Charming Charlie supports business growth with Oracle Retail

Houston – Specialty accessories retailer Charming Charlie is supporting rapid growth of its business with an enterprise rollout of Oracle Retail applications. And “business” is the key word in the equation.



“This is not an IT project,” John Hnanicek, CIO of Charming Charlie, said during a session at Oracle Industry Connect 2015. “It’s a business project sponsored by the business and supported by IT.”



Charming Charlie is looking to build a foundation to add 50-60 stores a year, with about 9,000 SKUs per store, to its existing base of 350 stores in the U.S. and Canada. Capabilities the retailer will obtain once full rollout occurs April 5, 2015 include the ability to allocate based on future demand as well as past sales, and full visibility of entire inventory.



To that end, Charming Charlie is implementing Oracle applications including Retail Trade Management, Retail Merchandising System, Retail Invoice Matching, and Store Inventory Management.



Hnanicek said Charming Charlie expects to have a better base SKU model as a result of implementing new Oracle Retail tools, as well as reduced errors, automated and streamlined pricing, and improved replenishment. These solutions will be implemented alongside an existing Oracle financials application.



Hnanicek offered one final word of caution for other retailers considering major technology upgrades.



“Software and hardware are getting easier,” he said. “Explaining to people how to do their jobs is getting harder.”