Alliance Boots  
With annual revenues of $27.5 Billion, Boots The Chemists, a division of Alliance Boots, is not just one of the best known brands in Britain, but a global nameplate with offerings in some of the largest U.S. retailers. Its reach extends beyond Europe with manufacturing and sales divisions in China that feed its pharmacy stores worldwide.  

American Eagle Outfitters

We’ve all witnessed the fast fashion phenomenon sweep through mall storefronts. New store windows every two weeks; tightly-choreographed promotions; and gotta-have trends. American Eagle Outfitters is one of the most sought after retailers with teens and college students. Named the 3rd coolest brand among 12-19 year olds (after Nike and Sony), American Eagle shopping experiences are the epitome of hip. From the best fitting jeans, to graphic tees and flip-flops, the AEO merchandise is relaxed casual bar none. 

What does it take to win at fast fashion and the fickle student demographic? There are three components: amazing merchandising experts; best-in-class logistics operations; and the technology to support both. American Eagle proves that best-in-class global supply chains are the most powerful differentiator on both Wall Street and Main Street.

American Eagle implemented TradeStone’s Merchandise Lifecycle Management suite to improve their global sourcing, quality management, global order management and retail product lifecycle management (PLM) operations. The solution ties together all the supply chain stakeholders: from designers and merchants, to factories and carriers, to logistics and financial professionals. With one view of the entire product lifecycle, all stakeholders can work together to meet critical margin goals and floor set dates. Designers specify silhouettes and colorways, buyers issue RFQs to suppliers throughout the world and evaluate bids, taking special note of quota tolerances and country of origin. Product managers evaluate the quality assurance testing regimen, the sample process, and any special packaging requirements. Logistics specialists monitor containerization and vessel bookings, not to mention notifying Customs with manifests. Vendors also participate throughout the process with testing results, sample approvals, and logistics documentation, including packing lists, commercial and service invoices.  

There is visibility into and coordination around every failed test, every passed test, and delays or possible efficiencies throughout the process. This sophisticated collaboration is captured in the Purchase Order which contains all the relevant vendor data (country of origin, social compliance rating, on-time performance, quality performance, as well as commodity quota details), all product data (construction guidelines, points of measure, fabrications, care labels, packaging, quantity, cost) and all logistics data (containerization, vessel, port of lading, product contents). By integrating quality assurance tests and compliance checks into purchase order transactions, AEO cut back its  reliance on audits. Also, by identifying issues early in the process, AEO dramatically reduced the risk of uncovering a serious problem in the middle of production. 

When American Eagle’s freight forwarders submit documentation about shipments, Customs officials can automatically cross-reference the data on the packing list, commercial invoice, and manifests. AEO can also validate the accuracy of shipments and ensure that the factories have met the requirements of its social compliance and supply chain security policies.  

With TradeStone in place, American Eagle is poised not only to earn Level 3 C-TPAT certification, which will exempt the retailer from non-random Customs security inspections and ensure greater speed to market, but also to meet the new 10 Plus 2 initiative. Both of these regulations require data elements already stored within the TradeStone order and can be quickly included on new packing lists, commercial, and service invoices, and all cargo manifest documents in the transport portion of the supply chain.  

American Eagle leads the charge in building a next-generation supply chain that integrates fast fashion initiatives, security, and social compliance measures with a fully collaborative system of product lifecycle management. With the system in place, AEO has already documented a three-week reduction in supply chain length, logistics program compliance and Sarbanes-Oxley inventory reporting regulations.

The Children's Place/Disney Stores

 The Children's Place Retail Stores, Inc. is a leading retailer for apparel and accessories for children from newborn to age ten. The specialty retailer is celebrated throughout the U.S. and Canada for providing high-quality, fun fashion for kids at affordable prices at its 825 stores.

Children's fashion has not been left out of the fast fashion trend sweeping the retail industry. In order to keep parents coming back for fresh new styles on a regular basis, The Children's Place turned to TradeStone in 2004 to help them more effectively collaborate with global suppliers, improve supply chain visibility and to replace legacy sourcing systems.  

The Children's Place was so successful with its deployment of the TradeStone Merchandise Lifecycle Management suite's Global Order Management and Sourcing solutions that the company elected to deploy them at The Disney Store, a licensed brand with 325 stores, in 2006. TradeStone has enabled both The Children's Place and The Disney Store to introduce even more private label merchandise, further increasing profitability.

Circuit City

 Circuit City Stores Inc., a consumer electronics giant with annual revenues of $11.5 billion, enlisted TradeStone Software in early 2007 as it sought to expand its offerings of private label brands to extend over several categories, which currently include accessories for MP3 players, audio/video and computer peripherals.

Before adopting TradeStone, Circuit City ran its business on spreadsheets, which are antiquated and slow and limited the company's ability to grow its private label business. In order to meet an overarching corporate goal to boost its private labels, Circuit City needed a rich application infrastructure.  

Circuit City rolled out TradeStone's Merchandise Lifecycle Management suite in its sourcing offices in Richmond, Va. and Barrie, Ontario, as well as to its Asia-based sourcing offices. This first phase of the implementation, which includes the Product and Sourcing modules of the software, was completed in 115 days, on time and on budget. Almost immediately, Circuit City noticed a jump in productivity and compliance paired with better costing and a better in-stock position.

Deutsche Woolworth

 TradeStone's solutions revolutionized Deutsche Woolworth's purchasing methods, making things easier for everyone involved in the global buying process for the German retailer with annual revenues over 1.8 billion euros. The net result is a solution that fills buying process gaps while providing a single view, access, and interaction across the entire procurement process -- all thanks to TradeStone software’s ability to layer onto existing legacy systems.

Within the first week of deployment, Deutsche Woolworth realized an ROI of over 150 percent. Here's why:  

• The Web-based solution has an exception-based workflow and real-time alerting system that eliminated 200,000 faxes from the standard business practice.
• The costing engines work behind the scenes in TradeStone Software to accurately reflect the total landed cost of any purchase from raw material, to store delivery, to freight discrepancies. Once resolved, the new freight rate dramatically lowered shipping costs.
• Working with suppliers to cut lead times eliminated a large portion of inventory from the supply chain, representing millions of dollars.

Finally, because consumers benefit from agile, shorter and efficient supply chains, TradeStone Software has given Deutsche Woolworth the ability to provide customers with better merchandise, better selection and more on-trend and in-season items.

Macy's

 Macy’s is a $22 billion conglomerate with a variety of chains under its umbrella, most notably Macy's and Bloomingdales. Since 2005, Macy’s has leveraged TradeStone's Merchandise Lifecycle Management suite to build on its current global sourcing investment, increase collaboration between trading partners and improve visibility throughout the global supply chain.

TradeStone's MLM offers visibility deep into the supply chain by providing a single view of operations with critical path management, best practice modeling, workflow and collaboration. TradeStone has dramatically improved Macy's collaborative processes from design through ordering, production and delivery.  

Macy's has made the expansion of private label brands a key initiative in recent years. With TradeStone, Macy's designers and merchants can do what they do best -- design and create exciting products -- and efficiently communicate and collaborate with overseas offices and suppliers around the world to bring these designs to life.  

Macy’s is not only a customer but a development partner, having prompted the development of the TradeStone Virtual Showroom. The Virtual Showroom enables regional buyers to shape the flavor of local collections while still maintaining the brand look and feel. The Virtual Showroom is a secure online workspace where the central purchasing group can introduce seasonal collections to local retail buyers and merchants. These regional buyers select pieces, as well as attributes (cuts, colors, sizes, packaging) from the general collection so they can create local brand extensions of private labeled merchandise.

J D Williams

 Fast fashion has dramatically changed the retail landscape and so J D Williams', one of the UK's leading direct home retailers, turned to TradeStone for help. The J D Williams umbrella includes over 20 brands; their catalogues and Web sites reach more than two million customers. But in order to keep its customers happy with more trend-focused collections, the company needed to move faster than it has in its more than 130 year history.

J D Williams' designers and merchandisers use the TradeStone Merchandise Lifecycle Management solution TradeStone PLM for Retail to create product briefs and collaborate with suppliers on the design specifications for each item and compress the design-to-delivery cycle. With this solution in place, J D Williams tripled the number of its collections.  

Also key to J D Williams success is the ability to work in synch with over 600 vendors around the world. As designers, buyers and factories work together, the amount of fabrics, trims, and construction components across a broad size range can change dramatically. Quickly reacting to these design changes is critical to costing out a garment, as well as properly assigning the price point and margin.  

With TradeStone's PLM for Retail, J D Williams buyers, quality controllers and merchandisers are able to translate customer requests into new products, quickly delivering fashionable garments and footwear that meet J D Williams' high-quality standards. Overall, the company expects this successful fast fashion program to accelerate its growth and encourage brand loyalty throughout its customer base.

Karstadt Quelle

Karstadt Quelle, Germany's largest retailer with annual revenues of $18 billion, was faced with an inability of its multiple invoicing tools to support the company's current and rapidly changing future business needs at an acceptable speed and cost.  

Karstadt Quelle chose TradeStone Software to provide an integral part of the technology backbone for its global sourcing operation. TradeStone's solution now serves as the platform for Karstadt Quelle's sourcing operation.  

Upon implementation, Karstadt Quelle saw an immediate 80 percent drop in cycle time for invoicing as it seamlessly integrated with accounting and general ledger documentation. Plus, this new invoicing provided a transparent, unified look at different services and more supporting documents for customers and thus less questions, fewer claims, faster customer payments. Now, Karstadt Quelle's sophisticated invoicing capabilities serve as a competitive advantage over competing retailers.

Ocean State Job Lots

Ocean State Job Lot opened in 1977 as New England's “Home of Adventure Shopping,” offering deeply discounted name-brand merchandise. OSJL’s expansion efforts cap a year of significant growth, adding three stores and growing sales to $350 million. Today, OSJL employs 3,000 at more than 80 stores. Company officials project the addition of five or more new stores in 2007.  

OSJL’s success hinges on its ability to quickly source merchandise globally and on an opportunistic basis. In 2003, the company’s growth began to outpace its manual system for importing and order management. In order to keep up with the company’s rapid expansion, the IT staff implemented the TradeStone Suite. The TradeStone Merchandise Lifecycle Management suite provided OSJL with a comprehensive Web-based solution that supports global sourcing, product lifecycle management, vendor compliance and payment processing. With TradeStone, OSJL was able to double their imports, year over year, since implementation. And with a margin differential of 20-35% on imported merchandise, store profits are growing, too!  

Offering this wide variety of merchandise, taking advantage of opportunistic buys, and creating quick knock-offs, has helped OSJL emerge as a regional mid-market star and a fine example of an IT investment paying off handsomely for merchandising and top-line growth. 

PacSun

 Look around in any city and you'll see skate parks growing like weeds. This is also where you'll find Pacific Sunwear gear. The $1.4 billion company has 1105 stores in the U.S. and Puerto Rico carrying the latest skate and surf brands. But in the surf and skate world, fashions change quickly and to better capitalize on changing tastes, Pacific Sunwear turned to TradeStone's Merchandise Lifecycle Management suite of products to help build its proprietary brands.

Working with TradeStone MLM, Pacific Sunwear is lowering design to delivery cycle time and working more closely with its worldwide network of manufacturers. The company sources nearly 40 percent of its product internationally. TradeStone Software enables the company to use one purchase order system to see both branded and proprietary product mixes, the margins on each and thus gain true visibility across the supply chain from concept to delivery. This process binds as many as 250 suppliers with Pacific Sunwear distribution centers in California and Kansas, right through to the retail floor.