Clear Demand advocates introduces “OmniChannel Demand Management” for retailers
Scottsdale, Ariz (PRWEB) December 03, 2014 -- Retailers require a more precise, accurate and rigorous approach to retail pricing strategy, assortment planning, demand management and competitive analysis to optimize all retail channels, in store and online, and must embrace an emerging approach called Omnichannel Demand Management (ODM), said Jim Sills, Ph.D., president of Clear Demand.
“There’s too much pressure, too many variables, channels, competitors and products for retailers to continue standard pricing and merchandising practices,” he said. “Today, leveraging intelligence must be about depth, precision, agility – access that’s virtually immediate and across all channels, all the time. This is the premise and practicality of Omnichannel Demand Management, which we believe is unlike any other solution in the market today.”
Sills, who began Clear Demand with Brent Lippman, a retail revenue management and demand management pioneer, and former chief executive officer of Khimetrics (SAP), admits his interest in ODM is to prove that most demand management practices today are obsolete, too complex and unable to “master the complexity” inherent in omnichannel retail.
“It’s obvious to admit that omnichannel has totally turned retailing upside down,” said Sills, “with many of today’s tools for analyzing pricing, promotions, sales, SKUs and more, ill-equipped to harvest the intelligence necessary to ensure retail success. And if they can, the software is often difficult to implement, integrate and use across the omnichannel enterprise. The premise of ODM is to rigorously analyze cross-channel consumer demand and competitive strategy (prices & products), and use that intelligence to respond competitively, and with more precision. Of course, ODM must ease into a retailer’s systems and processes and yet simplify retail price management. At Clear Demand, current architecture allows us to prove that ODM is retail’s best approach to omnichannel excellence.”
The OmniChannel Demand Management Approach
Clear Demand delivers ODM with software which integrates six key “focus areas” on a single platform. It may be implemented on premise or as a hosted offering (Software-As-A-Service). ODM’s collaborative, integrated elements are:
1. Dynamic Competitive Pricing. Offers intelligence using competitive price surveillance data. Here, ODM enables dynamic pricing and response while making sure of merchant compliance.
2. Competitive Demand Modeling. ODM reveals the impact of competitive pricing on unit sales and isolates the cross-competitive price impact so that a retailer can truly understand where they need to be competitive and where they can capture additional margin.
3. Product Line Optimization. ODM analyzes and evaluates “deep and wide” criteria such as product line parity, private-label gap, up-purchase incentives, competitive price gaps and assortment gaps. With product line optimization, retailers can automate pricing and ensure consistency and compliance with pricing rules.
4. Compliant Optimization. This is an evolved approach to price optimization. It minimizes or eliminates pricing rule violations and ensures that optimization operates within “bounds” of merchants’ pricing rules for competition, margin, etc.
5. Enterprise Attribution Platform (EAP). At the heart of ODM is EAP, which delivers demand intelligence at an extremely detailed level, across all channels and virtually limitless attributes, such as product specifications, price and promotion, competitor pricing, channel, product placement and fulfillment. Shoppers now make decisions based on product attributes forcing a shift from product-based analytics to attribute-based demand modeling and analytics – providing more precision in setting price, promotion, product and channel strategies.
6. Adaptive Big Data Architecture. Being adaptive—being able to easily adapt within a retailer’s existing systems, processes and priorities—minimizes disruption, ensures consistent operations, increases user acceptance, and accelerates implementation.
Drew Zlotoff, Clear Demand’s vice president of software, formerly director of e-commerce for EddieBauer - a proven leader in omnichannel excellence - adds that “the omnichannel retail transformation for retailers isn’t merely a ‘merchandising priority,’ but ‘absolutely imperative.’ Retailers’ financial success and competitive position are at stake. The timing for a technology breakthrough such as ODM, which provides vital merchandise intelligence, is extraordinary.”
In essence, the emergence of ODM – and Clear Demand’s value proposition—is a retailing evolution intended to answer these questions, said Sills:
• How do I execute merchandise strategy consistently across channels?
• What products should I carry and in which channels?
• At what prices should they be presented and when?
• Where am I competitive or not competitive and how do I respond?
• How do I integrate omnichannel demand management without disrupting my business process?
“Clear Demand delivers ODM so retailers gain more precision in their merchandising strategy,” said Sills. “ODM offers evolved science, actionable big data analytics and a single platform. It’s the new generation of demand management, proven and powerful.”
Clear Demand will exhibit at the 2015 National Retail Federation Big show, Jan. 11-13, in New York, at booth #C430. At 2 p.m. Jan. 11 on the Expo Stage, Level 1, Clear Demand and Home Depot will showcase “Pricing Strategies for Competing Effectively in an Omnichannel Retail Landscape” in a session moderated by IDC Retail Insights Analyst Greg Girard.
About Clear Demand
Clear Demand serves global retailers with software and services that improve and advance omnichannel retail operations. Clear Demand, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., is privately held and may be reached at [email protected]. For more information about Clear Demand and ODM, visit http://www.cleardemand.com, send e-mail to tmanning(at)cleardemand(dot)com or call 480.699.5889.
Roy Miller, RGM Communications, 903.422.5117, [email protected]
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