Seasonal businesses face the challenge of managing inventory in light of ebbs and flows in demand.
With more than 200 stores and an e-Commerce site, Halloween Express sees majority of its sales fall within an eight-week period. Preparing for this peak time, as a result, takes a full year.
“Our business model doesn’t allow for any error, so we have to have be on point with ordering inventory because of the quick turnaround,” said Holly Bowling, COO of Halloween Express. “We do two to three re-orders during the span of eight weeks, which is lightning fast, so it’s important to know what’s selling and what’s not. The corporate team also needs accurate sales data quickly from the first two days of the selling season to order more of the hottest selling items and stock them before the final week of the season, which accounts for 50% of sales.”
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Real-time inventory visibility and extreme coordination also is required for Halloween Express to facilitate omnichannel order fulfillment. Three years ago, the retailer connected its brick-and-mortar and online sales “to offer our customers information about what’s in stock in each individual store,” Bowling explained in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. “Our web presence has been a major help in building our brand. We implemented shop online pick up in-store, so customers can comb through what’s available online and come to the store knowing what they are looking for is in stock.”
Halloween Express onboarded RICS Software to help ensure inventory is updated in real time. Data within the RICS system allows the retailer to show consumers item availability in local stores and the distribution center, according to Bowling. “This allows us to stay ahead of our competitors and offer products sold online to be picked up in stores within minutes of purchase.”
Now, the retailer manages more than 40,000 SKUs on the web site and with the solution, team members can “analyze sales in many different ways, including by vendor to determine what is profitable,” Bowling said. “With RICS Software, we have the ability to perform balancing transfers, which prevents store owners form losing money through reordering items that other stores already have abundances of in stock.”
RICS reports also provide detailed data and projections for in-demand items. Shortly after the Halloween selling season begins, the corporate team relays information to store owners, Bowling noted. “The store owners then use this data to guide decision-making and eliminate the guesswork in inventory, ultimately leading to greater profits.”
