Myer implements Oracle Retail technology to turbocharge merchandise, inventory, and planning processes
Myer, Australia’s largest department store chain, embarked on a digital transformation to deliver more compelling products to customers.
Carrying many products across 61 stores, Myer offers a wide range of cosmetics, clothing, footwear, toys, and homewares. By embracing Oracle Retail, Myer transformed its end-to-end merchandise systems, inventory processes, and planning capabilities, resulting in reduced stock and improved sales, margin, and markdown reduction. Today, Myer is better able to deliver the right inventory to delight customers across its properties.
“I am optimistic about the ability of our Oracle Merchandise Planning tools to improve the efficiency of our buying teams and to deliver a more profitable, more localised product range for our customers,” said Allan Winstanley, Chief Merchandise Officer, Myer.
The project was a business-led initiative supported by IT. The team established clear goals and expectations to achieve immediate business benefits and support long-term growth objectives.
Myer built a solid foundation with Oracle Retail Merchandise Financial Planning and Oracle Retail Size Profile Optimization with support from Tata Consulting Services (TCS), a Platinum and Cloud Elite level member of Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN).
Phase one of the implementations delivered immediate results with a stock reduction in time for holiday planning. In phase two, a cross-functional solution development team adopted an agile implementation methodology.
The team worked in three weeks sprints to deliver regular solution functionality for seasonal strategies, item planning, clustering, option planning, and assortment planning from Oracle Retail Planning and Optimization. This approach allowed Myer to enjoy accelerated benefits and the project paid for itself.
“The project was delivered across various teams, including Merchandise, IT and Tata Consulting Services (TCS), where we transitioned from waterfall to an agile project delivery approach, which ensured the success of the project,” said Troy Smith, Chief Information Officer, Myer.
“Automate and simplify. We always encourage our customers to embrace these attributes and focus on operational excellence,” said Mike Webster, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Retail. “By establishing a strong foundation, Myer can pivot to the customer and localize the assortment based on store demographics, climate, and other store attributes.”
The Myer Oracle project received multiple awards including the 2018 ACS Gold Disruptor Award, 2018-2019TCS APAC 4.0 EXCEL ERATE Best Project Embracing Business 4.0, and the 2017- 2018 Myer inspirational Team Award.
