Ace Hardware Expands JDA Footprint beyond Supply Chain into Merchandising

JDA Software Group, Inc., has announced that Ace Hardware will expand its JDA footprint with JDA Space and Category Management solutions which include  JDA Floor Planning, JDA Category Knowledge Base (formerly Intactix Knowledge Base), JDA Web Publisher and JDA Assortment Optimization. The investment demonstrates Ace’s commitment to continuously improving the shopping experience for its customers as well as Ace’s confidence in JDA, a long-standing solution provider to Ace.

With more than 4,800 hardware stores locally owned and operated across the globe, Ace is the largest hardware cooperative in the industry. Ace selected JDA due to its ease-of-use and deep analytical capabilities and its 20-year history of success leveraging JDA solutions. Ace’s existing JDA footprint includes JDA Space Planning, JDA Advanced Warehouse Replenishment as well as a broad implementation of JDA Demand and Fulfillment, where the initial implementation yielded a $27 million reduction in inventory and $475,000 annual savings in decreased space requirements.

“Inventory and selling space are scarce yet critical retail assets. To be competitive, you can’t make bad investments in either of them,” said Andy Voelker, director of Category Management and Retail Development, Ace Hardware Corporation. “While JDA Floor Planning and Space Planning will enable us to design plans to help our retailers maximize productivity of their retail space, JDA Assortment Optimization will improve our precision in selecting locally relevant products that best meet our customers’ varying needs without incurring costly overstocks.”

Historically, Ace Hardware relied on manual, spreadsheet-based planning processes for assortment and store layout planning. Improving the customer experience requires more floor, space, and assortment plans, so Ace also selected JDA Category Knowledge Base to simplify, support, and synchronize their category management data, plans, and processes. Not only will JDA Category Knowledge Base improve category management visibility and drive planner productivity, but with JDA Web Publisher, Ace will be able to more effectively communicate with stores and distribute plans and revisions.

“Ace Hardware is a long-standing JDA customer, and advancing their category management capabilities will create new advantages for them in an increasingly competitive retail segment,” said Todd McCourtie, senior solutions strategy director, JDA. “As today’s omni-channel environment becomes more complex, retailers such as Ace Hardware need to balance being nimble, addressing customers’ needs, and remaining profitable.”