Rue21, a leading fast fashion apparel retailer, and Columbus Consulting International, a leading retail consulting firm, have announced that they have partnered to develop a strategic technology roadmap for the retailer. The focus of the partnership is moving the consumer to the centre of the operations and prioritising initiatives to best serve shoppers.

Key milestones for Rue21 have been outlined and they include achieving real-time inventory visibility across all channels to enable buy online, pick-up in store services; gaining more consumer data and leveraging analytics to target assortment; and balancing inventory across the supply chain in order to respond to shifting consumer trends.

Columbus Consulting evaluated Rue21's current system capabilities and developed an IT roadmap that includes both foundational and analytical components, delivering short-term and long-term benefits to the business. Additionally, infrastructure, cloud and security strategies were considered. Finally, IT processes and organisation were considered to ensure an ongoing alignment between business and technology.

“Columbus Consulting has deep expertise helping retailers to objectively assess their current technology solutions and position them on a path toward success,” said Mark Chrystal, chief analytics officer, Rue21. “I found Columbus’ outside opinion and knowledge essential to validating parts of our approach and contributing insight into the future vision. The unified commerce and data analytics projects we’re now focusing on will provide us with a customer-centric view of our business, allowing us to better serve our shoppers.”

During the assessment phase of the project, Columbus found that Rue21’s existing data was reliable and many of its current systems were functionally sound. Furthermore, Rue21’s executive team members were in alignment when it came to their goals and priorities, said Columbus Consulting in a press release.

“We are pleased that Mark and his team once again put their trust in Columbus Consulting for this critical project,” said Rick Amari, founder, Columbus Consulting. “It’s a pleasure to have the opportunity to work with a team that is so well aligned. This will continue to serve them well as they move forward with building out Rue21’s unified commerce and data analytics capabilities, as outlined in the IT roadmap.” (KD)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India

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