|
Retail Paradox Weekly
Retail News Analysis by RSR Research
October 28, 2008
The Arc of the Covenant: What Retailers Can Do to Preserve Working Capital
By Paula Rosenblum, Managing Partner
10/28/2008
Asset-based lines of credit fund at least some portion of most retailers’ merchandise purchases. Those lines of credit include different types of covenants depending on the retailer’s line of business. The asset these lines of credit are based on is inventory, and typical covenants focus on those things that might devalue those assets to a point where a bank might not be able to recover its investment. Break those covenants, and the bank can call your line and force you into bankruptcy.
After all, banks are supposed to... More
Cross-Channel Strategies: Why Retailers Shouldn't Put On the Brakes
By Brian Kilcourse, Managing Partner
10/28/2008
RSR’s March 2008 study, Finding the Integrated Multi-Channel Retailer, revealed that retailers have been hard at work optimizing their channel operations and finding synergies between their traditional operations and alternate channel operations. But we posed the question, is it enough to keep up with consumers’ continuous demands for solutions to their lifestyle needs? Not only is having the same products at the same price important, but so is being able to buy on the web or from a catalog to be picked up in the store. Customers also demand the ability to order products in the store, on the web, or via catalog and have them delivered directly to their doorstep.
Above all, consumers expect retailers to... More
Precision Execution Lives: A View from the Workforce Management Front
By Nikki Baird, with RetailWire
10/28/2008
I attended the KronosWorks last week, Kronos’ annual user conference. While three weeks ago RSR presented our take on precision execution (the idea that as planning gets more granular, it puts pressure on retailers to execute those plans with a great deal more precision than currently because there are smaller margins of error), last week I saw it live at this conference on workforce management.
Here’s what I saw... More
Fujitsu Analyst Day: Innovation in the Face of Tight Spending
By Steve Rowen, Managing Partner
10/28/2008
This week, each of the partners have addressed how Winners in the retail industry are reacting - and could react - to maximize efficiency in the face of growing economic concerns: and the risks that they face if they don’t. Brian tackles cross channel, Nikki both workforce and loyalty programs, and Paula explains how to preserve working capital when it’s increasingly harder to come by.
My own travels brought me to Fujitsu’s 2008 Analyst Conference last week, where... More
A New Opportunity for Loyalty Programs?
By Nikki Baird, Managing Partner
10/28/2008
With economic woes deepening around the world, RSR has heard more and more that retailers are turning to customer data and the insights they provide to help them win the fight for a piece of what appears to be a smaller pie. However, while plenty of retailers have years and years of customer data, even those who have customer insights have been slow to act on them.
RetailWire’s discussion on the topic reveals a near-unanimous voice in favor of... More >
Copyright © 2008 RSR Research LLC. RSR is a tradename of Retail Systems Research LLC. All Rights Reserved
|
