KaDeWe Streamlines Processes for the Luxury Department Stores with Centric Planning

Improved Collaboration, More Transparency and Streamlined Processes For the Luxury Department Stores

The main challenge was managing large assortments with multiple products and brands; the Berlin location lists close to 400,000 individual products.

The KaDeWe Group operates three retail concepts in each location, adding a layer of complexity. These factors made it challenging to analyze retail performance, optimize inventory, and establish sales and buying targets. The KaDeWe Group has multiple teams involved in the planning processes, and strategic sales targets are defined jointly by the merchandising and buying teams.

The existing method made the process time-consuming, inconsistent and data errors could happen. The KaDeWe Group needed to streamline processes.

Why Centric Planning

After considering various software providers, The KaDeWe Group selected Centric’s Planning solution. Centric’s expertise in the multicategory retail sector, track record of customer success and experience helping retail customers solve issues like The KaDeWe Group’s made them the perfect fit.

The easy-to-use, modern and intuitive interface was a benefit as The KaDeWe Group needed fast and widespread adoption. The KaDeWe Group also needed an agile digital transformation partner who could advise on their unique business challenges.

Solution Scope

Centric’s Planning solution has been implemented to streamline strategic and merchandize financial planning processes. These include sales and margin calculations, sales planning, buying planning and stock projections.

The solution integrates all three business models and provides detailed data for every aspect of the business.

Benefits

Moving from excel files management to one integrated planning system has generated great improvements:

• Automated data preparation and consolidation for the merch plan saves great time.
• A ‘single version of the truth’ improves transparency across all aspects of the business.
• Real visibility into the plan vs budget.
• Real-time reporting and status updates enable quick decision-making.
• Streamlined buying process and new ability to plan by season and month independently.
• Greater visibility leads to more detailed and accurate stock projections.
• Teams can create multiple ‘what if’ scenarios to drive strategic and agile decision-making.