Up Close is Sourcing Journal’s regular check-in with industry executives to get their take on topics ranging from their company’s latest moves to personal style.In this Q&A, Brandon Pierre, vice president, customer success at cloud-based supply chain management software firm SPS Commerce, discusses what the food industry can teach fashion and how data applications are evolving.
Which other industry has the best handle on the supply chain? What can apparel learn?
The food distribution space. It has to deal with so many different types of product—from fresh to frozen—and there’s a high amount of visibility, agility and traceability that comes into play to know where products are at all times. You have to tackle those hurdles and challenges as part of the supply chain.
What should be the apparel industry’s top priority right now?
How to best optimize the inventory from across all of their channels to meet the growing consumer demand. The more channels that have opened up, the more it’s put stress on where and how that inventory shows up to meet the consumer. The answer is not just to buy more inventory, but it’s where this investment in agility is really playing out. It’s forcing more alignment between merchants and the supply chain, two parts of the organization that historically didn’t collaborate.
What innovation or development holds the greatest potential to improve operations in the apparel and textile industries?
The way in which data can now be used. From sharing data with suppliers, to evaluating their performance to suppliers and more. Data is not a new concept, and analyzing data is not a new concept, but the ways in which data can be shared across all the various different trading partners—from carriers to 3PLs, and from providers to the suppliers themselves—has really evolved in being able to meet the end consumer demand. Some of the most optimally run organizations from an inventory and inventory management standpoint are making the best use of data.
How would you describe your company’s corporate culture?
SPS Commerce is customer obsessed, and it’s been fascinating to watch. The hunger employees have to get to know, understand and learn about our customers and the pride they have of working with a retail brand or supplier-branded item that you see in the stores you engage with every day is very much ingrained into the way we operate.
What’s the best decision your company has made in the last year?
We’ve had an exciting acquisition strategy. We’ve gone into some adjacent spaces in particular, really focusing on supplier performance from across the supply chain. We’ve shifted from heavily investing in the EDI (electronic data interchange) space and the movement of data between multiple organizations to investing in analyzing what that data is telling us—things like supplier performance across the supply chain and supplier performance retailer by retailer.
Tell us about your company’s latest product introduction:
The acquisition of Traverse Systems would be our latest. This acquisition allows us to take all of the data that happens across the retail supply chain, pull and analyze performance, and create scorecarding capabilities to help the retailer drive improvement with their suppliers and performance across their supply chain. They can then show one consistent view inside their organization and can communicate that data out to the supplier. This type of visibility allows you to educate and eliminate disruptions, taking cost out of the supply chain for the retailer, the supplier and the end consumer.
On the personal front, where do you look for style inspiration?
A fair amount comes from online. I also use a few different subscription services where they ship packages of product to try on, which for me has been one of the best ways. It’s been a great way for me to test my personal styling limits and boundaries a bit.
How do you shop for clothing? How would you describe yourself as a fashion consumer?
I do most of my shopping online, whether that’s buy online pick up in store or ship to my house. I’ve gotten to be a little bit more brand loyal, so I know my sizing and sizing options better and have really found that to be the most convenient way for me to shop. The amount of time [I’m] spending in a store shopping for apparel has dramatically gone down from what it used to be. I’m buying as much, if not more, but through online experiences.
What are the top three product attributes that you factor into your purchasing decisions?
Size, style and fit. Quality and inspiration play a role as well—whether I can see an item fitting into a larger outfit.
What is a retail experience that stands out to you?
I was recently shoe shopping in Scheels, and it was very busy. Despite that, the sales associates were great. They showed a great desire to help, and not just to get a sale, but because they were genuinely there to help make my experience better. I ended up buying shoes for myself and my boys, even though I wasn’t shopping for them. This definitely wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the store associate.
What keeps you up at night?
When an organization brings us in, they’re usually going through a big change. We’re brought in to enable new data exchanges, and it’s not just about the data itself, but what they do with the data. How effective we are, not only building out our solutions and enabling the movement of that data, but also ensuring we’re able to help their business transform the way they work, is what keeps me up at night. It’s worth it though to see these organizations come out on the other end, be able to change the way they operate and know we had a large role in enabling that.
What makes you most optimistic?
The role of supply chain in retail organizations. Supply chain used to be a necessary evil. It was the cost of doing business, and you needed to have a supply chain to get the goods. But most often it came down to: Do you have the right products or not? Now we’re seeing a shift to the supply chain becoming a more powerful tool for how retail organizations operate. Now you can get the same products at various different retail stores, but it’s about who delivers that in the most effective manner.
