For years now, JOOR’s software has been the industry standard for apparel brands wholesaling their products to retail partners in the form of the JOOR Brand Platform. Now, JOOR is hoping to bring some of that magic to its new JOOR Retailer Platform. The new resource, which was developed input and guidance from the Neiman Marcus Group, digitizes many responsibilities currently bogging down retail buyers and features both a standard desktop web interface as well as an iPad application, a first for the industry, according to JOOR.
The input from Neiman Marcus buyers and IT leaders allowed the company to identify the core challenges stemming from traditionally manual, labor-intensive and error-ridden processes that consumed regrettable quantities of paper. Reacting to trends in how employees commonly rely on their tech devices in the workplace, JOOR saw an opportunity to rethink buying operations from a mobile-centric perspective, aiming for end-to-end digitization that eliminates outmoded spreadsheets and more.
The platform allows buyers to plan assortments, track budgets and interact with colleagues—all within the app. Retail buyers who trialed the Retailer Platform during preliminary testing reported productivity gains of 40 percent and 30 percent fewer appointment bookings—another indication of the significant time savings the software affords.
According to Nathan Johnson, Neiman Marcus Group’s senior vice president of merchandise planning, collaborating with JOOR on the platform dovetails with the retail company’s history of innovation and leadership.
“We see JOOR as an important tool to reduce friction in the purchase order process, freeing up merchant time to focus on driving assortment differentiation,” Johnson said. “When this increased efficiency is coupled with improved real-time visibility into buying decisions, we believe there is tremendous potential to not only improve sales and margins, but, more importantly, to improve the customer experience.”
Said JOOR CEO Kristin Savilia, “Still burdened with manual processes across different systems and documents, the wholesale industry needs one platform where brands and retail buyers can connect for faster, easier, and smarter transactions across all of their business relationships. JOOR is that platform, and partnering with an industry leader and innovator like Neiman Marcus Group is an important confirmation of this industry need and our vision.”