Outdoor retailer sharpens product selection chainwide
REI is turning to the cloud to step up its merchandising strategy.
The outdoor retailer, which operates 150 stores in 36 states and two online stores, has built its reputation on selling the top brands for camping, climbing, cycling, fitness, hiking, paddling, snow sports and travel. This includes its own line of award-winning outdoor gear and apparel.
However, the retailer was eager to give its customers access “to deliver optimal product selection that meets the needs of our customers at each and every location where we serve them,” said Vaidyanathan Seshan, divisional VP of merchandising, business intelligence and analytics systems at REI.
By expanding its partnership with TXT Retail, a division of Aptos, REI is adding the company’s assortment planning solution, Allocations in the AWS Cloud. The solution, an end-to-end merchandise lifecycle management suite, will help the retailer accelerate its creation of customer-focused assortments on a localized basis.
“Their solution helps us make fast, accurate merchandising and allocation decisions while providing new levels of accessibility and scalability through in-memory computing and deployment on the cloud,” Seshan said. “The implementation of TXT Retail Allocation with AWS provides that unique combination of new business capability supported by advanced technology that ultimately supports REI’s goals of innovation that directly supports our shoppers.”
With the first phase of the implementation complete, the partners are preparing to start the next phase of the project: ramping up additional elements of assortment planning, the companies said.
The outdoor retailer, which operates 150 stores in 36 states and two online stores, has built its reputation on selling the top brands for camping, climbing, cycling, fitness, hiking, paddling, snow sports and travel. This includes its own line of award-winning outdoor gear and apparel.
However, the retailer was eager to give its customers access “to deliver optimal product selection that meets the needs of our customers at each and every location where we serve them,” said Vaidyanathan Seshan, divisional VP of merchandising, business intelligence and analytics systems at REI.
By expanding its partnership with TXT Retail, a division of Aptos, REI is adding the company’s assortment planning solution, Allocations in the AWS Cloud. The solution, an end-to-end merchandise lifecycle management suite, will help the retailer accelerate its creation of customer-focused assortments on a localized basis.
“Their solution helps us make fast, accurate merchandising and allocation decisions while providing new levels of accessibility and scalability through in-memory computing and deployment on the cloud,” Seshan said. “The implementation of TXT Retail Allocation with AWS provides that unique combination of new business capability supported by advanced technology that ultimately supports REI’s goals of innovation that directly supports our shoppers.”
With the first phase of the implementation complete, the partners are preparing to start the next phase of the project: ramping up additional elements of assortment planning, the companies said.