Deckers Outdoor, the parent of footwear retailers including Ugg, has invested in technology to enable it to glean real-time insight into item and store sales as it ramps up global expansion.

Deckers has more than 70 Ugg stores worldwide and wants to expand to more than 200 in the next five years. It aims to provide customers with a seamless, consistent experience both in stores and online.

Using the Oracle Retail platform, Deckers is able to forecast demand more accurately, allocate inventory accordingly and run more effective promotions.

Deckers, which was due to show Oracle Retail delegates around its New York store on Tuesday morning as part of NRF 2013, said by centralising its merchandising, planning and store operations, it now has a more global view on trends and can plan locally.

“Implementing the Oracle Retail suite added much needed capabilities to the very core of our business, supporting both regional and brand expansion,” said Yul Vanek, vice president of information technology, Deckers Outdoor. “This has enabled a complete transformation of how we run Retail. Longer term, e-commerce operations will be integrated, making seamless online and in-store execution a reality.”

Deckers completed implementation in Europe and North America in 15 months and this year will deploy the point of sale, central and back office systems to stores in China and Japan.

The retailer will then integrate its ecommerce operation with the merchandising and stores platform to improve the customer experience across all channels.  

“Our customers seek out the Ugg brand online, on their mobile devices and in stores. By creating a single, accurate view of their engagement with us, we can better align our service, marketing and merchandising with their needs,” said Dave Powers, president, global direct to consumer, Deckers Outdoor.