Allbirds Transforming Inventory and Demand Planning
Footwear company Allbirds, launched in 2016 and an RIS News Hot Retail Startup in 2018, is investing in its demand planning capabilities in order to better adapt to consumer behaviors and to scale effectively.
The company has selected Anaplan, with implementation services from Columbus Consulting, to streamline its supply chain operations, including demand planning and forecasting, inventory planning, and merchandise and materials management.
Anaplan’s planning platform is expected to provide Allbirds with real-time visibility and flexibility up and down its supply chain, helping the footwear brand better pivot in response to unplanned changes, including consumer demand to inflation.
Leveraging supply chain planning technology is further expected to enable the footwear company to better optimize its inventory and spend management processes — such as managing allocations and replenishment across its distribution centers and stores — to save the company time in its planning cycles, reduce excess or unnecessary costs, and increase forecast accuracy.
Allbirds previously managed its demand and inventory planning in static spreadsheets, which reportedly stifled collaboration and created more risk among the many moving pieces of the business.
“Like the entire retail industry, Allbirds has been impacted by recent economic changes that have challenged us to rethink how we can operate faster and with greater effectiveness,” said Joe Vernachio, COO at Allbirds, in a statement. “When we learned how similar retailers have leveraged Anaplan successfully to transform financial planning and analysis, it not only gave us confidence in the team, it allowed us insight into the potential value Anaplan could have in our own business, from optimizing key processes to helping us unlock more market opportunity.”
The technology is expected to help Allbirds develop a single source of truth for all relevant supply chain data – from historical trends to real-time market signals.
This was originally published on RIS News, a CGT sister publication.
