Chinese retailer, Good Home extends information sharing.

Good Home Commercial Company (GHCC) began as a convenience store chain under the Hao Hao Xian Sheng banner. After opening its first Good Home 100,000 square foot hypermarket in 1998, the Chinese retailer expanded the enterprise to ten convenience and hypermarket stores, all located in the remote Xin Jiang Province, on the Mongolian border of China. The $90 million enterprise is scheduled to open a third hypermarket by the end of this year. This rapid expansion required a merchandising system that would support its cross-regional chain store development.

"We needed the ability to accurately and promptly monitor and analyze purchasing, sales and inventory," explains Xu Zong, owner of GHCC.

Although project teams were faced with language barriers and harsh weather conditions, implementation of JDA's Merchandise Management and Portfolio Store Systems applications began in February 2004, and implementation of both stores went live in July 2004. The solution includes store systems, hardware and a hosted merchandising system.

Simplifying Data
JDA's merchandising system fitted with a Makeup/Breakup feature enables the retailer to manage the intricate process of dealing with such unique scenarios as converting a whole cow into saleable parts. The solution enables each part to be easily tracked with minimal data entry.
The solution also provides flexibility to manage consignments, 20 percent of GHCC's hypermarket business, from warehouse and
store receiving to vendor payments. The consignment sales are fully integrated with the third party financial system via the financial interface customization. The system also assists the company with its database, pricing, purchasing and receiving.

One important new functionality delivering positive results is return management. Before implementation, associates could not accept returned merchandise purchased from one of its sister stores because the technology would not allow it. With the new system, the retailer can easily accept returned merchandise from any of its locations, enhancing Good Home's customer relations.

"Although the project was only completed in July," concludes Zong, "we have already started getting better information for decision-making, which has allowed us to improve information sharing."