Markdown Management Inc.
(formerly Mantrala Associates Inc.)
 
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Markdown Management – The B_Line Advantage

Our research brought out the following significant insights into the dynamics of fashion retail:

  • Timing of markdowns is often more important than their magnitudes.
  • Optimal “Buy Quantity” and “Markdown” decisions are closely interlinked and     need to be made jointly rather than separately. How much you buy depends     on how you plan to markdown! And how you markdown depends on how     much you have bought!
  • Markdown strategies need to be adaptive as the season progresses – learning     from the actual market experience.
  • Taken correctly, markdowns are “strategic tools” for boosting profitability     rather than merely corrections for “buying mistakes”.

    These insights are embedded in the mathematical model underlying B_Line. As highlighted in the section on Research, repeatedly, substantial gains in profitability were observed when the results of the intuitive decisions of buyers were compared with the recommendations of B_Line based on the same input data.



    • Click here for details of case studies


    Frequently, B_Line came up with counter-intuitive, apparently surprising strategies that yielded substantially superior results i.e. strategies generating higher profitability at lower outlays compared to intuitive strategies currently followed in stores. The Buyers on further reflection came to appreciate why these strategies were superior to their own intuitive period-by-period tactics. They understood the complex interactions at play and realized that there was no way for them to arrive at the right solution without the help of a powerful tool such as B_Line.

    © 2003 Markdown Management Inc. and FI Sofex Limited   The B_Line solution  |   The B_Line advantage  |   Case studies