7 Reasons Retailers are Moving Merchandising to the Cloud

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New Insights From Leading Retailers Most retailers know that they need to transform to stay competitive and relevant, but some haven’t decided what or

how to change. For many, merchandising operations should be on top of the list. Only by changing their core

operations will they set themselves up for growth and the ability to adjust to new customer journeys in the future.

Industry analysts are saying the primary reason retailers are transforming and in some cases, moving to the cloud,

is the need for agility and speed across the business.

The move to transform is typically motivated by retailers’ need to instill best practices and simplify often complex in-

tegration. But what if you could reduce maintenance, heighten security and more readily take advantage of emerging

technologies? These types of transformative changes allow IT to focus on more important customer facing activities.

In a variety of customer and industry gatherings, Oracle Retail has gained insight into what retailers are doing to

ensure transformational success as well as the myths surrounding cloud migration. It is apparent that merchandising

system upgrades are critical to keeping retail operations current with business needs. But at what juncture do retailers

initiate change when existing systems are heavily customized and outdated?

Here are seven reasons retailers are undertaking a major merchandising operations transformation.

Modern merchandising systems are the foundation for innovation throughout retail operations; they are the source that feeds predictive analytics, informs personalization algorithms and drives change. It is a dynamic that calls for a new approach, one that replaces aging on-premises systems with cloud services that gives business teams the ability to support more customer journeys and allows IT teams to focus on what is most important— customer focused initiatives—faster and more effectively.

7 REASONS RETAILERS ARE MOVING MERCHANDISING TO THE CLOUD

“Merchandising systems are the heart and lungs of retail. Ensuring that they

are modern and flexible is key to keeping pace with change, from supporting customer

experiences to reducing costs.”

– Lara Livgard, Senior Director Merchandising, Analytics & Enterprise, Oracle Retail

https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=IDC_P37198

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It Impacts Everything While retailers upgrade commerce, store, distribution center and other systems, merchandising is often the last to

change. Since merchandising data drives everything from pricing to inventory and financials, retailers are reticent to

disturb these foundational systems. Many are built in-house, others began as pre-built applications but were heavily

customized over the years, creating something entirely different. The environment is further complicated by home-

grown integrations attaching to other retail applications.

Reliance on entrenched, highly-customized IT systems also means that aging merchandising systems are more likely to

impede growth than to enable it. Over time, store, commerce, marketing and planning teams find themselves working

around the limitations of the merchandising platform rather than using it to pave the way for new initiatives.

Enables Growth “Merchandising is the heart of

our operations, in the sense

that it enables us to deliver the

right product at the right

time to our customers, and to

deliver a seamless experience

between the channels.”

– Bruno Mourão, Head of Business Demand and IT

Architecture, Sonae

1reason #

Watch the Sonae Video

How Healthy is the Heart of

Your Retail Operations?

Read the Blog

OPEN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a81Ykb9do70 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a81Ykb9do70 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a81Ykb9do70 https://blogs.oracle.com/retail/how-healthy-is-the-heart-of-your-retail-operations

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From IT to Innovation A modern merchandising solution will provide competitive advantage to support today’s variety of customer journeys.

Customers expect to be able to shop on their terms – buying from any retail touchpoint and having nearly full flexibility

with their fulfilment options. Without an efficient and modern core merchandising solution to provide accurate pricing

and inventory information, tracking all inventory movements and recording the financial implications, retailers can’t

deliver on their promise to the customer.

However, forward-thinking retail brands are not only focused on improving customer experience, but are also driving

innovation through cloud-based solutions. Cloud solutions streamline processes, make data analytics easier to access,

and provide a continuous delivery of new features and functions. Oracle Retail is unique in that it offers a deployment

choice to customers for their Merchandising operations solution. By having deployment choices, retailers can take

advantage of the benefits of a cloud solution, on their terms.

Provides Competitive Advantage

“C&A Mexico needed to modernize our retail operation across the store, marketplace, and digital

channels to stay competitive and serve our customers. We knew we needed more granular

transparency to drive inventory accuracy for the business. Oracle Retail solutions can deliver the detail

and scale we require and help ensure we are constantly offering our customers fresh inventory

and offers that keep them coming back.”

– Alberto Ibarra, CIO of C&A Mexico

“Cloud-based retail solutions provide

companies with a competitive

advantage. Brands can dedicate

resources to act on insights instead

of maintaining legacy systems.

Retailers that innovate will continue

to widen the gap between their

peers with lower operating costs,

improved customer experience and

maximized margins.”

– Lara Livgard, Senior Director Merchandising,

Analytics & Enterprise, Oracle Retail

2reason #

Visit the Oracle Retail Blog

https://blogs.oracle.com/retail/ca-mexico-stays-on-trend-with-oracle https://blogs.oracle.com/retail/ca-mexico-stays-on-trend-with-oracle

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One of the biggest reasons to select a packaged software solution has always been the vendor’s commitment to invest

in the platform, enabling retailers to take advantage of it in the future. Unfortunately, many retailers never realized this

objective as they modified the solution so heavily that they couldn’t afford to upgrade when the new versions eventu-

ally arrived. However, with the new agile development of the cloud, new features, functions and even completely new

services are added frequently — many of them enabling simplification, mobility, and ease of use.

The continuous release and even more importantly, immediate uptake, of new development adds to the appeal of us-

ing a cloud services approach. All customers, however, regardless of deployment method, benefit from the more agile

development and delivery as they can see quick progress in the solution and prepare for future change. By staying as

“vanilla” as possible, on-premises customers are able to upgrade easier than ever before, while cloud customers realize

the benefits immediately without ever doing another upgrade.

Continuous Solution Enhancements “The power of vanilla gives us the opportunity to update

constantly to take advantage of

Oracle’s future enhancements.

It gives us an opportunity

to get new technology and

enhancements, allowing us to

stay ahead of the curve.”

– Robert Kagenski, Director of Financial Systems, Kirkland’s

3 reason #

Watch the Kirkland’s Video

https://video.oracle.com/detail/video/5541085621001/kirkland-s:-vanilla-merchandising-management-systems?autoStart=true&q=Kirklands

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Taking a Modular, Hybrid Approach Unlike solutions from other industry providers, the Oracle Merchandising solution is not ‘all or nothing;’ its optional

modules allow retailers the flexibility to implement areas of the footprint that address their business problems, instead

of being forced to adhere to a strict implementation sequence. In addition, Oracle recognizes that for many retailers, a

hybrid systems environment that mixes cloud and on-premises systems will be the norm.

Oracle Retail’s merchandising deployment options and robust integration infrastructure mean that whether you

choose to go on-premises or cloud for your core merchandising operations, the solution will integrate with other cloud

or on-premises solutions in your ecosystem.

An open cloud architecture allows retailers the flexibility to still tailor the solution to unique business processes through

configurations or extensions. Some retailers build their own micro-apps using the open architecture of APIs and web

services, while the growing cloud-experienced partner network further boosts

a retailer’s ability to strike the right balance for them.

“The thought leadership,

collective wisdom, and drive

to accomplish what we have

accomplished this year is

unprecedented.”

– The Gap Inc. comments on their partnership with Oracle Retail

4 Flexibility

Watch the Gap Video

reason #

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7nVDkPK99o

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The Oracle Retail Reference Library is a key differentiator of Oracle’s merchandising solution and it becomes even more

critical in a cloud deployment to facilitate business change and adoption. The collection of detailed implementation

information includes business process models, architectural diagrams, and more. This intellectual property helps part-

ners and retailers accelerate their implementations by providing the basis for best practices for global, market-leading

retail operations. The framework allows retailers to operate successfully from the start and lets them focus on areas

that are unique to the business.

Easily Deploy Industry Best Practices

“The Oracle Retail Reference Library gave a really good starting point to drive standardization, to drive a conversation with the business;

to say that we need to work in a standardized way and this is

why. Everyone has evolved their roles to how they like to work, and

the Reference Library gave us a benchmark, a way to look at how other people do this, why other people do this, and we used the

reference library quite a lot.”

– Rachel Callan, Business Lead of Pioneer Project, John Lewis

5reason #

Fast Fashion Success: Keeping Pace with Markets

When rapid growth pushed one fast fashion apparel retailer to replace its legacy system, speed was a driver. The retailer required an efficient implementation and a solution that would appeal to young, fast-paced employees.

Oracle Retail Merchandising Cloud Services and Oracle Retail Store Inventory Management ushered in sweeping change. Store associates embraced the newfound ability to use iPhones to receive, track, and transfer inventory. Because stores can see their own inventory alongside other locations, there is an increased sense of ownership of item sales, item accuracy and customer service. Being able to do things like messenger an item the same day from another location, without having to actually pick up the phone, enhances associates ability to consult with customers.

The Oracle Retail Reference Library, which defines process flows and architecture across the entire Oracle Retail Merchandising Cloud Services suite, instilled a ‘best practices’ approach to operations. A single, accurate version of the truth enables individuals and business teams to be consistent across buying, planning, and finance teams.

The new system lends greater flexibility and control across the field organization and its buying teams. The retailer tracks performance of items, and consecutive dashboards give everyone the same insight to how inventory is turning, how much cost is owned, where liabilities reside, and what kind of inventory buyers need to chase.

Watch the John Lewis Video

https://video.oracle.com/detail/video/5853099223001/the-power-of-the-oracle-retail-reference-library https://video.oracle.com/detail/video/5853099223001/the-power-of-the-oracle-retail-reference-library https://video.oracle.com/detail/video/5853099223001/the-power-of-the-oracle-retail-reference-library

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Ultimately, the core value of moving to a world-class merchandising cloud system is to avoid the cost and

complications associated with building your own solution from scratch. By upgrading to a modern merchandising

solution, retailers are able to dramatically simplify ongoing integrations (and future upgrades) with the array of

financial, store, commerce, supply chain, planning and other operations that rely on merchandising for critical item

and inventory data.

“We chose Oracle Retail as our technology partner to grow our business and to develop more

sophisticated strategies to provide a better experience for

our customers. Inventory is a critical component of

customer satisfaction. If your information is sharp and accurate, you can provide

merchandise for the customer at every interaction in-store.”

– Marcel Abrantes Pinheiro, Chief Executive Officer, Makro Food Services

“Our transformational initiative allowed us to evolve and efficiently prepare for growth opportunities today

and tomorrow. By gaining visibility into inventory and adopting industry best practice, we

can better anticipate demand and plan inventory placement. The robust Oracle solution provides a

consistent and reliable core operations engine.”

– Frederico Santos, CIO & CFO, Parfois

6reason # Simplicity

Single View of Operations

“Rather than just wanting one version of the truth, merchandise assistants wanted just one version.

We needed to get one core system across what we did, so we could believe in the data

and we could actually make more informed decisions and spending our time on the right things.”

– Susan Young, Head of Merchandising Strategy, John Lewis

Watch the John Lewis Video

https://video.oracle.com/detail/video/5853575924001/merchandising-and-a-single-view-of-operations https://video.oracle.com/detail/video/5853575924001/merchandising-and-a-single-view-of-operations https://video.oracle.com/detail/video/5853575924001/merchandising-and-a-single-view-of-operations

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Moving to an established and well-supported cloud environment reduces many of the risks inherent to major

on-premises implementations — including cost overruns due to delayed schedules or unanticipated IT challenges.

7reason # Reducing Risk

“Innovation is at the core of our DNA and SINSA is constantly looking at how we can improve our

operations. Our focus is to better serve the customer with improved inventory control and transition

all processes to digital, which is key to gaining agility in the modern retail environment. The

Oracle Retail project has been transformational, we are delivering on our vision to become

more agile and satisfy our customer’s needs through a digital transformation process that starts

by analyzing our processes, making adjustments and adopting a modern platform that can help us

reduce risks and bring scalability to our business units as we continue to grow.”

– Roger Vargas, Continuous Improvement Manager, SINSA

Visit the Oracle Retail Blog

Watch Video

https://blogs.oracle.com/retail/home-improvement-specialist-builds-better-customer-experiences-with-oracle https://blogs.oracle.com/retail/home-improvement-specialist-builds-better-customer-experiences-with-oracle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-auo4QkpbU&feature=emb_logo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-auo4QkpbU&feature=emb_logo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-auo4QkpbU&feature=emb_logo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-auo4QkpbU&feature=emb_logo

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Reducing Risk Moving to an established and well-supported cloud environment reduces many of the risks inherent to major on-premises implementations — including cost overruns due to delayed schedules or unanticipated IT challenges.

Stopping the Cycle Once in, cloud services rollout upgrades and new features in a continual manner — effectively ending the age-old cycle of disruptive rip and replace types of upgrades.

Always-On Innovation Making new features readily available is a transformative change, one that caters to a culture of innovation and growth.

Gaining World-Class Security Security demands continue to escalate, making it nearly impossible for retail teams to keep abreast of new threats. By moving to a cloud service supported by global specialized security teams, retailers gain deeper resources while reducing business risk.

Using Industry Best Practices Leading cloud applications provide business teams with built-in, modern best practices. Rich features and functionality help to ensure the solutions require few to no modifications.

Adopting a Common User Interface Modern user interfaces are browser-like, behaving more like the apps that are familiar to employees in other aspects of their lives. This reduces the learning curve for new employees and boosts productivity.

Moving Quickly When an acquisition, brand launch or market expansion calls for business upgrades, cloud implementations offer a faster, more streamlined approach to achieving results.

7 Reasons To Consider Cloud Merchandising

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Talking with retailers worldwide, there are several reasons why leaders elect to move merchandising operations to a cloud solution.

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To learn more request a 1-1 Demo of the Solution

For many retailers, the next wave of progress begins with transforming merchandising systems, and with full executive leadership support, will allow the business to remain flexible and progressive. The sooner dying legacy systems are transformed, the sooner other aspects of the organization benefit. Gains are immediate and long-reaching as merchandising informs and enables new strategies across marketing, fulfillment, mobile, commerce, store, planning and other operations. From the start, retailers enjoy a modern set of applications that are intuitive and pre-integrated with omnichannel operations and customer journeys.

Conclusion

Merchandising Solution Benefits

Oracle Retail Merchandising puts business analytics at the heart of every process — enabling collaboration and empowering associates with the context to make better decisions faster.

Oracle Retail Merchandising puts business analytics at the heart of every process — enabling collaboration and empowering associates with the context to make be�er decisions faster.

% INCREASE in productivity through more streamlined integrated processes

% REDUCTION in invoice matching time

merchandising processes supported and driven by science

% REDUCTION in purchase order maintenance

Number of custom reports needed to monitor inventory status scalable platform

solution to support multiple business types and omnichannel journeys

80 80

200+

1

ZERO 60

https://www.oracle.com/industries/retail/merchandising-demo-form.html

December 2020

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