DSW makes every foot count with optimized fixed store capacities

2025 Supply Chain Compass: How Supply Chain Leaders Are Navigating Complexity

In this survey of nearly 700 businesses, we asked supply chain leaders about their ambitions, fears, goals and strategies. Find out the overall direction of the industry, the state of the art of supply chain management, why optimism remains strong and which key actions are being prioritized to achieve strategic goals like building resilience, implementing new technology, and becoming more sustainable.

Beyond Silos: Evolving to an Enterprise Supply Chain

Incisiv explores the significant transformation underway in modern supply chains, detailing the shift away from fragmented processes and point solutions to more agile platforms and collaborative workflows. This evolution addresses systemic issues such as inflexibility and disconnected communication, enhancing supply chain responsiveness, sustainability, and profitability.

Success Story

DSW

Merchandise Financial Planning and Allocation

DSW makes every foot count with optimized fixed store capacities

The company

Designer Brands Inc. is an American retailer that sells designer and brand name shoes and fashion items. It owns the Designer Shoe Warehouse (DSW) chain of stores and operates over 500 stores in the United States.

The business challenge

Previously a close-out retailer, DSW evolved into a large footwear specialty retailer in the mid-2000s. Stores average over 20,000 square feet and feature approximately 24,000 pairs of shoes and accessories. While this format seems large, the fixed capacity of its branded locations has created a strategic challenge. The leading U.S.-based retailer’s existing supply chain processes and technology tools only focused on the highest levels of the business and overall metrics. With limited backrooms to keep excess merchandise, assortment management must be kept to an exacting degree for each market. “Previously our planning was done in dollars, and it was done at the department level. We saw a real opportunity to drop down to a deeper level planning solutions and realize significant benefits ,” — Vice President of Planning & Allocation, DSW.

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The solution

To support both financial and merchandise planning, DSW implemented a state-of-the-art Blue Yonder retail solution. Able to align planning, assortment allocation and pricing, DSW can project the right inventory levels, keep stores optimally stocked and purchase the right products, even the right mix of shoe sizes. “We went from having a mosaic of Excel worksheets, Access databases and numerous other independent pieces of technology to relying on a unified set of solutions that are customized to our unique business needs,” — Executive Vice President of Supply Chain, DSW.

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“We established a much more robust planning system that goes all the way down to the subclass level, measuring performance in both dollars and units. As a result, we are much more capable of controlling our sales, inventory and forecasting. That has significantly improved our margins.”

–Vice President of Planning & Allocation, DSW

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Future outlook

With such impressive results, DSW plans to implement additional solutions over the next few years. “I feel strongly that, as a result of the solutions we’ve used, we have significantly improved our business over the past three years in a time when the economy was really tough. While most retailers really struggled through the past two years, we have had significant increases in our business. We’ve had increased sales, lower inventory and increased margins. A lot of the success that we have had, in addition to our great merchants who buy a great product, is due to the solutions and our ability to get efficiencies and productivity out of those tools. Based on that success, we’re excited about what the future holds,” — Vice President of Planning & Allocation, DSW.

Blue Yonder delivers
Seeking a long-term partner and just the right toolkit to manage systems, DSW leadership relied on proven experiences. “They had been a tremendous partner to me in the past, and the flexibility of the Blue Yonder solutions allowed our team to customize those tools to accommodate our processes,” — Vice President of Planning & Allocation, DSW.

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“Blue Yonder has provided us with technology capabilities that are robust enough to manage the complexity of our supply chain, while also supporting our critical business processes.”

–Vice President of Planning & Allocation, DSW

DSW

Unlock 12x ROI with a true end-to-end supply chain platform

End-to-End Planning & Execution

Blue Yonder Network

AI & Machine Learning

Data Cloud & Platform

Composable Journeys

Professional Services

User Experience

Our solutions have the power to unveil the hidden.

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Walgreens

Browse all our resources: whitepapers, guides, reports and more.

How AI-Enabled Planning Will Improve Your Supply Chain Performance

2025 Supply Chain Compass: How Supply Chain Leaders Are Navigating Complexity

Beyond Silos: Evolving to an Enterprise Supply Chain

ICON 2026

DSW

DSW makes every foot count with optimized fixed store capacities

The company

The business challenge

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The solution

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“We established a much more robust planning system that goes all the way down to the subclass level, measuring performance in both dollars and units. As a result, we are much more capable of controlling our sales, inventory and forecasting. That has significantly improved our margins.”

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Future outlook

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“Blue Yonder has provided us with technology capabilities that are robust enough to manage the complexity of our supply chain, while also supporting our critical business processes.”

Any questions?

Let’s talk!

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Why Blue Yonder

About Blue Yonder

Partners

Unlock 12x ROI with a true end-to-end supply chain platform

End-to-End Planning & Execution

Blue Yonder Network

AI & Machine Learning

Data Cloud & Platform

Composable Journeys

Professional Services

User Experience

Our solutions have the power to unveil the hidden.

ICON 2026

Blue Yonder unveils advanced AI-driven Cognitive Solutions

Accelerate Informed Decisions With AI Built for Supply Chain

Demystifying AI for Supply Chain Leaders

Reorganizing for AI: How Supply Chain Leaders Have to Adapt

Success stories showcase the transformative impact we've had on their businesses.

DHL

Carlsberg Group

Walgreens

Browse all our resources: whitepapers, guides, reports and more.

How AI-Enabled Planning Will Improve Your Supply Chain Performance

2025 Supply Chain Compass: How Supply Chain Leaders Are Navigating Complexity

Beyond Silos: Evolving to an Enterprise Supply Chain

ICON 2026

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The business challenge

The solution

“We established a much more robust planning system that goes all the way down to the subclass level, measuring performance in both dollars and units. As a result, we are much more capable of controlling our sales, inventory and forecasting. That has significantly improved our margins.”

Future outlook

Any questions?

Let’s talk!

Why Blue Yonder

About Blue Yonder

Partners