Hearing the word “empathy” in the context of application development and delivery at SAP’s Tech Ed event in Madrid may be confusing, but becomes clearer when you couple the notion of empathy with that of what SAP calls “Design Thinking.” Why does the human element appear to be lacking in many retail technology implementations?
Today, the term “big data” is getting tossed around like a football, used to describe everything from video analytics to merchandise planning. What’s your technical as well as more basic definition of big data? How well do you think retailers understand what big data is?
BrainTrust panelist Paula Rosenblum was among the first IT execs in the U.S. to successfully implement a merchandise planning system. At that time it was pretty straightforward, but that’s changing now in some really fundamental ways. How should customer data be incorporated into merchandise planning?
There’s a significant lack of IT talent available to retailers. It causes project delays, higher costs in general (as those with specific skills become contractors for hire) and deterioration in quality. To what degree is a shortage of IT talent undermining the retail industry?
There’s one area where Facebook has been less than a roaring success — in helping retailers actually sell stuff. The “like” button just didn’t do the job. Facebook’s answer? Open Graph. Will Open Graph incent customers to actually buy on Facebook?
There was a time, between 2002 and 2006 or so, when the web seemed to be killing off catalogs. Fast forward to 2012: It sure seems like business is booming for catalog print companies. Every day brings another round of hefty catalogs. In an online and eco-conscious world, why haven’t catalogs become extinct?
With continued uncertain economic conditions and increasing consumer price sensitivity, retailers seem far more apt to ignore customer data and look instead to competitors’ prices to make pricing decisions than they were just a year ago. Why are retailers apparently struggling to understand the effects of pricing decisions and failing to capitalize on customer purchasing data?
Beyond low margins, limited assortment also plays an important role in Costco’s success. While all the leading club chains expanded their assortments during the past five years, Costco’s grew the least and its SKU count remains by far the skimpiest. What are the pros and cons of Costco’s limited assortment strategy?
Even though 85 percent of respondents to RSR’s Business Intelligence (BI) benchmark survey in 2011 reported some activity in developing an enterprise-wide BI strategy, it might be a good time to explain exactly what’s meant by the term and re-iterate once again why it’s a good idea. What are the obvious and less obvious benefits of BI for retailers?
In the early 2000s, the book “The Discipline of Market Leaders” by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema was often quoted, with its model showing three potential areas of market leadership. But times have changed; the omni-channel phenomenon has rendered the model obsolete. What do you think of the five C’s of omni-channel retailing?
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