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Enhanced Retail Solutions Announces 2nd Edition of its Retail Primer

Enhanced Retail Solutions (ERS), a leading consulting firm and provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) retail analytic and demand planning solutions to suppliers, licensors and their retail trading partners, announces the 2nd Edition its Retail Primer.

Sales, planning, and supply chain expectations on manufacturers, distributors, licensors, and agents have dramatically increased over the past decade, particularly for those suppliers selling to large retail chains and department stores. To be successful, suppliers must understand and think like a buyer. Without an understanding of how to accomplish this, many suppliers find themselves never able to capture the long-term success and ROI of these relationships.

James E. Lewis, a former JC Penney buyer who has managed and bought key categories in men’s, children’s and home textiles throughout his 20 year career, founded Enhanced Retail Solutions in 2002 to help improve the retail business acumen of suppliers. In Enhanced Retail Solutions Retail Primer, Jim has offered specific education and techniques on how to think like a buyer, apply best practices for planners, improve collaboration, and plan profitably.

Since the first edition was released in 2012, a lot has changed in the retail industry, none more significant than the shift of business to online sales. This opens up a whole new area of consumer driven analytics that is exciting and daunting at the same time. With this big change, one might think it makes sense to take their eyes off of brick and mortar store performance. Yet the reality is that the primary business of designing, planning, manufacturing and selling products has not changed. Retailers still need to forecast. They still need to plan inventory and production. And in many cases they may still have hundreds or thousands of physical stores to look after. In fact, detailed store level analysis has never been more urgent because it has a huge effect on inventory productivity. Moving inventory around is very costly so making even subtle improvements in inventory productivity creates a significant positive difference.

The primer contains sections on best practice reporting and KPI’s for retail and wholesale planners, forecasting, margin reconciliation, understanding retailer scorecards and more. It also includes exercises one can do to help reinforce those skills. With the second edition we have added new sections on Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI), ladder planning, and a more comprehensive approach to competitive shopping.

“We found a real need for understanding the fundamentals of retail – even at retailers,” says Jim Lewis, Founder and CEO, Enhanced Retail Solutions. “We are proud to offer more techniques and real world examples in our retail primer”.

The second edition of the ERS Retail Primer is available for on sale on the ERS website or on the Amazon Kindle Store.

About Enhanced Retail Solutions LLC: 
Enhanced Retail Solutions is a software and consulting firm specializing in retail analysis and demand planning for manufacturers, licensors and their retail partners. ERS’ state of the art software tools and consulting deliver critical data quickly, easily and cost effectively, adding over one hundred million dollars to their clients’ bottom line. ERS’ broad customer base includes industry leaders in the electronics, consumer products, apparel, footwear, home textile, toy, home décor, home improvement, housewares, jewelry and food industries. Headquartered in New York City, Enhanced Retail Solutions has offices in the Dallas, TX and development in the US, Cork, Ireland and Delhi, India. For more information, visithttp://www.EnhancedRetailSolutions.com.

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