The table stakes have changed in the digital era, where data is supposed to justify business decisions. For retailer lululemon athletica inc., data helps the procurement team follow the money.

“The table stakes today is just managing spend — knowing where your money goes and trying to make sure we stretch the dollars,” said Michael van Keulen (pictured), director of global procurement at lululemon.

Van Keulen sat down with Lisa Martin, (@LisaMartinTV), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Coupa Inspire event in Las Vegas. They discussed the data-supported impact procurement can have on an international business and lululemon’s strategic investments in its digital transformation (see the full interview with transcript here). (* Disclosure below.)

Gaining downstream visibility

Procurement’s distinguishing characteristic is its ability to contribute to top-line growth, according to Van Keulen. He views procurement as an opportunity for lululemon to innovate with suppliers, citing third-party gift cards as a recent use case. With distribution across North American grocers, such as Kroger Co., these gift cards are driving new traffic to lululemon stores.

“It was really an exciting, cool idea that wouldn’t necessarily come from the traditional procurement function,” said Van Keulen. It’s an idea that “really wants to contribute to future growth and has a strategic vision,” he added.

It’s particularly important to get more people into lululemon stores, because that’s where clerks can best educate their “guests,” according to Van Keulen. To help streamline the buyer education process, lululemon is now turning to Coupa Software Inc., maker of business spend management software.

“We use Coupa for sourcing, contracting, requisitioning, purchase orders, and then flipping that [purchase order] into pay. We use the full suite,” said Van Keulen. His team gains visibility across the entire procurement process with Coupa, better enabling lululemon to focus on the downstream, post-production side of operations.

“There are a lot of people placing requisitions — that could be in marketing or in the store. The downstream is the most important element, because that’s where the visibility comes. From a procurement standpoint, we use the sourcing and [customer lifecycle management] platform, but the downstream is where the magic happens,” Van Keulen stated.

Coupa is live in 18 lululemon stores as a pilot program as of February, with plans to expand across all of North America by August, Van Keulen detailed. Coupa is also being run at lululemon headquarters in Canada. To start, the company is using Coupa to improve supplier enablement, better tracking supply chain transactions. Next, Van Keulen looks to explore dynamic discounting tactics through Coupa’s software and how lululemon can better leverage its spending through Coupa Pay.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Coupa Inspire event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Coupa Inspire event. Neither Coupa Software Inc., the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE