Design And Implementation Of Inventory Management Information System In Department Stores

Since the birth of the first department store in Paris, France in 1852, department stores were gradually becoming the windows of cities in the world. Among various retail stores, department stores have always been in the core position. Although the department stores in China have developed for nearly a hundred years, being limited by series of factors like immature market, instable consumption environment and so on, these department stores still face many problems. After entering the new millennium, China's department store industry faced the second time of differentiation, there were constant innovation in retail industry and consumer stratification has become increasingly clear. The department stores have gradually shifted from traditional department stores to new and multi-class department stores. Under the mode of traditional department store, the commodity structure was the main factor to constitute personalized and differentiated characteristics of department stores, which was often achieved by t self-purchasing.Department stores of new pattern usually adopt a "joint brands" system in order to avoid risks. Department stores gave up their own function of products procurement, and shifted its attention to introduction of quality-oriented brand portfolio and competition for high-end brands. However, owing to the limited number of the brands, convergence of brand portfolio in the department stores of same grade gradually grows, while personalization and differentiation were difficult to be displayed. Such phenomenon is especially evident in medium and large cities as the concentration of department stores results in intense market competition. Being influenced by the intense market competition and the increased convergence of brand structure, to control product quality and ensure stock quantity were the most important means for the department stores to ensure business performance so as to succeed in the fierce competition. In addition, through the analysis and comparison of the product catalogues in stock and sales information, it is beneficiary for department stores' decision-making on brand introduction and market position.The author made a profound demand analysis of the current operational status and management work in domestic department stores from perspectives of business risks and decision-making support of some department store in Qingdao. And it is discovered that under the commonly applied mode of "joint brand", the department stores were shifted from the absolutely autonomous control of management of products purchase, sales, storage to control by the brand vendors, which often causes the department stores to neglect the inventory management, and lose the rights of ordering goods voluntary and the obligations for commodity management.Based on the practical work experience in department stores and the demand of inventory management under the "joint brands" mode, this paper attempts to design and develop inventory information management system for department stores and LMIS is introduced to inventory management. It proposes and designs the inventory information management system for department stores under the mixed structure of C /S (Client/Server) and B/S (Brower/Server) modes. Through the internal network and Internet of department stores, brands'function of products purchase, sales, and storage can be effectively integrated with the department stores'functions of inventory information management. Manual operations of data collection and recording in inventory management will be reduced; ensure the accuracy and timeliness of the information are ensured. Moreover, the department stores'control in the inventory information will be improved and its management ability will be enhanced as well. Through data analysis, some directive information is provided for decision-making and development of department stores.This paper makes a preliminary analysis on the functions required by the system, and then it starts researches on the feasibility and demands of the project. Besides, the mode and work flow of inventory information management are designed. The paper proposes the form of "a single-code for a single-product" for commodity information management. Meanwhile, this paper also carries out a further and systematic analysis entrance & exit of commodities, inquiry of inventory, inventory analysis, and the management of the user and user group's purview. In combination with SQL Server 2000 and its related content, basic design of the database and functions are conducted, some of the typical interface and programming code are displayed.The prospects for the development of this system are:the system is sourced from a worker's reflection on the development of department store industry, competitive strength of department store, and the demand of leadership's accuracy in decision-making. Therefore, the system not only represents the application of information technology in the management of the department stores, but also symbolizes the role of the advanced management concept in the development of department stores. Afterwards, this experience could be applied to develop other management systems to satisfy different needs of the department stores, such as management of customer relationship, membership management, and internal resource management and so on. Consequently, the management efficiency and automatic level of department stores will be improved further.