Last month Lightspeed Commerce launched NuOrder Assortments, for the first time giving fashion brands access to the assortment optimization technology already in use by top-tier retailers including Saks, Nordstrom and Macy’s.
Italian luxury brand Brunello Cucinelli signed on as NuOrder Assortments’ first brand client, gaining the ability to see images of the merchandise in orders before it places them so it can better tailor the product lineup to the needs of each individual store it runs.
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Rather than using a text-only spreadsheet to place apparel orders according to style, color, size and so on, the NuOrder Assortments empowers brands to view product images before ordering them from the supplier. This is critical in the apparel and footwear industry where different stores in different parts of the country with different climates and style preferences can better identify the items that will sell most quickly once they arrive. Beyond that, it allows authorized staff on both ends of the supply chain to access the shared platform in real time.
“It’s mind-boggling to me that you [still] have multi-billion-dollar companies that are planning what products to go into what stores… all scrapped together on pen, paper, spreadsheet,” Heath Wells, B2B general manager at Lightspeed, told Sourcing Journal. “So we said, we need to build something that has all the data, but more than that, is visual, because all the categories we serve are all visual.”
Stephanie Gin, director of buying at Brunello Cucinelli, said the visual and interactive aspects of the NuOrder software have helped the company’s stores right-size their inventory.
“Implementing NuOrder Assortments meant more accurate roll-ups and a clear process to write smarter buys,” Gin said in a press release. “We now get an immediate visual of the assortment, thus making it much easier to analyze and review. The tool has improved collaboration between the merchandising and planning teams; they are now able to analyze and pull live data throughout the writing process. The tool has replaced all manual processes and has become essential to our buying process.”
Wells said NuOrder Assortments can help brands reduce markdowns if they order more of what is selling and will sell. The platform also helps brands keep track of products bearing sustainable attributes so the right teams can target suitable audiences.
“Everyone has a sustainability goal, but how did they track what products that are going into their store that are sustainable?” Wells said. “Now, you’re able to tag the products that are sustainable and say, OK, what is my penetration of sustainable products going out that door, or online? Or that we want to share this with our marketing team to make sure they are pushing it to the right customers.”
Though NuOrder helps brands right-size their inventory, Wells cautions the tool itself is not an inventory tracker, rather one that enhances the “pre-planning assortment” level.
Wells said NuOrder Assortments is available as a separate module on the Lightspeed Commerce platform and is intended for brands with at least 10 locations. “When you’ve got more stores, the problem is more acute,” he said. “So we’re starting there.”
Platform users report halving the amount of time they spend cleaning up mistakes.
“From our early adaptation with our early set of customers, we’re seeing like 55 percent reduction in the time [spent] fixing errors, which happens all the time when you’re saving, closing, sending [spreadsheets],” Wells said. “But this is a brand-new tool, so the proof is in the pudding and, you know, we’re very bullish on what we have.”
