ProfitLogic, the industry-leading provider of Merchandise Optimization solutions, today announced that Northern Group Retail, a Canadian-based specialty apparel retailer with more than 250 locations, will extend its use of Merchandise Optimization into pre-season planning.  This decision was based on significant financial, operational and strategic benefits, including a dramatic increase in overall gross margins, achieved through ProfitLogic’s Merchandise Optimization solutions for In-Season Management. Merchants at Northern Group Retail will now additionally benefit from ProfitLogic’s Assortment Execution solutions to determine the exact combination of sizes and pre-packs to flow to stores as part of the pre-season planning process. 

Over the past year, in an effort to better tailor assortment to customer demand, Northern has added more styles and reduced the number of quantities per style.  With this change, Northern Group Retail is even more focused on reducing stock outs and overstocks by ensuring that just the right quantities of the right sizes are sent to each store group.  Although the specialty retailer has an assortment planning and allocation system in place, they require merchants to use a single chain-level size profile and do not provide information about store demand.  The executive team determined a need to make region-level sizing decisions based on customer demand.  With ProfitLogic’s Assortment Execution solutions, merchants will enhance their decision-making by applying insight into customer demand and optimization capabilities to the key assortment decisions that are made pre-season.

”Our goal is to improve customer satisfaction by ensuring that our customers find what they want, in the right sizes, and increase returns on our inventory investments,” said Louise Collict, President of Northern Group Retail.

“Through the use of Markdown Optimization, we realized the power of customer demand insight and optimization technology to help us be more responsive in-season,” said Michael Stanek, CFO of Northern Group Retail. "The next step is to turbo-charge our pre-season planning decisions with that same insight.”

“We are proud to have been a part of Northern Group Retail’s success with Markdown Optimization and in-season management, and we are looking forward to helping them duplicate that success in their pre-season planning processes, “ said Tom Ebling, Chairman and CEO of ProfitLogic.  “We view this as yet another proof point that Merchandise Optimization solutions are revolutionizing the way retailers plan and execute and changing the way they approach technology investments to help them do so.  Retailers are looking to invest in solutions that drive real business benefits, with rapid results.  Northern is a prime example of a forward thinking retailer, doing just that.”

ProfitLogic’s Merchandise Optimization solutions for Assortment Execution fill a gap in the market for decision support around execution of the assortment strategy.  Picking up where traditional retail planning software stops, these solutions assist merchants with the key decisions that surround an assortment strategy.  For more information about Assortment Execution, click here: ProfitLogic Fills Gap in Retail Planning Software with Unique Next-Generation Merchandise Optimization Solution for Assortment Execution.

For more information about Assortment Execution, click here: ProfitLogic Fills Gap in Retail Planning Software with Unique Next-Generation Merchandise Optimization Solution for Assortment Execution.

About Northern Group Retail Ltd. Northern Group Retail Ltd. is a Canadian-based and operated specialty apparel retailer, with more than 250 prime locations in Northern America. Northern has successfully offered outstanding products and services since 1985 under Northern Reflections and Northern Getaway banners. Northern Group Retail Ltd. is owned by the Canadian affiliate of York Management Services, Inc. York is a privately owned investment and management advisory services company, headquartered in Somerset, New Jersey. For more information about Northern, visit www.northernreflections.com.

About ProfitLogic ProfitLogic provides an industry-leading suite of Merchandise Optimization solutions designed for retailers whose priority is getting the highest return on inventory investments.  ProfitLogic’s solutions provide merchants with day-to-day operational decision support and workflow for making better-informed assortment execution, allocation and fashion replenishment, promotion, pricing and markdown decisions. ProfitLogic has delivered fast, flexible solutions with significant financial benefit to industry leading retailers such as American Eagle Outfitters, AnnTaylor, Bloomingdale's, Charming Shoppes, Gap Inc., including: Banana Republic, Gap, Old Navy, Gap International and Gap Outlet; JCPenney, Lerner New York, Marshall Field's, Meijer Stores, Northern Group Retail, Sears, ShopKo Stores, Target Stores and Toys R Us.  For more information about Cambridge, Mass.-based ProfitLogic, call 617-218-1900 or visit www.profitlogic.com.