Internet Retailer - "The Oracle Retail solution gives us a blueprint of where the assortment is going to lead us," said Robert Kim, vice president, Planning and Allocation, Forever 21. "Seeing the past performance by segment and looking at color penetration and fashion attributes is in itself a giant step forward, and the data can be sliced and diced in a way that is meaningful for our merchants. Oracle took a very complicated model and made it user-friendly. We expect to gain more insight and deliver an even better product assortment for our customers as we expand our use of the Oracle Retail solution."

Fast fashion retailer Forever 21 is using Oracle Retail Merchandise Planning and Optimization solutions to better predict demand and align assortments to customer preferences and expectations.

Forever 21, which now ranks as the fifth largest specialty retailer in the United States, is taking advantage of Oracle's advanced optimization technology and using Oracle Retail Merchandise Planning and Optimization solutions to help predict demand and align its assortments to meet the expectations and demands of its customers.

Fashion retailer Forever 21 has teamed up with Oracle Retail to help predict what consumers will want to purchase. Forever 21 will now use Oracle's merchandise planning and optimization solutions in 600 new stores in order to better prepare associates for consumers' wants and needs.

The retailer is betting its loyalty program, which features a mobile wallet inside the Kohl's app, will provide a key competitive advantage for this holiday season and beyond, and help make up for a bleak third quarter.

Good Morning. Kohl's Corp. views the digital wallet as much more than a payments system. The retailer is betting that its loyalty program, which features a mobile, digital wallet inside the Kohl's app, will provide a key competitive advantage for this holiday season and beyond, and help make up for a bleak third quarter. A pilot program across 300 stores in 2013 and 2014 produced about 10 million enrollees in the loyalty program, CIO Janet Schalk told CIO Journal's Steven Norton. Since launching nationwide in early October, that number has doubled to 20 million. Most technology payments providers solely focus on payments, says Ratnakar Lavu, Kohl's EVP for digital technology. While he doesn't deny the importance of payments, he says "there's really no one who's doing something related to offers or rewards." Kohl's has redesigned its website and mobile apps, implemented Oracle Corp. systems to handle inventory and pricing, and is testing a new point-of-sale system. It also has rolled out "buy online, pick up in store" options at some stores, and is shipping products from about 800 locations. Eventually, Kohl's may look to integrate its loyalty program with its payments systems. The company has built systems that will take different kinds of payments and integrate with other mobile wallets in the marketplace.

Kohl's and John Lewis are focusing on creating smarter stores with the help of Oracle Retail. Kohl's has implemented Oracle solutions throughout its 1,100 stores.

Kohl's has overhauled its core merchandising, inventory, and pricing operations with a new retail merchandise operations management solution from Oracle. The platform will allow the department store retailer to gain one view of its inventory to better serve customers across channels, and to simplify its business user experience.

The National Retail Federation Conference and Expo, which took place in New York this week, is an annual opportunity for retailers to tap into the latest technologies for improving everything from customer analysis to inventory management...

The conference also served as an industry coming-out party for several companies. First, Oracle's acquisition of the MICROS Systems solutions for hospitality and retail, which will Oracle Retail's functionality to include applications for brand compliance management, loss prevention, order management, order brokering, and workforce management, helping customers realize a more extensive - and more profitable - "commerce anywhere" business model.

As retailers manage an increasingly complex array of customer segments and channels, success hinges on simplifying and optimizing mission-critical operations

As today's retail world becomes more complex, the calm at the center of this storm is a return to retailing basics: laying down an IT foundation that automates a number of critical business processes, so that retailers can deliver to both consumers and associates the services they need, when and how they need them.

Erik Andersen, CIO of Lenox: Oracle is making the right investments which gives us a lot of confidence that the platform will keep pace with changes and enhancements

Leveraging advanced optimization technology from Oracle, popular fashion retailer Forever 21 is using Oracle Retail Merchandise Planning and Optimization solutions to help predict demand and align assortments to meet customer expectations.

"Our strategy is to be the most engaging retailer in the U.S.," Janet Schalk, executive VP and CIO of Kohl's, explained during an exclusive interview with Chain Store Age at the recent NRF 2015 Annual Convention & Expo in New York. "The Greatness Agenda involves initiatives across the spectrum - some front-end and some enabling." To support advanced customer engagement, Kohl's relies on a variety of Oracle Retail solutions....

Retailers are also benefiting from more pervasive access to real-time information. Data stored in superfast in-memory computer systems allows store managers to generate reports in real time instead of at the end of a day or week, and new data visualization technologies make that data more comprehensible and actionable. "Now this is on everyone's iPhone or iPad in real time," says Dorf. "The speed at which technology allows us to get access to information is changing things dramatically."

"To increase its omnichannel capabilities even further, John Lewis will also invest in a new merchandise management system from Oracle by 2017. This will replace its legacy solution and work across all of the retailer's stores and facilities."

"The National Retail Federation (NRF) is launching United for Patent Reform, a new coalition co-chaired by NRF and Oracle and comprised of grocery, hotel, retail, restaurant and technology associations and companies. The coalition will pursue patent reform legislation aimed at curbing abuse of the patent system by "patent trolls.""

"With the help of Oracle's support and experience, we have been able to launch an e-Commerce solution that aligns directly with our brand values," said Andrew Vidler, General Manager of Retail at Chemmart Pharmacy. "From a customer perspective, this local approach has the benefit of continuity of care and the convenience of choosing between home delivery or collecting the order at their local pharmacy."