The COVID-19 pandemic has been filled with watershed moments for the fashion apparel industry, as tried and true buying, merchandise planning, and allocation strategies have been turned upside down. While the increase of online shopping was not a new concept, the intense uptick for many retailers, with vast portions of sellable inventory either ‘locked away’ inside the quarantined brick-and-mortar locations or within under-equipped for direct to customer shipping distribution centres, has greatly impacted sales and inventory plans.
As we approach the final quarter of fiscal 2020, with a perspective balanced between worry for the second and third wave onslaught, and hope for potential mass vaccination distribution starting early in 2021, it is time to take stock of some of the daVinci Retail recommendations from articles presented earlier this year. This is a chance to perform some hindsight analysis – to review ‘what has been discussed’, ‘what have we learned’, and most importantly (if not already actioned upon), ‘what should we implement’.
