New Study Finds that Private Label Strategies Drive Incremental Sales and Sustained Growth for Leading Retailers
Burlington, Mass, US & London, UK - Dec 5, 2006 - A new Sourcing and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Benchmark Study conducted by Retail Systems Alert Group Research (RSAG), and sponsored by Eqos Inc., confirms the importance of private label merchandise in driving sales and sustained growth for retailers. The study, based on survey responses and interviews with nearly 150 executives and managers representing retailers from around the world with annual revenues ranging from less than $50 million to more than $5 billion, found that retail winners, (those who outperform their peers in year-over-year comparable store sales), carry a significantly higher percentage of private label merchandise than their competitors. These same leading retailers also achieve better return on inventory investments and outperform competitors in overall gross margin improvements.
The full study is available for download at www.eqos.com/aboutus_contact.aspx. Additionally, RSAG and Eqos will host a free webinar on December 13, 2006 at 11am EST to discuss the study's findings.
"Private label merchandise - typically imported - has become ubiquitous across all retail segments and tiers, " said Paula Rosenblum, the report's author, and vice president, research and content development for RSAG. "With this shift, sourcing and product lifecycle management have emerged as important technology enablers within the retail enterprise. These tools help offset the loss of control and potentially slowed responsiveness associated with outsourcing the manufacturing of merchandise to far-off parts of the world. The study is significant and timely because it takes a hard look at the implications of this critical industry shift."
The Sourcing and PLM Benchmark Study uncovered other key industry shifts. After a decade of reverse auctions and bidding events designed to drive cost out of merchandise without regards to impact on suppliers, RSAG found retailers today are beginning to develop longer term, collaborative relationships with trusted suppliers. Winning retailers, according to Rosenblum, are leveraging technologies to manage these relationships, as well as for product development, supplier audits, managing and tracking merchandise status, and self-managing freight, all of which ultimately drive gross margin and sales improvements.
Jane Biddle, Eqos' chief marketing officer, said, "This is a unique study because it examines not only important growth and sourcing trends acrsoss the global marketplace, but it also identifies several key challenges and opportunities retailers face in today's fiercely competitive environment. For nearly a decade, Eqos has worked with a number of the world's largest retailers. The challenges they've looked to us to address such as supplier collaboration, factory audit support, product lifecycle management, and supply chain visibility mirror the issues and concerns that are presented in this study."
About Retail Systems Alert Group
Retail Systems Alert Group is the leading provider of objective, high quality information resources for the Extended Retail Industry (ERI). The company follows the advancements of technology and business process innovation in this industry, and delivers insights and analysis through high-value conferences and tradeshows, publications, research, training and web-based services. For more information, please visit www.retailsystems.com
About Eqos, Inc
Eqos is a leading provider of global sourcing and supplier management solutions for the retail supply chain. Founded in 1997, Eqos has offices in the US and the UK. Eqos' solutions streamline processes from product concept through product development, buying, manufacturing and delivery to the retailer. Eqos' solutions are built on its award-winning collaboration platform that enables the rapid configuration of processes between retailers, their suppliers, buying offices and other trading partners. Today, Eqos' on-demand solutions are used by major retailers such as Best Buy, Debenhams, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Virgin Megastores. More information can be found at www.eqos.com
For further information, please contact:
Dayna Guzik, DPR Group Inc, USA
Tel: +1 919 678 9200
E-mail: dguzik@dprgroup.com
Linda Laderman @ Laderman PR
Tel: +44 (0)20 7436 6676
Fax: +44 (0)20 7580 0555
E-mail: lindal@ladermanpr.co.uk
