RPW 6-17-08

Retail Paradox Weekly

Retail News Analysis by RSR Research

6/17/2008

Sometimes IT for IT's Sake can be a Good Thing

By Nikki Baird, Managing Partner
6/17/2008

I’ve seen it many times: the living proof of the adage that the “cobbler’s children have no shoes.” Technology firms who have the worst IT systems, accountants who keep miserable records of their own businesses, even photographers who have few pictures of their own families.

In retail IT, the last 10 years have seen a significant shift in power over investment decisions. Where once IT departments were stewards over systems that ran the business, they are now more often the janitors... More

Retail S so outa D8

By Brian Kilcourse, Managing Partner
6/17/2008

Nicholas Carr is at it again. Carr, as many IT leaders will recall, published an article in the Harvard Business review in 2003 entitled, “IT Doesn’t Matter,” which ignited a firestorm of debate about what had hitherto been a forbidden question in retail: “Is the IT investment really worth it?” I had the pleasure of interacting with Carr at the Global Retail Technology Forum 2005 in Barcelona, Spain, and he admitted to me that the title of the article itself was intended to get a reaction.

The point of his article, however, was more complex... More

I Had a Dream there were Clouds in my Coffee

By Paula Rosenblum, Managing Partner
6/17/2008

Even though my days as an IT practitioner are behind me, I feel a certain obligation to keep up with the latest computing trends in the industry. Not just at the application level, but on the hardware and system software level too. Hence, I’ve made some effort to understand things like virtualization and grid computing. Just when I thought I was all up to date, along comes a new concept – Cloud Computing.

Cloud Computing is everywhere lately. And I've heard the term enough that I decided it’s time to learn what the heck this thing is. RSR’s duty is to keep our readers informed, and we take that responsibility seriously... More

Happy eCommerce Shoppers - and Sellers: Much Work to be Done

By Steve Rowen, Partner
6/17/2008

Though I wasn’t able to attend the Internet Retailer show last week, a few of my colleagues were, and were kind enough to bring me back a weighty amount of collateral (forget about the notion of wasting trees, how exactly did you ladies manage to carry all of this stuff?). Within, the show organizers provided some telling statistics.

First, Jack Love, the publisher of Internet Retailer, offered up stats ... More

RSR Featured FastFact: The Customer Centric Store

Ninety percent of respondents to this year’s Customer-Centric Store survey reported that employee-facing tools and technologies had at least some priority in their strategy to drive customer satisfaction, vs. only 67% in a similar study done a year ago. The only area that continues to lag is mobile touch points for store managers.

The bottom line is that the customer is alive and kicking, and even in tough economic times her expectations for quality customer service in retail stores remain high. Retailers recognize this, and customer-centricity continues to be the Holy Grail for those who seek to come through these economic times as sustainable Winners.

To read the full report, click here.