Runway to Closet: Luxury Retailer INTERMIX Curates Fashion for Customers

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Early on, New York-based retailer INTERMIX identified the need to bring designer apparel and accessories, faster and in their original form, to more women. Its teams began to work directly with multiple designers, hand-picking selections to create offerings that appealed to the communities surrounding each of its stores, and the individual customers that shop there.

Acquired by Gap in 2012, INTERMIX has bolstered its resources and grown its commerce sales. The retailer continues to focus on carefully selecting the right designs and providing its signature customer experience at more than 40 stores, serving fashion-conscious women in cities from Los Angeles to New York.

But as INTERMIX added locations and grew its online sales, the business struggled to provide its teams with consistent, accurate insight to inventory and sales. Merchants, planners and store associates needed to know what was available, and where there were opportunities to expand on the trends that customers loved most. The retailer needed an inventory platform that would create consistency across its buying, planning, and finance teams, and that would provide a single, accurate version of the truth.

Social media has given us a front row seat to runways and celebrity fashion around the globe, and our love affair with great designers is mutual. But for most, access to runway fashion means waiting for trends to reach mainstream brands.

RUNWAY TO CLOSET: LUXURY RETAILER INTERMIX CURATES FASHION FOR CUSTOMERS

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“We edit, curate, personalize and shape the customer journey

in each one of our stores, and we needed a platform that would help our teams to take that experience

to the next level.”

– Vice President of Planning and Allocation, Business Analytics and

Technology for INTERMIX

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In what would become Gap Inc.’s first foray into true retail and merchandising cloud services, it was also clear to the INTERMIX team that a cloud solution would implement faster, make its business more nimble, and allow the flexibility to fulfill future needs. Evaluating several solutions and providers, the retailer considered usability, features and functionality, and the working relationship with the provider. The INTERMIX team chose Oracle Retail Merchandising Cloud Services and Oracle Retail Merchandising Insights Cloud Service because the solution would be easy to implement and there was confidence that Oracle would be supportive and collaborative.

Inventory Visibility: Enabling a High Fashion, Personalized Experience

Relative to other retailers, INTERMIX’s business model, which includes high price points on individual designer items, presents unique challenges regarding inventory tracking and visibility. Before implementing Oracle Retail Merchandising Cloud Service, INTERMIX had one bucket of inventory, with little visibility to what was in it. For example, when product in stores have been tried on, the retailer may send the item to dry cleaning. In the past, inventory would leave the store with no visibility to where it was. Buyers didn’t necessarily know how well something was selling or not, because of the visibility of inventory, returns and sales were not what they should have been. At the end of the day, business teams were left with a flawed understanding of performance.

“In addition to having a cloud partner that is really supportive of us, the benefits that the Oracle Retail Cloud solution avails us is huge,” said Vice President of Planning and Allocation, Business Analytics and Technology for INTERMIX. “We gained visibility, consistency, simplicity, and the ability to make decisions more quickly. We are universal across the six business teams that all rely on the same data. This has really improved our end-to-end merchandising strategy by adopting a more streamlined, consistent approach and enabling more robust conversations as a team. Yet it simplified our environment.”

Catalyst for Change: New

Brands, New Opportunities

Business opportunities

are driving Gap’s move to

the cloud. As the

company acquires new

brands such as INTERMIX,

Weddington Way, and the

popular Athleta line, it

needed a faster,

more streamlined way to

support them with robust

business applications.

The cloud implementation also brings INTERMIX merchandising over to central Gap Inc. operations, freeing New York-based INTERMIX business and creative teams to focus on new offerings, customer experience, and growth. For example, it enabled Gap to take all of the INTERMIX sales audit functions being done around the world and handle them centrally. But this was not only a consolidation of the back-end operations, it was a move to best practices represented within the Oracle Retail Reference Library, which defines process flows and architecture across the entire Oracle Retail suite and is used across Gap and Old Navy brands.

“Because of the high cost of inventory that we carry and how quickly we need to turn it over, Oracle Retail gives us a great foundation for being much more fiscally and financially responsible,” said Vice President of Planning and Allocation, Business Analytics and Technology for INTERMIX.

Today, with the Oracle solution, INTERMIX is able to see what items it has and where they are, with a much greater level of detail and understanding. When an item is sent out to dry cleaning, store associates know where it is and when it will be available to customers again. In addition, when the stores have something that is damaged, store associates can put that item into their damage bin so that everyone can see what is not available to sell and measure liability for damaged items.

Retail Insights: Empowering Business Teams with Better Information

That single version of the truth has transformed reporting and insight for the INTERMIX team. By tapping into the integrated Oracle Retail solution, INTERMIX business users throughout the organization are able to use consecutive dashboards with the same insight to how inventory is turning, how much cost is owned, where liabilities reside, what kind of inventory does the teams need to chase, how is open-to-buy reconciled, and how are vendors and classifications being managed.

< HOME >“At the end of the day,

Oracle was a clear winner for us. They know technology, merchandise

planning and allocation, but they also really know

retail. There wasn’t anything that they couldn’t help

with,” said Vice President of Planning and Allocation,

Business Analytics and Technology for INTERMIX.

“Oracle’s long-standing history with Gap was one of

the factors that gave us confidence they

would deliver.”

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“Oracle Retail reporting has allowed us to

become much more robust, working from

organized and consistent dashboards,” said Vice President of Planning

and Allocation, Business Analytics and Technology

for INTERMIX. “We are empowered by the data

that we have, its accuracy and the ability to deliver insights is much, much quicker as well as much

more dynamic.”

Prior to the Oracle implementation, INTERMIX worked from a cogent database and generated individual reports reflecting different versions of the truth. When merchandising leadership pressed for better access to information, the company moved quickly to enact its plan to put new systems in place.

“I’ve worked with a lot of technology implementations, and this was a seamless and smooth transition from where we were, to where we were going, with very limited to no hiccups,” said Vice President of Planning and Allocation, Business Analytics and

Technology for INTERMIX. “It was a curtains up, curtains down, production. When you are replacing an inventory system, it’s heart surgery, it’s really scary, you hope you didn’t

make mistakes, and I would say that we were really, really pleased.”

The result was a sweeping change that enabled greater flexibility and control across the INTERMIX field organization and its buying teams. The retailer gained much more visibility to its ability to execute buys, and to track performance of merchandise.

“The Oracle solution gives us more than just new information and accuracy about inventory, it gave us greater flexibility to go after market opportunities, to execute buys and get product in the hands of our customers,” said Vice President of Planning and Allocation, Business Analytics and Technology for INTERMIX.

Well-received by INTERMIX creative teams, including buyers using the systems to better understand what trends and items are working well, the Oracle Retail Merchandising Insights Cloud Service solution provides information that teams know they can trust. That includes exception-based reporting that makes it easier for teams to identify issues and focus resources to resolve challenges, improve inventory performance, and shape best practices.

“When we saw Oracle moving to a cloud

strategy, we already knew that was the way

we wanted to go,” said Senior Director of

Information Technology, Gap Inc. “We looked at

our entire ecosystem, and as we considered going

to next versions of upgrades we began to consider a migration to

the cloud instead.”

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Store Experience: Using Mobile Devices, Serving Customers Better

The impact of new Oracle Retail Cloud Services reached the field organization next, where initial trepidation gave way to enthusiasm for the ease of scanning inventory with the iPhone and ordering items from other locations.“INTERMIX is very innovative and creative,” said Vice President of Planning and Allocation, Business Analytics and Technology for INTERMIX. “Every store has a very unique experience, as does our commerce site. We tailor to the customer. Our store teams are creative innovators, not operators, and they love the Oracle solution.”

Store associates embraced the Oracle application and 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.

“For us, I think the greatest thing in addition to the business benefits, was creating a simplistic way for our teams to get their work done, and the Oracle Cloud solution for merchandising really has enabled us to do that.”

Operational Gains: Enabling Better Support for the Brand

For INTERMIX, the Oracle Cloud solution replaces a disconnected, sometimes “kludgy” environment with consistent, accurate information and a dashboard that provides the IT team with visibility to which jobs have run, when data is updated, and whether there are any systems issues that need to be addressed. The impact has been an improvement in the IT and business analytics team’s ability to provide service and support to its internal business groups. INTERMIX is just beginning its journey, and anticipates that its growth online will afford its best opportunity to connect with consumers well outside its store communities.

“The move to Oracle Cloud

has shifted the conversation

with executive leadership,”

said Vice President of

Enterprise Systems and

Strategy, Gap Inc. “As

we optimize and deliver

greater efficiencies, our

conversations are more

salient to the business,

addressing how we reduce

our total cost of ownership

and enable greater levels

of innovation.”

A 6-month Deployment of Oracle Retail Merchandising Cloud Services Provided:

Greater data consistency,

flexibility and control

Quicker decisions and resolutions

Simplified technology environment

Products to customers faster

Improved inventory performance

Fast on-boarding of new brands

Looking Ahead: INTERMIX Provides a Cloud Services Model for Other Gap Brands

The Oracle Retail Cloud Services implementation for INTERMIX has established a model for other Gap brands. Parent company Gap was looking to create a short stack technology that could be implemented in other brands like Weddington or Athleta, which also require streamlined solutions that enable their businesses to remain quick and nimble. The Oracle Cloud solution does that.

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Simplify

6

modifications when there were 90 in the previous system

Agility

Zero

cloud deployment

Consistency & Savings

Millionssaved by going away from

supporting multiple systems and codes

30% reduction in support costs is expected

month

Same data across business teams in 38 stores6

INTERMIX'S MERCHANDISING CLOUD BENEFITS

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Take a Long-Term Approach: Gap Inc. began studying a move to the cloud long before the INTERMIX go live. By starting with a new stand-alone brand, the company acquired a better understanding for how it would migrate other parts of its business to Oracle Cloud.

Go Vanilla: As part of its shift to Oracle Cloud, Gap moved to zero modifications from more than 90 previous modifications being managed in the system just two years ago. As the team moved its INTERMIX retail operations to Oracle Cloud, “we went in vanilla for real this time,” said Senior Director of IT, Gap Inc.

Scale to Include New Cloud Implementations: Next, the organization will move bigger brands and more complexity, more elements to the cloud. That includes bringing in global markets like Japan, which is on the same network as its North America operations and means a significant jump in transactions and data flowing through the network.

1

3

5

STEP

STEP

STEP

BUILDING A CLOUD STRATEGY: 8 STEPS TO SUCCESS

2

4

STEP

STEP

Shift Focus to Innovation: Ultimately Gap intends to directly connect its business users with the Oracle support network, so that users interact with the Oracle team instead of having a Gap support person in between. Enterprise IT and strategy

teams will focus instead on bringing the newness of an application to internal business customers.

Track Proof Points, From Infrastructure Maintenance to Upgrades: Today, the Gap team is experiencing some of the operational proof points that fully confirms its decision to move to the cloud. First, taking on a patch, and second, doing

infrastructure maintenance. Next, the business would move to a new version of the Oracle applications, and that serves as a third leap of empowerment for the brand.

Reduce Annual Operating Expense: In addition to decreasing the annual operating expenses associated with maintaining its systems, GAP expects to achieve a 30 percent reduction in support costs.

Choose a Strong Partner: Gap required the perfect mix of retail expertise, a robust cloud platform, and an open, collaborative partner. “Oracle has been a great partner in the cloud transition,” said Senior Director of IT, Gap Inc. “They’re open. They’re willing to spend tremendous amounts of time with us to understand our business needs, why we really believe something should work a certain way, and they’ve come back with solutions that I never would’ve expected. So, go into the (cloud migration) with an open mind, and with the idea that it’s going to change the way you do things. And I think it’s a very well paved path from that perspective.”

6

8

STEP

STEP

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7STEP

Simplify Upgrades: The most significant dollars are coming out of the simplification of the environment itself. Because the organization was supporting multiple systems and codes, the process of taking the same modification and retrofitting it into multiple environments represented significant time, cost and staffing. The SaaS model eliminates the task of retrofitting the same functionality across all of Gap’s different businesses, a multi-million-dollar savings. Testing elements are reduced, and there is lower total cost of ownership for data center cooling, heating, or cooling power expenses.

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Video: Merchandising 2-Minute Demo

Graphic: Merchandising Infographic

Blog: Merchandising Strategy – Keeping the

Omnichannel Promise

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April 2018

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