| 12/8/2009 |
Steve Rowen |
| Are Inventory Issues Becoming More Pressing as the Holiday Season Rolls On? |
From most expert reports – and our own anecdotal reporting on Black Friday - apart from a few craze-related items (Zu Zu pet hamster toys, for example, even thought that boggles the mind) it doesn’t seem that inventory issues are plaguing retailers at all. But as we all know, inventory conditions can change quickly.
What do you think - are inventory issues becoming more pressing as the holiday season progresses?
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| keywords: retail, IT, sotres, inventory, merchandising, holiday, 2009 |
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| 8/4/2009 |
Paula Rosenblum |
| Buying for Margin Rather than Assortment |
In our continuing quest to understand what Winning Retail strategies will look like this holiday season, we spoke with Richard Hastings, CCE, Consumer Strategist for Global Hunter Securities, LLC.
In good times, the assortment plan was to present (in Mr. Hastings’ words), “a tropical rain forest of inventory” when a customer walks into a store. BUT that rain forest represents a lot of cash commitments. Retailers just don’t want to tie up as much working capital anymore. Mr. Hastings also contends the emotional “pop” associated with having a full assortment has diminished because of the internet phenomenon. Cross-channel shopping can allow the retailer to fill the shopper’s order from other parts of the chain, and that “buying for gross margin” is here to stay. This philosophy was lurking on the periphery, and has been put into the center of the game for most retailers. It is worthy to note he believes Walmart is not adopting that philosophy. It doesn’t have to. While many retailers may believe it’s better to be out of stock than to take excess liquidation markdowns, Walmart can push much of that risk back on its vendors.
All in all, I found the conversation fascinating. I’m not sure I buy into this story hook, line and sinker: it feels very risky, but it was interesting to get another point of view on our under-stocked world. What do you think?
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| keywords: Retail, IT, Technology, Holiday Season, Product Assortment, Merchandising |
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| 7/14/2009 |
Nikki Baird |
| The New You: Electronic Shopping Records |
I had a conversation last week with a vendor in the promotions space, located in the UK. He asked me about something I had never heard of before: Vendor Relationship Management. I immediately thought of Supplier Relationship Management, or what has really evolved into B2B portals and eCommerce. But no, this is different: just as brands have customer relationship management, VRM is the reverse, enabling customers to manage and control the relationships that they have with brands - the “vendors” in VRM.
The implications of this seem profound, and would demand a complete shift in how we, as an industry, think about customer data. In the past, RSR has talked about the poor situation loyalty has found itself in, by devolving to a straight pay-for-customer-data scheme. Doesn't an Electronic Shopping Record turn that into an even more explicit equation (albeit with the customer holding the power)? "In order to receive this 25% off coupon you must give me permission to access your ESR?" I'm not sure that I like that kind of future - either as a consumer or as a retailer.
What do you think?
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| keywords: retail, IT, technology, vendor relationship managment, customer data |
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