Canada’s Simons optimizes styles and colors with AI

Simons is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to minimize inventory costs while supporting omnichannel growth.

The Quebec-based upscale department store retailer is implementing AI-based predictive merchandising and inventory management technology from Retalon. As Simons grew across Canada, opening as large as 110,000-plus-sq.-ft. stores across several provinces and expanded e-commerce into the U.S. market, the company needed a more accurate, efficient and scalable way to maintain optimal assortment levels. 

The company’s geographical expansion over 2,800 miles also required a more accurate, sustainable, scalable approach. Simons turns over 250,000 styles and colors a year and offers a wide range of sizes, with much of its assortment having shorter lifecycles. 

Forecasting demand down to a single product for every store and distribution center was challenging, considering factors like seasonality, fulfillment methods, pricing, and lead times. Buyers manually managed inventory, promotions, and transfers at stores.

Seeking an AI-based merchandising approach that would allow it to minimize inventory cost while maintaining customer service levels and keeping up with growth, Simons selected Retalon predictive analytics solutions to forecast demand, generate shipments, allocate products, calculate replenishment, and optimize promotions.

Simons implemented Retalon's analytics for improved insight on projected demand and inventory optimization recommendations that get the right product to the right store proactively. The retailer also optimizes thousands of promotions a year with Relation technology, accurately predicting uplifts and optimizing inventory proactively. 

In addition, Simons uses Retalon's forecast to account for warehouse labor demand to better schedule labor during crucial seasonal peaks like Black Friday in order to execute hundreds of thousands of picks efficiently. The new approach has enabled the company to automate and reduce time buyers spend on manual tasks.

"Today, in the 21st century, we are moving to a much more granular approach to looking at data, and that's where Retalon comes in for me,” said Peter Simons, CEO, Simons. “In this era where the customers talk to you through that data, to be able to really hear not only when they're shouting things but also just whispering very quietly, Retalon helps us move through that data more gradually and make better decisions."

Simons operates 17 stores in the Canadian provinces of Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia.