For years, outdoor gear distributors are trying to maintain a delicate balance of fulfilling expectations without having product overages and losing potential profit in fire sales. To gain improved control, outdoor gear market players need an enterprise-level view of inventory that the flexibility of the cloud can enable with ease. Additionally, with integrated operations, inventory, and financials, businesses can easily view demand history of the products to balance customer expectations with actual demand, drilling down to even the material level to ensure accurate lead times, cost estimates, and stock to streamline inventory management and enable more effective logistics.

Moreover, in today’s competitive environment, maintaining business and growth in standard channels is no longer enough. It’s important for outdoor gear market players to create relationships with their customers, mindful of the unique place these products hold in the hearts and minds.

Business Issues

• The client: A leading outdoor gear market player
• Area of Engagement: Supply chain optimization

The client – an American multinational corporation that is involved in designing, developing, manufacturing, and sales of outdoor gear, apparel, footwear, and accessories. The company is headquartered in Oregon, U.S. It is the world’s largest supplier of outdoor gear, with revenue more than US$34 billion in 2017. The client player was facing fierce competition in the outdoor gear market and the threat of vertical integration from peer manufacturers was putting pressure on the company’s supply chain. The challenges identified by the client were related to their supply and demand. These issues aggravated by the company’s growth and capacity constraints – and they lead to a loss of sales and excess inventory totaling US$ 5.2 million.

How Can Supply Chain Optimization Help Outdoor Gear Market Players?

With effective supply chain optimization in place – which includes strategies and best practices for coordinating and integrating all the functions, transactions, activities, and people in the entire value chain – companies will be able to address and adapt to ever-increasing complexities. Supply chain optimization also allows organizations to streamline their processes to ease the flow of people and the products created. Moreover, supply chain optimization aids in logistics, transport, and regulatory compliance which consequently plays an instrumental role in decreasing liabilities, reducing hold-ups, and mitigating vulnerabilities at large.

Summary of our supply chain optimization solution

Client Journey

SpendEdge’s supply chain optimization specialists tailored a research approach which included primary and secondary research methodology coupled with qualitative and quantitative data collection procedures to help the client overcome their predicaments. The specialists also congregated information from various proprietary sources to help the outdoor gear market player gain more visibility into their sourcing and procurement processes and identify the major areas of spend.

Solution Benefits and Business Impact

With the help of SpendEdge’s supply chain optimization engagement, the outdoor gear market player carried out a thorough analysis of their supply chain and increased focus on terms of sale, order quantity, and consolidation at the origin. The client also halved order quantity, increased order frequency, and reduced inventory levels with the help of this engagement. This further helped the client achieve a saving of US$ 13 million.

Future of Outdoor Gear

Terms like urban outdoor, athleisure, and lifestyle and sustainable fashion have dominated the outdoor gear market. This means that the image of customers and the relation between customer and brand has also transformed. Additionally, sustainability and responsibly produced outdoor gear are becoming more and more important for customers today. As a result, companies in the outdoor gear market must take the necessary steps to improve customer satisfaction and achieve a competitive advantage.

A must-read case study for procurement specialists and decision makers looking to develop an understanding of the outdoor gear market