08 Oct Finish Line Invests $90Mon CRM, Supply Chain – New Partnership with Macy’s Paying off
Finish Line is spending this year’s $80 million to $90 million CapEx investment on replacing many of its core systems, with a supply chain overhaul and new CRM software as top priorities.
CEO Glenn Lyon told analysts on a recent analyst call that systems improvements will help the athletic apparel and accessories retailer to:
- improve CRM
- improve inventory management
- enhance merchandising capabilities
- accelerate fulfillment, and
- establish a scalable platform for additional add-ons to its core business
Finish Line also plans to upgrade handheld devices used by store associates to “further enhance the customer experience and drive higher sales productivities,” Lyon said.
The retailer is testing out a new supply chain platform in its running specialty group this fall and plans to deploy the systems throughout the company in early 2014 if the pilot is successful.
E-commerce sales for the second quarter were strong, rising 6% on top of a 30% increase from the prior year. “Digital traffic continues to be robust, up 33% in the second quarter, fueled in part by strong gains in mobile traffic,” said Lyon.
Part of the growth online is due to Finish Line’s new partnership with Macy’s. “We’re continuing to expand our assortment of footwear on macys.com to attract more of their digital customers and drive our overall digital growth,” added Lyon.
Finish Line is devoting $18 million of CapEx to building dedicated shop-in-shops in several Macy’s stores.