Retailer-supplier collaboration is key to improving supply chain efficiency and business-wide profitability.
Source for Sports, a sporting goods retailer with more than 150 locations across Canada, has made a move to streamline its supply chain. Because stores are independently owned and operated by members of a buying group and not franchised, Source for Sports was challenged to create a single source of data and capture a comprehensive view of the entire business.
Using Askuity, a Big Data analytics platform designed to connect retailers and product vendors, Source for Sports has been able to “address the specific pain point of data collaboration across all our stores at a national level,” said Brad Hause, President of Source for Sports. “Since all our stores are independently owned, everyone has their own POS system with no common linkage between stores. This left us with an inability to understand in detail what was working and what was not leaving us a bit blind when it came to negotiating with our vendors.”
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Vendor engagement is top-of-mind for Source For Sports. The retailer will rely on Askuity to further engage the vendor community and make more informed, profitable decisions throughout the year.
“Where this platform will really shine for us is from a seasonal aspect,” said Hause in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. “Take hockey for instance. The Askuity platform will show us exactly what products did best at different parts of the season, allowing us to put together precise plans for the year following. In a nutshell, we expect that Askuity will absolutely make us wiser and wiser about our business year over year.”
Source for Sports is in the midst of implementing Askuity, collaborating with its vendors and storeowners to set up the platform and educate all users on its features and benefits.
However, the retailer’s overall experience with the platform thus far has been positive, according to Hause. “From what we have seen so far, I can tell you that this data will allow us to be more analytically predictive with our buying process. With the information provided on the Askuity platform, we are able to react quicker to both opportunities and challenges.”
Product vendors for Source For Sports also will gain real-time visibility into sell through rates and inventory levels at the individual store level. Data stationed in the cloud-based platform is available anytime and anywhere through mobile devices.
“By implementing Askuity, we now have complete visibility into what is happening with our products in terms of what is working and what is not, which leaves us in the ideal place to succeed in negotiations with our vendors and partners,” Hause explained. He added that insights available within the platform will “give our vendors the ability to have data-driven insight into trends that we are seeing in our stores, putting them in a better position in how to increase overall sales with our retailers.”