How to ensure success in the retail industry

Everyone knows that we have a bad economic environment at the moment. This affects the behaviour of people, and companies. People spend less, and the companies invest less … I’m not into economics so I shall not even try to explain to myself what effect this will have, and I will not even dream of explaining it to any potential readers out there …

But I will accept the fact that this has an effect on the companies; less money in results in a spiral going down. We definitly see evidence that not all companies are showing bad figures, some are even doing better at the moment than the same period last year :-) One example could be RnB from Sweden that both in March and during the period December 2008 to end of February 2009 is doing better than the same period the year before. There can be a number of factors behind this, and I do not know the details in why RnB is successful.

Generally in the business environment of today there are some things that should be tested

• New sales channels; web, subscriptions, …
• Better customer control; CRM, BI
• Improve customer loyalty;
• Point of Sale system; Improved customer experience, better service
• Trade Promotion Management

In these days it can be hard to get the budget to implement new IT systems to support these initiatives but there are ways.

Look at outsourcing of some of your applications as a tool to cut the operational cost. If you manage to lower your cost through the standard outsourcing activities you will get money to invest in the future of the business.

Implementing one or a number of the above suggested areas will increase the sales in different ways.

The POS (Point of Sale) system will ensure that you can collect more information about how, what, and when your customers are shopping. With a customer loyalty program you can connect the POS information with your CRM and BI systems and optimize the offerings to each customer.

But what IT system should I chose you may think… I will not make a firm recomendation to you without having the background and context of your business, but some recomendations (not silverbullets, and not very unique)

• What fits in my business strategy
  • Merger and Aqusitions
  • Organic growth
  • Global precense / New markets
• What fits in my IT strategy
  • Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, Best of Breed, Best of Need
• What IT system have the needed functionality
  • 150% functionality or 90% plus amendments
• What is the total cost of ownership of the system
  • Some of the systems out there might not fit the size of your organization, ot the skills that you have in your company might be a bit wrong

Technorati-taggar: Retail,Microsoft,CRM,ERP,Outsourcing,BI,Business Intelligence,Best of Need,Forrester