oracle Retail Assortment Planning and Size Profile Optimization, can provide actionable insight with which to capitalize on emerging opportunities, to deliver the best assortment and to improve on the profitability of in-season inventory in each store.

In particular, Arcadia Group expects to improve the customer experience with the creation of more accurate profiles of size distribution based on individual stores, rather than at a country level, to better align assortment with customer demand.

Arcadia Group plans to use Oracle Retail Merchandising Analytics to gain additional insight into critical performance indicators that track sales, profit, inventory and supplier performance to further optimize operations.

Arcadia Group expects that the creation of international distribution hubs to enhance the global supply chain will bring additional operational efficiencies, promoting a more streamlined distribution network for owned stores and franchise partners and maximizing availability of inventory.

With the selection of Oracle Commerce solutions, Arcadia can provide consumers with an effective way to dynamically explore the Group's brands online and quickly find the relevant and desired items they are seeking.

Arcadia Group has also selected Oracle Database technologies to underpin the Oracle Retail applications.

The implementation of the Oracle Retail platform is part of a larger business strategy focused on delivering efficiencies and reducing IT costs throughout Arcadia Group's brand portfolio of BHS, Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Evans, Miss Selfridge, Outfit, Topshop, Topman and Wallis.

"Our brands are committed to delivering an interactive, exciting and efficient shopping experience to all our customers around the world, no matter which channel they choose to use to visit us, from flagship stores to mobile devices," Sir Philip Green, owner of Arcadia Group said. "Global expansion is a key strategic focus for Arcadia, and to do this successfully, we need to make sure the best merchandise assortment is available in each store and channel. We expect Oracle to help us enhance our merchandising strategies to help ensure that we deliver the best possible customer promise every time."

"As Arcadia Group continues to grow its international presence, they require better insight into their operations in each market segment, in order to deliver the best possible Commerce Anywhere experience for their consumers," said Mike Webster, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Oracle Retail. "The investment in Oracle Retail will bring operational efficiencies and enable smarter decisions to drive growth in the highly competitive international fashion world."