"Based on the encouraging results from a third quarter reset in women's apparel, which expanded our casual and contemporary offering, we made the strategic decision to accelerate a wider transformation of the entire women's department by clearing slow-moving inventory primarily in women's and other apparel categories. Following this comprehensive reset, we saw an improvement in performance, particularly in our women's division, confirming these actions were necessary to drive growth in our women's apparel business," said Marvin R Ellison, chairman and chief executive officer for JC Penney.

Additionally, the company took steps during the third quarter that ended on October 28, 2017, to create an integrated business function that combines the capabilities of its pricing and planning and allocation teams to work under the oversight of the company's newly appointed chief financial officer. Centralising those functions allowed the company to streamline its pricing, promotion and markdown strategies, and consolidate all forecasting and planning capabilities to begin improving its predictive analytics and provide leadership with a more focused view of current sales trends.

"With a sharper and more disciplined focus on inventory management, we are taking a comprehensive approach to assessing the effectiveness of our inventory positions to make swift, informed decisions that promote faster inventory turn and higher productivity levels. Therefore, in the third quarter, we took the necessary steps to accelerate inventory liquidation primarily across all apparel divisions, which increased available funding to invest in new and trending merchandise categories," added Ellison.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India