Improving Inventory Operations and Customer Relationship for a Small-sized Garment Retailing Company A

Abstract

Garment industry expanded to a large industries sector that more and more scholars researched on its inventory operations and customer relationship management. Currently the garment industry focused more on speeding up the sales revenue with more professional rules on the accuracy of inventory and strong customer loyalty. The main objective of the study was to explore the existing operations of the case company’s inventory and customer management processes and figure out potential efficiencies. Moreover, suggestions and solutions were then provided for the case Company A. These suggestions could also be transferable for other similar retail stores. Data was mainly collected from previously published literatures as well as case company’s own ERP system. Besides, information provided by the CEO and manager of the case company was also crucial to the entire research process. Suitable methods of inventory management (IM) improvement in the small-size garment retailing industry had been successfully analyzed, combining with data analysis in a real case study of the company A, located in Hubei Province, China. Besides, the study demonstrated customer relationship management (CRM) situations in the company A, providing its current customer categories selection and maintenance interval methods. After that, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology and ABC analysis were recommended to company A as their future inventory management tools. As for CRM enhancement, three suggestions, which are customer value category, marketing strategy improvement, and higher educated employees, were recommended respectively. Although each advice might still have its limitations, they were verified that could effectively boost the IM and CRM in small garment industry, such as Company A.