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Retail Paradox Weekly
Retail News Analysis by RSR Research
7/29/2008
Mervyns: Don't Blame This One on the Economy!
By Brian Kilcourse, Managing Partner
7/29/2008
The ad insert in this morning’s paper proclaimed, “Mervyns – Open Open Open” in large type, and the only thing missing from the banner page copy was a qualifier, “Hurry- Before It’s Too Late!” Business journals have been buzzing in the last week that the Northern California retailer is on the edge of bankruptcy and rumors are flying that the company has stopped approving merchandise orders. As has become de rigueur in these times, the housing crisis is blamed.
iPhone App 'Save Benjis' Poses Hard Questions for Retailers
By Nikki Baird, Managing Partner
7/29/2008
When Apple first opened the iPhone App Store, one of the applications to float to the top of reviewers’ lists was a little free app called “Save Benjis” (referring to $100 bills with Benjamin Franklin on the front). It allows users to search a product using the iPhone, and if the user finds a better price online, he or she can purchase it in just a few clicks, depending on how they have their settings configured. This is everything that Google’s mobile product search and Amazon’s texting purchase service have been going after, but with the shiny Apple interface.
Store-based retailers beware... More
Can Best Buy Help Save the Day? Musicians Hope for a Successful Segment Blur
By Steve Rowen, Partner
7/29/2008
A family friend was one of the creators of “Guitar Hero.” It probably goes without saying that his house, just down the road, is much nicer than ours. And at a time when childhood obesity is on the rise, from an observer’s point of view, it’s nice to see that some of the most popular video games in the world have become more interactive in recent years. In fact, playing tennis on Nintendo Wii will downright make you sweat. But as four lifelong musicians, all of the partners here at RSR were musing some time back whether the new realm of virtual-music interactive gaming options (ranging from simulated guitar and bass playing to singing and drumming in both console and portable interfaces) would spike any interest in a new generation of kids to “pick up the real thing."
I thought our question was answered a while back... More
RSR Featured FastFact: Customer Centric Merchandising
Thirty-three precent of Winning Retailers report they are hesitant because “we are trying to simplify our business, not make it more complex.” This number is even higher among large retailers ($1-$5 billion in annual sales), weighing in at a whopping 55%. This presents a clear-cut need - and opportunity – for technology vendors to better prove (and educate) that the new generation of merchandising systems do not require rocket scientists to run them, nor are they so hard to integrate that they add to the plate of “spaghetti” already in IT portfolios.
To read the full report, click here.
Copyright © 2008 RSR Research LLC. RSR is a tradename of Retail Systems Research LLC. All Rights Reserved
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