Jewellery Brand Serge DeNimes Strikes Gold; Improves Stock Turnover by 30% with Inventory Planner by Sage

“You see brands these days with huge turnover going under and you wonder, how can that happen? Retailers are starting to realise it’s less about revenue and more about the bottom line; the quality of sales and how you monitor what’s coming in and where cash is being invested. With Inventory Planner we can perform that balancing act.” – Oliver Strickland, Commercial Manager, Serge Denimes 

Premium men’s jewellery brand Serge DeNimes, originally the creative venture of British TV personality Oliver Proudlock – had already built strong foundations as a men’s apparel brand when it decided to focus solely on its jewellery collections in 2017. Soon its rings, necklaces, earrings and bracelets were being featured in top fashion publications, while the rise in men’s ‘kidult’ style jewellery – worn by the likes of huge stars such as Harry Styles and Frank Ocean – only accelerated their success. The brand gained a reputation for inspiring men to wear bold jewellery, and sales rose year after year.

Now in its 13th year, Commercial Manager at Serge DeNimes, Oliver Strickland, spoke to us about how the brand is evolving its strategy after such high growth success, honing in on nuanced ways to boost profits and protect their bottom line – with the use of Inventory Planner by Sage.

Rock Solid Reputation 

Serge DeNimes offers its bold men’s jewellery items direct-to-consumer via its Shopify-webstore as well as wholesale, to independent stores and big-name retailers such as Selfridges, Flannels and Urban Outfitters. Primarily a UK firm, they launched in the States last year, but have online jewellery fans based all over the world. With multiple channels, a global customer base and over 1,000 SKUs, that’s a lot to track.

Commercial Manager, Oliver Strickland has a 30-year history in retail, including working for Diesel and Burberry. He says the comfortable success of Serge DeNimes meant that old school methods – auto-purchasing the same bestsellers and tracking stock based on manual spreadsheet processes – meant the size of their inventory was expanding to unmanageable levels – and with some unfortunate results.

“At first you’re purchasing very much blind, it’s more of a gut feeling, based on what you know has sold in the past,” he says. “But at a certain point in business, you need to know exactly what’s in stock, how much to buy, when to buy it.

“There was no one looking closely at lead times, for instance – so we couldn’t make the smarter purchasing decisions we wanted to. It needed some level of support.”

Up until then, the spreadsheet-based inventory processes at Serge meant spikes in sales could easily pass by before they could meet demand, and not being able to closely monitor purchasing led to extra stock accumulating.

“Say we had traction on a ring, but there’s a 6 week lead time before it’s back in stock – then that opportunity has gone, and you sell only 10% of what you thought you might,” Oliver says.

“Being understocked had some impact, but it’s the overstock that was more detrimental to our bottom line. It’s the speculative nature of buying with nothing behind it – you’re left with stock that won’t shift and paying through the nose on storage space.”

As Serge DeNimes is a premium brand, not accumulating overstock was crucial to Oliver to protect their brand reputation.

“The thing with overstock is you have to discount to run it down – or you write it off. Both have major financial implications.

“For a premium brand like ours, retention of brand equity is also crucial – we cannot be seen to be on sale on a regular basis. That means we have to be incredibly considered with our purchasing, we have to get it right every time so we aren’t left with overstock because we haven’t got the option to go ‘Oh, I’ve got too much stock. Let’s do a quick flash sale.'”

Serge DeNimes had reached the point most high-growth premium brands do, needing to introduce a more sophisticated inventory process that would allow them to build bigger bottom-line margins.

“These days, you see big brands with huge turnover going under and you wonder, “How can that happen?” Oliver explained.

“Retailers are starting to realise it’s less about revenue and more about the bottom line; the quality of sales and how you monitor what’s coming in and where cash is being invested. A commercial shift has definitely happened.

“With Inventory Planner in place, we’ve seen a 3% improvement in our margins – which is incredible.

“Looking at ‘bottom up’ trade is important in retail – knowing what isn’t working as well as what is. That’s why we are putting lots of work into this area, with a larger program underway, alongside Inventory Planner, to further enhance our bottom-line margins.

“We want to target the slow sellers, while keeping our big ticket items in stock, and with Inventory Planner, we now can perform that balancing act.”

Surfacing the jewels 

Since setting up with Inventory Planner, Oliver has made full use of its in-depth reporting and analytics functionality, and uses it daily to track sales against inventory.

“The reference points are invaluable – the replenishment figures but also the data analytics.”

As there are unlimited seats to access the software, the whole team, from marketing to warehouse staff, can see consolidated data in one central hub.

“We’re a small team, we don’t have merchandisers – but Inventory Planner gives us in-depth information quickly,” Oliver continued.

“From a business angle it’s huge, as we can adapt and amend tactics; like changing up our strategy based on supplier lead times at different times of year.”

As one of the top-rated inventory planning apps, Inventory Planner is packed with features and functionality that helps premium brands like Serge DeNimes make informed choices around complex inventory.

The jewellery retailer now has access to nuanced inventory intelligence; to identify overstock and slow-movers – a major cash flow blocker – and direct their future buying strategies.

With manual labour reduced, Oliver predicts the amount of staff time saved is close to 40 hours a month, thanks to Inventory Planners real time data on areas like overstock risk, incoming out-of-stocks and automatic buying recommendations.

“With Inventory Planner, all departments can check anything they need to,” adds Oliver. “If a product is being restocked or put on sale, marketing can put a mailer out and we can prepare. It allows everyone to be proactive rather than reactive.”

A polished future  

With Inventory Planner by Sage in place, Serge is seeing its complex inventory running leaner across the board, with improved sell-through rates and stronger sales.

“Sales are up 15% in the UK this year, while the US has seen a 30% increase,” said Oliver.

“With Inventory Planner, I’m no longer just following suggestions—I’m questioning and reviewing every order. For peak trading periods like BFCM, having the confidence to commit, knowing exactly how many SKUs we need based on sales rates, is absolutely invaluable!”

The team at Serge DeNimes has also seen tangible improvements in their stock turnover rate. Stock turnover rate measures how often inventory is sold and replaced within a period.

Since adopting Inventory Planner by Sage, the team has improved their stock turnover rate by 30% – meaning faster sales, better cash flow, and reduced holding costs.

“Inventory Planner has absolutely helped us tighten up our bottom line. 100% it has maximised sales and reduced lost sales. We now know where to put our money to make that return, and the quickest return, using the best margin drivers.” 

Want to see how Inventory Planner can transform your inventory operations to supercharge business? Book a demo now.