RIS Retail Technology Study
RIS News recently released their annual Retail Technology Study - you can download it from their site (registration required) or listen to a podcast of the executive summary. Highlights include:
- A focus on the customer emerged in mainstream retailing in 2007 — not just in name only but in quantifiable technology investment. No retailer can differentiate today on operational efficiency alone. Bringing the customer to the forefront of store strategy, as well as making it the central point of IT strategy, is the key to future growth.
- Key Action Items in Next 18 Months - Promotions Effectiveness is #5 at 35% (after Customer Satisfaction, Workforce Efficiency, Replenish/Stock Out Improvement and Inventory Level Metrics and behind Forecast Accuracy and Supply Chain Metrics)
- Top Challenges in the Next 3 Years - Store-level Investment to Improve Customer Experience, Application Integration, Real-time Visibility Throughout the Organization, IT Systems Security, Store-level Invest to Improve Reporting, PCI Compliance, Cross-Channel Integration
- While Cross-Channel Integration comes in at the bottom of the challenges chart, it is clearly a strategy destined to gain more attention as the boom in e-commerce continues and potential revenue figures get too large to ignore (see also the cross-channel integration charts on page 14, 22 and 24).
- IT Obstacles That Stand in the Way of Productivity - Insufficient Skills/People Resources, Capital Constraints, Lack of Analytical Tools/Technology, Legacy Hardware/Software Isn’t Replaced, Spaghetti Application Architecture, Legacy Technology at Store Level, Inadequate Data Management Systems
- Integrated Functionalities Between Web Sites and Stores - Inventory Management, Price Management, Item Master, Merchandise Management, CRM, Promotion Management, Returns Management
- The
cross-channel integration functions to watch for future growth are actually at
the bottom of the chart, which is where we frequently see emerging trends.
Promotions management, an
increasingly sophisticated online tool for merchants, and returns management,
which is the flip side of online purchasing with in-store pick up, will
definitely move up the list as cross-channel integration
matures.
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