shoe cinderella image credit pixabay/trevoykellyphotographyOracle has announced that CCC Group S.A., the global footwear retailer, has seen significant business improvements using Oracle technology. As a modern omnichannel footwear retailer CCC Group sells over 50 million pairs of shoes across 1200 stores and at least 23 countries online.

It has ambitious growth plans. The company aims to grow through organic growth, international expansion and acquisitions by 100% over the next three years. Underpinning that are 65 digital transformation projects that will improve margins. Several of those involve its Retail Management Systems.

Clearance optimization

One of these is the implementation of Oracle Retail Merchandising and Planning and Optimization. It has recently started using Oracle Retail Clearance Optimization. The data sheet highlights five advantages that the technology delivers to customer:

  • Improved Accuracy
  • Increased Profits
  • Increased return on investment
  • Reduced Markdowns
  • Increased Efficiency

While this is from the marketing material, it is interesting to see what CCC Group shared as some of the business improvements in the press release it has seen. Using the new software CCC Group improved gross margin by 4.2% and also saw a 7.1% increase in inventory sell through. It also highlighted that the company was able to leverage a new business process. This provides mark down recommendations to its analysts and some exception-based reporting on inventory style, colour and location. As a multi-national firm able to move stock between locations gives it the capability of re-balancing stocks across its estate.

Two improvements also noted in a recent investor presentation were:

  • Improvement of the process of managing discounts: discounts per country and not CCC Company
  • Markdown recommendations to optimize margin and reduce the stock remaining at the end of the season.

Both of these tie back to the benefits highlighted in the marketing materials.

The Oracle Retail Clearance Optimization also integrates with other Oracle ERP solutions such as Oracle Retail Merchandise Financial Planning. This ensures that discounts on inventory suggested by the solution are seen in the wider context of, and impact to the business as a whole.

Piotr Pawłowski, Chief Information Officer, The CCC Group commented: “Oracle Retail Clearance Optimization provides us with the flexibility to adjust to our business needs and markets while providing a stable, intelligent and scalable platform. We have shifted from a 100 percent manual process to a solution that runs millions of combinations to come up with the best recommendations for our experts.”

Part of a much wider initiative

This project is just one of several that the company is undertaking, not all of which are with Oracle. It has also seen significant benefits from its other projects that have delivered improvements to assortment planning, inventory and logistics. Overall, its technology investment has helped drive:

  • a 2-3% increase in revenue growth
  • 1-3 percentage point gross margin improvements
  • 10-25% inventory reduction.

As the company grow rapidly these will make a significant difference to its likely success.

CCC Group is working with several partners to help implement these technologies. It selected Pronos SP. Z o.o. to assist with the implementation of Oracle Retail Merchandise Financial Planning and Assortment Planning. Pronos will then deliver solutions for allocation, replenishment and merchandising.

Pawłowski commented: “Pronos has provided great local, in-language implementation experience with global expertise. We look forward to continuing our digital transformation with the completion of our Oracle Retail Merchandise Operations Management implementation.”

Pronos are experts in planning, supply chain management and mobility. However, they are not the only partner the retailer is working with. CCC Group turned to Accenture for assistance with Oracle Retail Merchandise Operations Management. This will establish a single view of inventory that drives greater efficiency across omnichannel retail operations. These investments will empower planners, merchants, pricing experts and operations analysts to make more strategic decisions. It will allow them to adopt industry best practices through the modern technology.

Enterprise Times: what does this mean

For Oracle, this is a powerful story. A fast growing and successful company is embracing its retail technology stack, implementing and demonstrating its benefits. It seems to work because CCC Group is delivering what its customers want.

Mike Webster, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Oracle Retail and Oracle Hospitality (Source Oracle)
Mike Webster, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Oracle Retail and Oracle Hospitality

Mike Webster, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Retail commented: “In our recent consumer research, we discovered that 78 percent of EMEA consumers indicated that competitive pricing and promotions were essential to their shopping journey. With this strategic investment in Oracle technology CCC Group is able to maximize revenue opportunities while implementing strategic promotions for customers that drive brand differentiation and long-term loyalty.”

There is a wider story about the whole of the transformation that is ongoing at CCC Group. Oracle are directly supporting the implementation of its Retail Management System at CCC Group. By the end of Q2 2019 it will have implemented a full omnichannel solution across Poland and the Czech Republic. In the third and fourth quarters 2019 it expects to roll it out to more of its overseas units.

CCC Group is also working on some other innovative projects. These include:

  • Working with intelligent mobile bots as sales assistants.
  • RFID embedded packaging to further improve efficiency.
  • Predictive systems and advanced business analysis.

Expect to hear more about these and others in the coming months

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