Thirty-One Gifts deploys TXT Maple Lake’s integrated retail planning software

New York -- Thirty-One Gifts, one of the nation’s largest direct-selling companies, announced the successful go-live of TXT Maple Lake’s integrated retail planning solution. The software is helping Thirty-One Gifts manage the whole spectrum of in-season planning processes, including inventory management and open-to-buy.



Thirty-One Gifts offers an array of lifestyle products, most of which can be personalized.



“Because of our business model, which relies strongly on sales consultants’ activity and is very much driven by end-of-month sales, managing inventory and SKUs is absolutely critical to us, particularly as we transition seasons,” said Mike Mausteller, director of planning and merchandise control at Thirty-One Gifts, Columbus, Ohio. “We needed to better align our inventory strategies with demand to avoid backorders and additional air freight charges. The TXT Integrated Retail Planning solution is helping us achieve ideal inventory management and optimized product availability.”



Prior to TXT’s implementation, Thirty-One Gifts relied on spreadsheets with planning executed at month and style level. Now with support from the TXT software, users plan at a finer style/color/size level and with a weekly horizon. The solution also provides embedded performance management and dashboards, which ensure greater transparency across the business, and ultimately support more accurate fact-based decisions.



“The full planning team is using TXT and they really like the system,” added Mausteller. “The solution has helped standardize the process, with everyone working and thinking in a coordinated fashion. We chose TXT for their ability to support retail planning from end-to-end, as well as for the flexibility of the solution, which is able to adapt to our growing business. Adoption among users has proven extremely smooth.”