Escada Goes Digital

Escada, the worldwide purveyor of high-fashion women's apparel, accessories and fragrances, announced that it has retained QRS Corp. (Richmond, Calif.) to provide digital imaging and web-based merchandising analysis tools for its international retail network, beginning in the fall. Using QRS'Tradeweave Merchandising system, Escada expects to be able to monitor each store's merchandising standards online and to implement changes quickly and efficiently, when necessary, from a central location. Tradeweave Merchandising is part of the QRS Tradeweave Retail Network, a platform that enables collaborative business-to-business commerce for the retail community.

Specifically, Tradeweave Merchandising will enable Escada to: visually review optimal in-store presentations from its international, national or regional offices; accelerate inventory turnover by improving merchandising in local and remote stores; visually communicate shop-specific information to its store managers from its various central locations; and reduce travel expense by viewing digital images rather than having to travel to remote locations. Escada, internationally based in Munich, Germany, with U.S. headquarters in New York, has 360 stores in 54 countries. (Most are company-owned, though a few are franchised.) In addition to its own brands, the company owns the LaurŽl, Primera, and Kemper/Cerruti fashion labels.