Bringing beloved apparel, footwear or luxury fashion products to market involves an incredibly intricate go-to-market (GTM) process, coordinating a global team and supply chain through a series of interdependent milestones. For those outside the industry, the complexity behind delivering a favorite pair of jeans can be surprising. Despite technological advancements in product development, no solution has seamlessly digitized and transformed early-stage line planning and design ideation—until now. VibeIQ enables collaboration with a focus on the most critical element: Product!
Complexity of the GTM Process
For footwear and apparel brands, the GTM calendar is filled with numerous milestones, but we will focus on the six major use cases where VibeIQ can revolutionize the workflow, significantly shortening the calendar duration. In this piece, we delve into the first use case: Initial Line Development.
Initial Line Development: Challenges and Solutions
The Merchandising or Product Line Manager is tasked with creating the line plan for a particular season, often using spreadsheets. This iterative document is refined at various milestones until the products ready for commercialization are finalized. Initial Line Development involves creating assortments, capturing GTM intent, and beginning with carryovers from previous seasons. New colors and entirely new offerings for the season are also represented.
Where Spreadsheets Fall Short in Assortment Planning
Using spreadsheets for assortment planning presents several challenges. Without data governance, these documents often contain free text, leading to inconsistencies and data inaccuracies. This lack of standardization complicates tracking strategic data elements like sustainability targets or supply chain optimization. Additionally, spreadsheets offer no historical data context, making it difficult to guide current season planning accurately.
Carryover is crucial in any assortment, but spreadsheets lack the capability to recognize styles from other seasons. Data duplication and inaccuracies are common, and the inability to visualize products adds to the complexity. Merchandisers and designers waste time juggling multiple spreadsheets, double-checking data, and struggling with inadequate visuals.
VibeIQ Plan App: The Initial Line Development Solution
VibeIQ’s Plan application combines the best features of spreadsheets with the added benefit of connection to the product’s master record. Merchandisers can access master data of a style and update information for specific seasons or all seasons. This efficiency ensures global teams work with the most accurate information, allowing them to focus on decision-making rather than data verification.
VibeIQ provides governed drop-downs, business-defined calculations, and brand-specific configurations to ensure consistency in product definition. Updates are automatically reflected throughout the suite of applications, eliminating the need for duplicate efforts in updating different versions of spreadsheets or presentations.
Having visuals connected to the style from the start and throughout the process saves Merchandisers and Designers time during line reviews. There’s no need to cross-reference multiple spreadsheets to verify details. Product reviews are streamlined, with a single place to collect feedback and update master data in real-time.
Additional benefits include eliminating the need to re-enter product information into downstream systems like PLM, ERP, or PIM. VibeIQ’s proven integrations ensure seamless flow of style definitions, freeing creative individuals to focus on product development rather than wrestling with disconnected systems.
Benefits of VibeIQ for the GTM Process
The transparency VibeIQ brings to the GTM process reduces development costs and decreases overdevelopment, eliminating miscommunication during line planning. Early and frequent feedback increases adoption rates, enabling informed decision-making rather than second-guessing data. These are benefits spreadsheets simply cannot provide.
One of our customers highlighted the value of VibeIQ, stating, “I worked on calendars for a long time in this industry, and the one thing you can’t make or buy is time. What appealed to me was how VibeIQ buys us time.”
Get in touch to learn more about how VibeIQ can help streamline your product line development and accelerate your GTM process.
