Decode Your Apparel Business Performance Data to Flourish

Making data-driven decisions can be the key you need to unlock higher customer satisfaction, shorter product turnaround time and greater revenue. So why do so many companies ignore the numbers to instead rely on theories and hunches? The most common response is: data is overwhelming and confusing. If you’re not an expert, analysis reports can look like a different language. On top of that, there may be pages of this foreign writing to sift through because every move you make can be marked as a datapoint. Did you make a sale? Datapoint. Purchase raw materials to create your most popular shoe? Datapoint. Hire a new warehouse employee to assist in picking and packing? Datapoint. In this article, we’ll help you determine which information you should focus your attention on and how to turn those numbers into actionable plans to improve your bottom line and customer relationships.

TOP PERFORMING PRODUCT

A company’s top performing product often yields a significant portion of revenue. Using Apparel Business Systems software, you can easily identify which product this is for your company. With the right steps, you can build on that product’s success to generate more sales, lower production costs and reduce risk. 

Strengthen your relationship with the suppliers of your top performing product. 

Every entrepreneur in the apparel or footwear industry is familiar with the phrase “you have to spend money to make money.” What sets those who are successful apart from those who are not is how they approach this idea; the most profitable companies are ones that constantly question just how much needs to be spent in order to make money. Logically, reducing the price you pay to create the product you sell the most of would have the greatest impact on your profit margin. The best way to do this without diminishing the quality of your product or employee morale is to strengthen your relationship with the companies who provide the raw materials you use to make these goods. Strong relationships can lead to new deals that are more beneficial to both your company and your suppliers’ companies.

Strengthening these partnerships can lead to benefits beyond reduced costs. Shopify , a company that helps run online stores for more than 1 million retail companies, found that companies with strong supplier relationships often experience “quicker turnarounds and other preferential treatment.”

Eliminate risks associated with your top performing product.

COVID-19 had a devastating impact on the apparel and footwear industry. One of the main lessons companies walked away with is: diversify your supply chain. It is more clear now than ever that the prices of the materials you use to create your top selling product can skyrocket next week or month. Your supplier can go out of business. Textiles can get delayed weeks or indefinitely at a moment’s notice. Make sure to have more than one supplier for your top performing products, and spread them out geographically if possible.

Build on your top performing product.

Once you identify your top performing product, figure out what is drawing customers to it. Use this information to design a new product for next season. If a shirt is flying off the shelves because customers love the pattern, start selling hats or shirts with the same look. Do you have a jacket that customers love the cut and fit of? Sell the same one next year using a more modern fabric. When you develop new products like this with customer demand in mind, you’re more likely to design another top performing product.

TOP PERFORMING CUSTOMERS

Another essential metric to concentrate on is your top performing customers. Companies often take these shoppers for granted. This can lead to a huge potential loss in revenue because for many “retailers in the fashion, apparel, lifestyle and beauty verticals, the top 5% of customers generate a whopping one third of total revenue - and in some cases, up to 40%,” ( Custora ). Using Apparel Business Systems Analysis tools, you can quickly determine who your top customers are, so you can get started on figuring out what makes this group happy and how to push them towards that 40% marker. 

Improve the shopping experience for top performing customers.

Your top performing customers are going to continue their buying habits whether they’re making their purchases through you or through your competitors. If you want to keep their business, you must ensure they continue to have a pleasant experience every time they shop with you. The best way to determine their preferences is to ask them directly, whether that be through personal communication from your business, an anonymous survey or a review. Important questions to ask are: what would improve their buying experience, what self-service tools would they like to use, do they have issues with shipping, packaging, re-orders, etc.? 

This may seem like a costly endeavor, but considering the fact that these customers can be responsible for a third of your total revenue or more, it may be more expensive to avoid determining the driving forces between this key group of individuals. If this type of project is out of reach right now because of cost or lack of time, consider other ways to show your top customers their business is valued. Other options include creating a loyalty program, offering a gift in exchange for spending a certain amount or putting personalized messages into packages.

Find new customers who match the demographics of your top performing customers.

When you figure out who your top performing customers are, you also learn who your perfect target market is. You can find the common age, preferred method of shopping and geographical location of the kind of people who enjoy spending a lot of money with your company. You can use these factors to decide where to spend your marketing money and avoid targeting people who are statistically proven to be unlikely to purchase your products.

TOP PERFORMING ORDERS

ABS analysis reporting provides your employees with tools they need to make educated, revenue-boosting decisions. Each team can sort through your data to find relevant information using a wide array of filters available on ABS software. This is especially important with top performing orders because your teams will be able to plan in advance, giving you the assurance they’re prepared to fulfil your company’s most important orders.

Sales Team
Front and center to the order process, the sales team has the task of making sure the company can stand behind customer commitments. ABS has configurable permissions to allow the sales reps to only see the order activity for their customers and to evaluate and manage their deals by seeing performance throughout the fulfillment process. Additionally, there are settings to see allotted inventory (whether on hand or in progress) so that they can sell product, keep orders flowing, and help make your business an overall success!

Customer Service Team

These are the folks with likely the best overall insight on order performance. Beside processing orders automatically or manually, CSRs also have to manage, allocate, track, and report on your orders. With ABS Order Management, the ability to perform all these tasks easily and efficiently is a breeze. Seeing and analyzing order performance is at your fingertips with our Sales Booking Analysis tool. Your CSR team can easily pivot their views - how they see orders, sales, customer information – to see your business they way you need them to.

Warehouse Team  
One of the most vital elements to evaluating order performance is whether or not you are shipping both on time and accurately. The warehouse team sees and addresses the issues that jeopardize top performance, such as having to short orders due to inaccurate inventory, receiving returns, or waiting on an inbound shipment to ship an order that’s missing the ship window. With the ABS Warehouse Dashboard, all of the indicators are in place to respond to the problems and maintain the successes of your order fulfilment.

Accounts Receivable Team 
Order performance is best judged by its paid invoices once shipped, or at least it should be! A completed and paid order serves as a testament to your success as a business and should be easily identified with proper metrics. With ABS, your receivables are presented as a one stop function whereby they can be reviewed, aged, and payment posted in an efficient manner. Seeing overall performance is right at your fingertips.

Executive Team  
How are sales doing overall? How are we doing this year compared to last year? Who are my top and my bottom performing customers? Which styles are selling the best? How are my vendors performing? Top performing orders can only be realized if all these questions (and more), can easily be answered. The ABS Executive Dashboard is a great place to start. High level metrics give you a clear view into your company activity, and the metrics are easily expanded when more detailed information is needed.

Are you ready to decode your business data and improve your bottom line? Schedule a demo with Apparel Business Systems today.