Guitar Center creates merchandising harmony

Operating multiple brands and channels, Guitar Center has struggled in recent years with merchandising challenges such as omnichannel retailing, branding and selling a mix of new and used products.



These merchandise planning struggles have hampered productivity, as well as resulted in siloed planning and sub-optimal decisions. However, by implementing the multi-tenant, cloud-based mPower merchandise planning system from o9 Solutions, Westlake Village, California-based, 270-store Guitar Center has been able to upgrade its merchandising processes in time for the 2016 planning cycle.



Among the capabilities Guitar Center has gained are the ability to plan across multiple dimensions including brands, channels, categories, inventory segments and vendors. The user interface is also more flexible than the retailer’s previous merchandise planning interface.



“As we went down the road to select a partner for our merchandising solution needs, we had a number of critical considerations,” said Flynn Chernos, senior VP, planning at Guitar Center. “First, we wanted to select a partner who could not only fulfill our current needs, but also offer a complete solution for future needs. Second, user adoption was critical to our success. Third, speed and agility were key to achieving our business goals. We are excited by our initial success and the foundation it creates for a strong partnership in future.”



Survival in the 21 century means a retailer’s back end must operate as seamlessly and connectedly as its front end. By aligning its merchandise planning processes behind the scenes, Guitar Center is ensuring customers will have timely access to the products they search, browse and shop for across channels.