RPW 7-8-08

Retail Paradox Weekly

Retail News Analysis by RSR Research

7/8/2008

A Tale of Two More Cities: Merchandising 2008 and Beyond

By Paula Rosenblum, Managing Partner
7/8/2008

We at RSR talk a lot about the discontinuity between merchants and the rest of the retail organization. Retailers across all segments experience this problem, but it seems particularly acute in the fashion industry. We have expressed the hope that the next generation of merchants will recognize the importance of science underpinning their art form. Today, I sit here and say I’m not too sure. Why? This week, we bring you two examples of future opportunities both apparel-related. One brings the message “This discontinuity will go on forever,” while the other promises hope for the future.

Ironically, they come to you right as we... More

Musings on Bill Gates' Legacy: A "Recovering" CIO's Perspective

By Brian Kilcourse, Managing Partner
7/8/2008

Last week, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates finally wound down his active employment at the company that he co-founded, as the event was planned for and carefully orchestrated. Inevitably, the world press felt compelled to put a wrap on his legacy (even thought he’s only 52, and presumably has a lot of ground yet to cover), and the future of Microsoft. But we have come not to bury Caesar - nor to praise him. Instead, we’ll risk adding to the din, from the perspective of a been-there-done-that former retail CIO.

The question du jour is, are Bill Gates’ successors nimble enough to abandon the PC software license cash cow and grab the new opportunity... More

Macy's Returns to Selling Electronics, Customer-Centric Store Style

By Steve Rowen, Managing Partner
7/8/2008

Our respondents to this year’s Customer-Centric Store Survey were clear: they recognize the need to offer more customer-centric initiatives, and their store-floor associates are a significant component to such initiatives' success. In direct excerpt, “On the one hand, (Winning Retailers) focus on empowering employees with tools and technologies to improve customer interactions, and on the other, they provide customer-facing touch points to allow for self-service alternatives. Most retailers miss a very important opportunity however –arming their store managers with information on the selling floor.”

This week, Macy’s further proved that the message has not fallen on deaf ears... More

RSR Featured FastFact: Business Application Delivery

Does technology architecture itslef create differences in performance, or are there other germane business issues driving business success? From our recent The Future of Application Delivery in Retail Report, the answer is yes. Winners do a better job of ensuring that the technology architecture itself enables IT responsiveness to business needs. For example, Retail Winners are more focused than others on enabling business applications that utilize the network to deliver "loosely coupled" business rules and data via web-like interfaces. What's the goal?

In a word: Flexibility. Architecting applications as a set of services rather than tightly vertically-integrated stacks of code and data would enable retailers to re-deploy those services quickly and cost-effectively as the business changes, improving the speed of implementation and the simplicity of integration. Winners are transforming their application portfolios to achieve more flexible solutions.

To read the full report, click here.