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Retail Paradox Weekly
Retail News Analysis by RSR Research
January 8, 2008
Welcome to 2008 and Volume 2 of Retail Paradox Weekly
By Paula Rosenblum, Managing Partner
1/8/2008
Happy New Year! When the time came to decide RSR’s over-arching research themes for the coming year, we looked long and hard at what 2007’s research told us. In other words, we looked at your responses and responsiveness. We added a dash of our experience and insight, some views from Wall Street and landed here: the paradoxes faced by today’s retailer remain compelling – and there are many different paradoxes. The way retailers choose to meet them determines whether they simply survive or thrive.
What did we find to be the biggest paradox of all? The seemingly irreconcilable notions of economies of scale vs. customer service intimacy... More
The Channel Paradox
By Nikki Baird, Managing Partner
1/8/2008
The channel paradox is easy to define, and as with all paradoxes, not so easy to solve. Put simply, how do you grow individual channels while creating synergies between them?
On the one hand, each channel needs focus and dedicated resources in order to grow. But if you create an environment of focus within the channel, you will be by definition NOT creating an environment of collaboration across channels. On the other hand... More
What's Next on the Data Security Horizon?
By Brian Kilcourse, Managing Partner
1/8/2008
RSR recently published the results of our customer data security benchmark survey in a report entitled "Customer Data Security: PCI and Beyond." In the report, we make the case for looking beyond the PCI DSS mandate in order to resolve a retail paradox: how to use customer specific data to create value while still ensuring the privacy and security of that data.
This is a hot topic not only for retailers, but also for health care organizations, educational institutions, local, state, and even national governments. A casual browse through a website run by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse shows why taking a broad view of the issue is so important; the three reported breaches that occurred in the week between Christmas and New Year's all involved personal information other than payment data... More
The Hottest Trend in E-Commerce?
By Steve Rowen, Partner
1/8/2008
The dust has settled on
Holiday 2007 sales. And by all accounts, the year proved to fulfill predictions that e-commerce would hit record percentage of holiday sales (PR Newswire puts the total at $29.2 Billion, up 19 percent from just last year). But what can we learn for the New Year?
We took the opportunity to interview Ty Simpson, President and Founder of TysToyBox.com, to help identify and confirm what some of the hot trends for e-commerce 2008 will be... More
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