Identifying Gaps in Assortment Planning
Suomalainen Kirjakauppa is the leading bookstore chain in Finland. Founded in 1912, they offer a wide selection of books alongside other merchandise across its nationwide store network. Part of the Otava Group, Suomalainen Kirjakauppa has collaborated with RELEX since 2008, implementing forecasting and replenishment, CO₂ Analytics, integrated supply, store operations and workforce forecasting. These capabilities reflect more than 17 years of supply chain analytics and business intelligence maturity.
Supply chain execution was performing well, so the next phase of Suomalainen Kirjakauppa’s transformation focused on strengthening strategic merchandising. The objective was to equip category and assortment managers with better tools for data-driven decision-making and improve visibility across planning processes. Managing an assortment of more than 20,000 SKUs, they identified clear limitations in their existing assortment planning approach, which relied heavily on spreadsheets and manual workflows.
Limited transparency across planning activities created inefficiencies, particularly during seasonal peaks and new product launches. Category managers and assistants often neededup to three days to complete store allocations when introducing new assortments or preparing major campaigns. Product data was spread across multiple spreadsheets and documents, making it difficult to maintain consistency and ensure high data quality.
Without automated workflows or clear visibility into allocation decisions, the team struggled to balance inventory effectively. For books especially, the category team needs to optimizelimited shelf space and reduce slow-moving titles while still meeting customer expectations for breadth and depth in selection at local stores.
Creating a Unified Solution for Merchandising Operations
Suomalainen Kirjakauppa rolled out assortment planning capabilities in 2025. The decision to implement assortment planning was driven by strong user advocacy. The team communicated this to leadership and outlined primary goals to reduce assortment complexity in stores to make better use of limited shelf space, expand the overall assortment through distribution centers and online channels, and improve profitability by increasing inventory efficiency and reducing operational costs.
The first categories went live in January, and the final categories completed in September. Assortment planning was integrated with forecasting and replenishment into a single, unified system that brings together transaction data, supplier information, and product details. With an end-to-end view of merchandising and supply chain operations, decisions made during assortment planning now flow directly into downstream execution, improving coordination and reducing manual handoffs between teams.
The platform enables automated allocation specifications, allowing category managers to define distribution rules based on store clusters and product characteristics. This automation replaced spreadsheet-based processes and significantly streamlined workflows. Assortment decisions now feed directly into replenishment logic, with changes reflected immediately in ordering and stock flow. As a result, planning and execution are fully aligned, ensuring inventory consistently supports merchandising decisions.
Time Saving and Efficiency Gains
Since implantation, Suomalainen Kirjakauppa has already seen improvements in their assortment processes. Category assistants have significantly reduced the time spent on daily operational tasks, freeing their capacity. During high-demand seasonal periods, where speed and accuracy are critical, allocation work dropped from three days to approximately one day, representing a 67% faster allocation process.
Centralizing all product data within a single system has also improved data quality and visibility. Category assistants can access information such as store cluster sizes, within the allocation workflow, eliminating the need to reference multiple systems. This has reduced manual work and enabled more proactive seasonal planning. The team can now define delivery weeks for new products in advance, allowing planning activities to begin months earlier.
In ongoing operations, category assistants save approximately one hour per day on routine tasks. This efficiency proved especially valuable during the Christmas 2025 season, when the team reported fewer open support tickets from stores compared with previous years. With less time spent resolving issues, category assistants were able to focus more on analyzing replenishment proposals and addressing exceptions that had previously gone unattended due to time constraints.
In addition, Suomalainen Kirjakauppa achieved an approximately 10% improvement in inventory turnover, six months after the roll out, reflecting more efficient inventory flow and improved alignment between supply and demand.
“We have completed many projects with RELEX over the years, and through that experience we have learnt what truly adds value to the business,” said Pekka Kuurne, Head of Development, Data and Logistics, Otava Group. “The decision to implement assortment planning was clearly driven by business needs. Having transparency across processes in one system instead of managing multiple spreadsheets has significantly improved data quality and confidence in our decisions.”
This is a significant step in a longer journey for Suomalainen Kirjakauppa. They plan to continue to explore the RELEX’s capabilities they now have for SKU optimization and improved decision support. With all stakeholders working from a shared system and a consistent set of data, the foundation established has improved their assortment planning processes. They have reduced process friction, improved cross-functional alignment, and created a more agile decision-making environment that supports both operational efficiency and strategic growth.