Coldwater Creek deploys Oracle solutions to improve online and store performance

Redwood Shores, Calif. -- Coldwater Creek has deployed Oracle Retail’s suite of integrated merchandise planning and optimization solutions as part of a strategic initiative to increase full-price selling and improve the productivity and profitability of store, online and catalog channels. The women’s apparel retailer is using the new planning solutions to reduce aged inventory and ensure that popular items are consistently in stock.



“The new Oracle-based inventory planning system provides inventory visibility that simply was not possible for us in the past,” said Jim Bell, executive VP and CFO/COO, Coldwater Creek, Sandpoint, Idaho. “Ultimately, this should lead to further reductions in aged inventory and allow us to increase our full-price selling, making us more productive and profitable.”



Coldwater Creek is using the Oracle solutions to create pre-season and in-season plans that will ensure the right styles and colors are available to meet customer demand in stores, online and via catalog.



“The new planning process underpins one of our strategic business objectives for this year, which is to optimize the effectiveness of our inventory investments without diminishing our ability to meet customer demand, across all channels,” explained Deanna Emsley, senior VP of inventory planning and corporate strategy, Coldwater Creek. “The Oracle Retail solution represents a significant change in the way we approach assortments and inventory by facilitating a ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ approach to planning.”



With this level of cross channel and cross category collaboration, Coldwater Creek is better able to tailor and monetize its product assortments and respond more effectively to evolving customer demand. The chain also is using the Oracle Retail solutions to budget and forecast demand more accurately, enabling better buying decisions and faster reaction to item performance by either purchasing more or using promotional mechanisms to strategically clear merchandise faster.



Coldwater Creek expects the integrated inventory management and planning processes to improve the productivity and profitability of store, online and catalog channels.



Relying on an internal team of merchandising and IT experts supplemented by minimal external consulting, Coldwater Creek implemented the suite of integrated of Oracle Retail applications in just nine months.