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Alteryx > Case Studies > VF Corporation Increases Profitability and Stays Ahead of the Competition with Alteryx

VF Corporation Increases Profitability and Stays Ahead of the Competition with Alteryx

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Big Data Analytics

Applicable Industries

Apparel
Retail

Applicable Functions

Discrete Manufacturing

Use Cases

Inventory Management
Supply Chain Visibility

Services

Data Science Services

The Challenge

VF Corporation, a highly diversified, branded lifestyle apparel, footwear, and related products company, wanted to improve corporate profitability, support retail expansion, and maximize the performance of the company’s more than 100,000 SKUs at more than 10,000 retail locations. In 2009, the company's RFSM organization assumed responsibility for the company’s customer relationship management (CRM) efforts with its retailers. While the company already had an internal CRM database, it also needed to correlate and analyze this data along with huge volumes of data from a number of other disparate internal and external sources. The company’s existing solution was not scalable or reliable enough for a company the size of VF Corporation. The existing solution did not allow VF Corporation to include spatial information, which was becoming increasingly important to the company and its retail expansion efforts.

About The Customer

VF Corporation is a highly diversified, branded lifestyle apparel, footwear, and related products company that serves consumers worldwide through 35 brands and multiple distribution channels. The company’s brands span five distinct areas— outdoor and action sports, jeanswear, imagewear, sportswear, and contemporary brands—and include such well-known brand names as The North Face, Nautica, JanSport, Lee, Wrangler, Majestic, Splendid, and Vans. With sales of $10.9 billion in 2012, the company is focused on attaining sustainable, long-term growth driven by continuous product innovation, as well as through geographic expansion via its wholesale partners, its owned retail stores, and targeted acquisitions.

The Solution

VF Corporation uses Alteryx to appropriately match products to consumers and specific stores based on simultaneous analysis of POS data and demographic information. The company was able to include spatial information with Alteryx, to aid in the decision-making process for new and proposed retail store locations. Not only can VF Corporation make more strategic decisions about where to open a new store, but also it can use Alteryx to help its planners and category managers place the right merchandise in those stores, even before the store opens its doors.

Operational Impact

Improved sales and reduced merchandise mark-down and return rates with more effective planning and by moving inventory to the right locations at the right time.
Reduced some data analysis processes from several weeks to just two days and others from a full day to a couple of hours.
Gained more precise control over inventory as well as improved retail site selection with predictive and spatial analysis in a single analytic workflow.

Quantitative Benefit