Nexon Omniverse Ltd Undergoes Rapid Retail Expansion with Centric Planning and Centric PLM

“I always say, go with the best in the industry, because you’re going to access the expertise they have. It’s important to find a solution and partner with experience in your industry, who keep upgrading and providing the best. Centric Software® does exactly that,” explains Dharadhar, Head of Planning at Nexon Omniverse.

Ethnicity and Style Union, the two fashion brands by Nexon Omniverse, have adopted Centric’s industry-leading Product Lifecycle Management solution (Centric PLM) and Centric’s end-to-end retail planning solution, Centric Planning™, to empower their rapid growth in India’s fashion and apparel market.

How have Style Union and Ethnicity transitioned from start-up brands to two of India’s fastest growing and digitally savvy fashion brands?

Nexon Omniverse: Celebrating Heritage and Modernity in Fashion

In just two years, Nexon Omniverse’s brands, Style Union and Ethnicity, have rapidly expanded to over 100 stores, and they are targeting 75% more stores across southern India in the third year as part of their ambitious growth plans. Style Union is a modern fashion brand, while Ethnicity is a dynamic and culturally rich fashion brand that celebrates India’s diverse heritage.

Digitally Unified from Day One: How Style Union and Ethnicity Embraced Centric PLM

From the outset, Nexon aimed to adopt an industry-leading solution and a single version of truth for everything product-related.

Sankat Mochan, Head of Supply Chain, Nexon Omniverse, describes why the company sought a single platform for all product-related data and processes, “As Style Union and Ethnicity grew rapidly, it was vital that we streamlined sourcing and information sharing with all our vendors. We believed PLM would help us to achieve this, while improving the productivity of employees and eliminating administrative tasks.”

Centric PLM™ stood out during Nexon selection process, “We evaluated several PLM solutions, and anywhere you search for PLM, Centric PLM is one of the best,” says Mochan.

Centric is working with the world’s best fashion brands and retailers, and their new features are always created hand-in-hand with their customers’ needs.”

Driving Growth and Efficiency with Centric PLM

As the first Indian company to adopt Centric PLM, Nexon is already experiencing significant benefits, such as better management of rising fabric costs, bringing products to market faster every season amidst market uncertainties.

“We need to optimize inventory turnover and Centric PLM helps us to achieve this as we have full visibility into every stage of product development. The window to sell products in-store is limited, but with Centric PLM, we can ensure a smooth product delivery,” Mochan explains.

Centric PLM connects various departments— buying, sourcing, designing, merchandising, supply chain and vendors—in one place, ensuring clear communication and accurate information. “You can see the progress of each stage of product development and take action, when necessary,” adds Dharadhar.

“We invested in the best technology right from the beginning so that we can scale as the brands grow,” says Mochan.

The design sourcing and buying teams create part of the brands’ assortment in-house, while the rest is co-created with vendors in India, Bangladesh and China. Therefore, finding a platform that can link seamlessly with external teams is essential.

Today, about 80% of Style Union and Ethnicity’s vendors use the PLM portal, which allows them to exchange real-time information such as sampling statuses.

Building on PLM Success with Retail Planning

With the foundational Centric PLM system in place, Nexon Omniverse’s next move was to adopt Centric Planning to optimize its Merchandise Financial Planning (MFP) and assortment planning strategies.

“When we began our digital transformation journey, we decided that PLM should be implemented before a retail planning solution because we lacked historical data for things like colors and seasonality that could be utilized in our planning software. Through Centric PLM, we were able to generate valuable data and effectively utilize it for Centric Planning,” explains Dharadhar.

With over 150 new products added weekly to an increasing number of stores, Nexon Omniverse needed a retail planning solution to tailor its strategies to each brand’s unique market demands.

“Our planning needs are quite complex as Ethnicity has multi-brands and operates on a seasonal plan with start, mid and end-of-season sales. Style Union, on the other hand, is a single brand that focuses on products sold throughout the season, with shorter planning cycles and more frequent updates. For Style Union, planning occurs 6-8 times a year, depending on the product category,” explains Dharadhar.

Faster and More Accurate Planning Across Brands

With Centric Planning, Nexon Omniverse can efficiently manage range planning, store planning, clustering and assortment planning for Ethnicity and Style Union via one platform.

“We used to manage assortment planning and MFP using spreadsheets, but this limited us to high-level plans. Centric Planning allows us to get to a more granular level and create data-driven plans and assortments,” says Dharadhar. “It will also standardize and rationalize planning as we scale up.”

As the teams at Style Union and Ethnicity were already familiar with Centric PLM and its processes, the addition of Centric Planning was seamless. Team members new to both systems quickly adapted, too.

“It’s not just about eliminating paperwork, but about creating a platform where everyone can collaborate and confidently get the latest information. Centric Planning is now part of the daily workflow for planners, merchandisers, operations, store planners and buyers, and it’s the place where all changes and discussions happen.”

“We can consolidate and organize planning activities and improve visibility across teams,” explains Dharadhar. “We’re massively reducing the time buying and planning teams spend on compiling plans. This is on top of the efficiency related benefits we are already experiencing from Centric PLM, such as a reduction in manual data entry and errors, standardized color, material and product libraries, vendor collaboration and integration with ERP.”

Achieving Today, Shaping Tomorrow

Today, Nexon Omniverse is managing its current operations more efficiently and positioning itself for future hyper growth.

“Centric PLM was the first step and Centric Planning was the missing piece. It fits perfectly in our vision of an integrated, agile and responsive retail strategy,” concludes Dharadhar.