Sourcing and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) have emerged as vital and strategic components of the successful retail enterprise. Private label merchandise (most typically imported) has become ubiquitous across all retail segments and tiers. As a result, the foreign sourcing of merchandise – from apparel, to consumer electronics, to children’s toys – is indeed the standard in most developed countries.

What are some of the implications of this shift? To start, adding private label product to the merchandise mix does more than improve gross margin, it also drives sales. Retail winners, those who we gauge to outperform their peers in year-over-year comparable store sales, carry a significantly higher percentage of private label merchandise than their underperforming brethren. These same retail winners also outperform their peers in gross margin improvements, while technology enablers help them react and respond faster to a constantly changing marketplace.