What was the ask?
Create a 6-month buy plan for the Women’s sportswear department at Nordstrom.
Meet the Team
Our plan was assigned as group project including me and one other person. I was very lucky to be able to work with Odessa Hott on this 6-month buy plan. I feel we were able to work very well together as she was more skilled in the research and writing and I was better with the formulas and spreadsheets.
The process of completing this project took almost the whole duration of the semester. We started with familiarizing ourselves with Nordstrom and its competitors. Next, we moved on to the 6-month sales plan, which we decided would be a 2% increase from last year. Our results were as follows:
As shown above, our 2% sales increase worked well to generate a higher gross margin and turnover. The next portion of this project was the assortment plan. We decided ourselves what classes our sportswear would have to figure out overall sales of each class. Next, we focused on one class (sweaters) and decided on sub-classifications. We studied 8 different vendors that provide each type of sub-class to figure out pricing.
Our conclusion shows that a 2% increase will generate positive sales with a gross margin of 40.5%. Attached below is our research paper into Nordstrom’s strengths and weaknesses
reflection
reflection
Overall, this project was a challenge that I enjoyed completing. I had to learn new formulas and ways of thinking that were very interesting. I had not considered being a buyer until I took this class, Retail Buying Simulation. It helped me realize that these formulas and math came pretty naturally to me. I also happened to have a great partner that led to success.
(We were the only group in 18 years to get a 100.)