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Retail Paradox Weekly
Retail News Analysis by RSR Research
July 14, 2009
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Google OS and the Battle for Control of a New Kind of Consumer Information
By Brian Kilcourse, Managing Partner
7/14/2009
In news that set the technology blogosphere atwitter, Google announced its Chrome OS plans last week. The buzz was about how this impacts Microsoft. But as Dr. Theodore Levitt, an economist and Harvard Business School professor who is credited with the term “globalization” once said, "People don’t want a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole." Sooner or later, when any new tool becomes part of daily life, it becomes important only in the negative (that is, only if it doesn’t work - then it rises to top-of-mind). And for a great number of people, that’s exactly what’s happened with “operating systems."
But the announcement isn’t about going toe-to-toe with Microsoft for PC OS license revenues... More
The New You: Electronic Shopping Records
By Nikki Baird, Managing Partner
7/14/2009
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.
To help this make sense... More
Walmart: Greener by the Day
By Steve Rowen, Managing Partner
7/14/2009
No one – literally no one – in the retail industry has had more of an impact on the global environmental ecosystem than Walmart. And for profit or not, the world’s largest retailer seems seriously intent on using its might to minimize that impact for the greater good; not just for itself, but for its partners, as well.
Walmart is focused not just on customer expectations... More
Holistic or Just Holes?
By Nikki Baird, in partnership with RetailWire
7/14/2009
Last week RetailWire featured a discussion on SKU rationalization. It's a topic that RSR has been batting around a lot lately, as we try to get a bead on how the holiday season will shape up. The economy has put a lot of pressure on retailers to manage inventories closely, and it couldn't come at a worse time from a strategy perspective, as many retailers have been pursuing assortment localization as a way to build intimacy with consumers.
Localization and rationalization go together like oil and water... More
Copyright © 2009 RSR Research LLC. RSR is a tradename of Retail Systems Research LLC. All Rights Reserved
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