RPW 6-24-08

Retail Paradox Weekly

Retail News Analysis by RSR Research

6/24/2008

Big Blue is Green, and Wants You to be Green, Too

By Brian Kilcourse, Managing Partner
6/24/2008

The effect of human activity on the global climate has become the big news in 2008, after years of percolating. In fact, a new Bush administration report on recent extreme weather says that human-caused climate change is making storms more intense. Its twin hot topic, energy consumption, is close behind in garnering top headlines. These two issues are a big part of what many call the "green" movement, but for many businesses, its called “sustainability” – and it’s neither new nor a fad. In fact, blue chip technology giant IBM lists energy conservation as a key element of its “Global Citizenship” initiative.

Last year, IBM published a document entitled... More

Checkpoint Acquires OatSystems as RFID's Value comes into Focus

By Paula Rosenblum, Managing Partner
6/24/2008

The announcement on Monday June 23, that Checkpoint is acquiring OatSystems brought back memories of the heady days of the hype cycle (I think that’s what Gartner calls it) of RFID technology. It has a personal closeness to my heart, as those were also the early days of my analyst career. We were encouraged to be thought leaders, and RFID was just about the only new game in town (apart from markdown optimization, which was an easy sell to someone like me). So, everyone had an opinion.

There was a time when RFID tags were going to be... More

Is it Time for a Chief Customer Experience Officer in Retail?

By Nikki Baird, Managing Partner
6/24/2008

I spoke at the Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition’s Mobile Conference day, and after spending the whole day listening (and delivering, to be fair) the same messages over and over about mobility and its rapidly rising role in the retail customer service experience, I have to wonder if retail needs, now more than ever, an executive tasked solely with managing the customer service experience. For the record, I’m defining “mobile” and “mobility” here as creating sites and services that allow consumers to interact with a retailer directly through their personal mobile phone.

Here’s why I’m wondering this... More

RSR Featured FastFact: Green Retail

What makes environmental sustainability efforts different from other enterprise-wide overhauls in retail is the customer. For example, the customer may want cross-channel transparency, but she really doesn’t care how the retailer makes it happen. She will not expect the retailer to invest in integrated systems – she just wants it to look cohesive. Green is different. The customer is quite likely to drive the retailer to go green. For example, she wants to see evidence in every shopping channel that the retailer actually cares about the world in which she's raising her kids.

Our respondents to the recent What Can Green Do for You? benchmark study recognize this. Customer demand trumps cost concerns as the number one way to overcome organizational resistance to new initiatives. Here, external business challenges meet internal organizational inhibitors.

To read the full report, click here.