How Flattered is using Madden Analytics for sustainable inventory planning and growth

Flattered was born in 2013 and quickly became known for its modern yet timeless footwear collections aimed at a conscious consumer. Their high-quality, handmade shoes and accessories have since become a popular staple with loyal customers worldwide.

In the last two years, Flattered has experienced record growth rates. In 2021 reporting an annual turnover of close to 100 million SEK. About 75% of sales go through Flattered’s own website, but they also sell to 100+ resellers worldwide. The growth trajectory and the fact that a large part of the assortment is seasonally dependent demands an adaptive supply chain. But Flattered is geared up: with short lead times, a focus on small and frequent orders, and a data-driven mindset, they are better positioned than most brands to sustainably meet market demand ahead.

Key objectives

Looking to the future, Flattered’s focus is set on profitable growth. They want to keep building a sustainable business going into the downturn economy and coming out strong on the other side. They are adamant about nurturing their cash flow and not tying up funds in excess inventory. It is also imperative that the business grows faster than the workload. Managing their time on manual processes and finding systems that can scale with the business across the organization is a top priority.

“We need to keep it simple. Minimizing risk and managing our time wisely is key to growing sustainably and keeping lean and efficient processes. We want to make sure we don’t end up with a monster in inventory management but rather have processes that easily scale as we grow. Madden Analytics is an important tool to support this objective”, says Gustav Lidén, Founder and CEO.

‍

Working with Madden Analytics

Flexible sales forecasting and inventory planning‍

Though Flattered is somewhat of a model company when it comes to handling its supply chain and has crafted well-designed inventory planning processes, Madden Analytics offers a clear business advantage in terms of planning more flexibly and saving time on manual processes. 

“Madden Analytics is a unique tool. We haven’t found another software or solution on the market that can help us with inventory forecasting, planning, and reporting like Madden can” says Felix Friberg, Supply Chain Manager at Flattered.

Having a large portion of the total sales coming from their own website means Flattered has a great need to forecast their own production and sales. With warehouses strategically placed close to their largest markets, they have managed to get the lead times down to 10 weeks. This in turn enables a flexible forecasting and replenishing cycle, minimizing the risk of over or under-stocking products.

Similarly, new releases are ordered in small batches when introduced to the market, allowing the products to prove their true demand before being reordered. To guide initial orders, Flattered uses Madden's functionality to create forecasts based on similar products. This way, they get an initial estimate of how the product will perform.
‍

An intuitive tool for complex data

Flattered’s setup means a vast amount of data is being processed at all times. Something that would require heavy excel sheets and frequent imports of new data to allow for updating forecasts and putting in new orders. Like many companies, Flattered found their excel sheets were increasingly cumbersome to work with as the company and its complexity grew.

“We wouldn't be able to manually manage our inventory planning and purchases with the same results given the vast amount of data needed for our assortment, multiple warehouses, and point-of-sales”, says Gustav.

Madden Analytics collects all data in one place letting you analyze it historically and in real-time. The tool presents the data in an intuitive way making it very digestible and easy to work with. 

“With just a few clicks you can view all data at different levels, switching from category to SKU level in a few simple steps. This makes it easy to analyze the data without resetting views or digging extensively in your sheets. With Madden you can just get to work”, says Felix.

Madden Analytics acts as a support rather than a replacement for dedicated people working with inventory planning. The user applies their insights to the suggested forecasts to make more accurate projections and purchases. Still, it has relieved Flattered from having to manually import data and set up their own forecasting models. 

“Madden is a super intuitive tool. You don’t have to be technical to use it. You just set the parameters as needed and you’ll get nice graphs to work with” says Felix and continues “With a couple of clicks you have a set forecast that you can tweak and scale as needed.”
‍

Looking ahead, Madden is working on improving the solution further in close dialogue with users, something Flattered also points out: 

“I’ve been really impressed with the high speed of Madden’s development of new features and I am sure they’ll keep releasing great new functionality going forward”, says Felix.

‍

About Flattered

Flattered is a Swedish consumer goods brand offering high-quality footwear and accessories worldwide. The Flattered ethos embraces the Scandinavian philosophy of living, and the products are designed with feminine minimalistic that should stand the test of time and contribute to changing habits around unnecessary consumption. Their collections, designed in Stockholm, Sweden, and handcrafted in the south of Europe are made for long-lasting quality, not compromising on comfort or the planet.

flattered.com

‍

Are you interested in learning more about how Madden Analytics can help your company? Leave us your email and we'll give you a free demo!

‍

‍