CIO Magazine’s article yesterday on whether IT can help retailers survive 2009 and thrive in 2010 pulls together its own research with that of Forrester, AMR, Northeastern University and Retail Systems.
It concludes that retailers should be using the current climate to challenge the status quo and make changes that can impact the bottom line within 12 months. CIO Magazine says that chief execs are asking IT to contribute to customer acquisition, customer retention and to drive innovative offerings. The article suggests that retailers are, or should be, focusing spend on 5 areas that can meet this brief:
- merchandise assortment and space planning, allocation and optimisation;
- regular price, promotion and markdown optimisation;
- instore systems such as point of sale, kiosks and mobile technologies aimed at improving the customer experience;
- cross-channel merchandising that improves channel visibility and connectivity and;
- business intelligence that facilitates action.
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This article is really interesting but I’d go further and say that, in essence, the five bullet points can really be summarised down to just the last one: business intelligence that facilitates action – basically understanding customers and selling to them.
And biggest in the data side of things has to be Tesco. I read this article (http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/dec2008/gb20081229_497909.htm?link_position=link1) just before the new year and it says exactly the same things. They understand their customers in great detail, so they can organise their stores appropriately, price their products competitively but profitably, and target offerings across channels.
Data should also be considered for the B2B markets as well. I believe your decision maker research shows similarly that messages need to be targeted and timely, so maybe the big priority for B2B in 2009 is a clear and focused data strategy.
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