So, how does a leading brand like Lululemon make such an error? Is it that the merchandisers did not know or did not realise that there needed to be more colour in the range?
We believe that the root cause is the way fashion and apparel brands analyse their assortment, inventory and sales performance data.
The Information Blindness Problem
The traditional reporting systems deployed by brands look at tabular and numeric data sorted by product codes. And it is very hard to identify colour gaps or design gaps in the assortments based on spreadsheet-type reports. This leads to information blindness on designs and colours, resulting in huge sales opportunity losses.
"It is very hard to identify colour gaps or design gaps in the assortments based on spreadsheet type reports. This leads to information blindness on designs and colours."
This information blindness further compounds down the value chain, because after the product design function, managers in organisations are heavily dependent on spreadsheet-type reports, completely missing the design nuances. There is no early warning system — stores and operations cannot communicate on required changes to the assortments in a way that users in design and sourcing would understand.
How Kanvas Solves This
It is precisely to address this problem that we created Kanvas — an intuitive platform that helps identify gaps around colour palette, silhouette and more.
Kanvas associates images with tabular data, providing concept and evidence in one screen. When your sell-through report is visual, you can see that your range lacks colour depth — instantly, without manually pasting images into spreadsheets.
Kanvas further allows for users across the entire value chain to communicate and collaborate on design inputs and feedback, allowing quick response. The result: the kind of assortment gap that cost Lululemon $2 billion becomes visible — and fixable — before it reaches market.