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Retail Paradox Weekly
Retail News Analysis by RSR Research
June 9, 2009
Out-of-Stocks: Will this Grinch Steal Retail's Holiday Season?
By Paula Rosenblum, Managing Partner
6/9/2009
Last Friday, the Wall Street Journal acknowledged what some retail insiders have been talking about for several months: holiday inventory plans are down - way down. The article quotes the National Retail Federation (NRF) report of a 16.5% reduction in cargo traffic plans for the peak holiday receiving months of August, September and October. It also cites continued inconsistency in consumer demand as reflected in erratic monthly comparable store sales results as justification for ordering fewer goods.
On the surface, reducing inventories appears to be... More
We Have Met the Enemy, and They Are Us
By Brian Kilcourse, Managing Partner
6/9/2009
RSR analysts have been making a big deal since 2005 of the concern that customer data security and privacy are huge issues that retailers must take seriously if they have any hope of executing on a customer centric strategy. Our premise is that effectively using the Customer dimension of data (as opposed to the dimensions of Product, Location, and Time – the traditional sides of the retail “data cube” that has driven retail business intelligence since the inception of scanning) requires a heightened sensitivity to the ethical responsibilities inherent in keeping information about people’s lifestyle choices. Underlying our concern has been an assumption that retailers just aren’t paying attention to the potential threats.
Imagine our surprise then when the Associated Press reported on June 4 that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Sears Holdings... More
Kiosk 101: Is Kiosk Still a Dirty Word? Really?
By Nikki Baird, with RetailWire
6/9/2009
I had a conversation with a colleague in the kiosk industry last week, and one of topics that came up regarded retailers' continued skittishness towards kiosks. Digging deeper into the reasons why, it became clear that, at least from one solution provider's experience, a lot of lessons that I thought were well learned are actually still hamstringing kiosk implementations today.
So I thought a review of Kiosk 101 was... More
Webinar Tomorrow (6/10/2009):
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