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Retail Paradox Weekly
Retail News Analysis by RSR Research
April 29, 2008
Localized Assortments are Multi-dimensional: Don't Miss Out
By Paula Rosenblum, Managing Partner
4/29/2008
Last week, the Wall Street Journal published an excellent article on Macy’s new “localization” initiative. In a reversal of earlier strategies, the retailer plans to tailor about 15% of the assortment in each store to local tastes. This is a grand and wonderful idea. The article goes on to talk about the benefits chains like Best Buy have gained from localizing some portion of in-store inventory based on demographics and psychographics.
However, as always in retailing, the devil is in the details and it’s all about execution. I’m hoping Terry Lundgren, Macy’s CEO, was keeping technology secrets under his hat when he talked about... More
Rethinking Outsourcing: It's Not about Saving Money
By Brian Kilcourse, Managing Partner
4/29/2008
There is no doubt that the cycle of business change in retail is accelerating, and with it, demands on the internal IT function to support the rate of change are ever-increasing. At the same time, the IT organization is under the same pressures as the rest of Operations – to hold the line on costs. Regardless of the pressure to control costs, RSR’s research has shown that retailers are still looking for significant contributions from their IT functions in delivering important new capabilities to support changes in the business.
In a forthcoming study... More
e-Localization Knows No Borders
By Steve Rowen, Partner
4/29/2008
In her article this week, Paula talks about the value of localized assortments in anticipation of our upcoming merchandising study. Within the survey, one of the areas we seek to know more about is which global cultures present the best opportunities for retailers to capitalize upon localized assortments.
Interestingly, Pantaloon Retail, the largest retailer in
India , just announced that it is... More
The Economic Stimulus Plan Makes for Strange Bedfellows
By Nikki Baird, Managing Partner
4/29/2008
The checks are starting to arrive and the anticipation is nearly through the roof – the Economic Stimulus Plan is rolling out to US consumers eligible for the rebate checks, and retailers are frothing to get a piece of the action. According to NRF, nearly $43B of the estimated $168B plan will end up as incremental retail spending, ranking it the third largest retail “event” behind only the winter holidays and back-to-school spending. The challenge for retailers is in figuring out how to get their piece.
Business Week wrote an article last week detailing some of the more high profile ways... More
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