This type of software enables retailers to manage their business properly and it is vital to have planning technology in place in today’s multi-channel world. It lets retailers, big or small, have an overview of their entire retail network and make changes based on customer activity. The customer is key, and to ensure they remain loyal, understanding their activity and what will keep them coming back is crucial.

K3 retail has recently partnered with JustEnough Software to provide their customers with this service. JustEnough are a leading provider of demand management solutions to help retailers more effectively plan financials, assortments, markdowns, promotions and allocations with flexibility, accuracy and ease. Their partnership with K3 Retail, the UK’s largest provider of solutions based on Microsoft Dynamics, means that they can help users add important retail planning functionality to their ERP platform.

JustEnough can drive higher sales and improved profitability by assigning the right amount of space to each category and product and aims to reduce stock wastage by automatically determining a replenishment plan.

Investment in business management solutions can separate a booming retailer from a faltering one and will inevitably make the business process more fluid and give the best chance at success in engaging with customers.

The report has looked into issues facing the industry this year following in-depth interviews with 25 chief executives from major UK retailers.

In order to become customer focussed, retailers must have the ability to offer a full multi-channel service, especially through new channels such as social media and devices such as smart phones and tablets.

Continued investment in staff training and development is also important, helping them to start thinking like multi-channel retailers, and giving shoppers a reason to visit their store.

New technology in stores attracts customers as it gives them a more rounded shopping experience and as a recent study found, while 62 per cent of consumers aged between 18 and 24 are in favour of ecommerce, 46 per cent of this group also remain fond of the social experience of going shopping.

High performance in retail has long been attributed to building the retail model based on the customer and although this sounds like an obvious objective, historically retailers have focused on operational and supply chain goals.

Customer-centricity needs to be tailored to your particular type of retail; one size does not fit all and a good place to start is monitoring your customers and their habits. After all, the customer is always right!

Click and Collect has already made the link in the minds of consumers, and mobile will drive it further. This seems to be true because Click & Collect is where retailers get to demonstrate not just their ability to stock a product in demand but also their service – delivering on time to the right location.

In order for this to happen, retailers are putting Wi-Fi into stores to get not only their staff but also their customers connected. I think this mixing of technology with physical stores is giving high street outlets an “engagement” role rather than the traditional transaction-led function that they have delivered to date.

On the multi channel journey the store’s role will change but the majority of retail spend is in store so when you look at the engagement model then the store becomes important in the future. But store size is something that retailers will have to think about and will have to ask themselves whether they will only need 70% or even 50% of the store numbers they have today.

Mobile is clearly making the link, but the debate over the number and role of stores continues.

IBM ran a great session about data – did you know, 90% of all global data was generated in the last two years and that 80% of all data is completely unstructured? One thing I found myself asking was – where does your business see itself in managing data? Is it historical, real-time or predictive and how relevant is the data you collect?
An intriguing survey grabbed my attention on the second day of the show; of 28,500 people from 15 different countries, 76% of the respondents said they would welcome more communication from retailers – this has got to come as a surprise to businesses. The survey also found that customers are willing to share information about themselves, with three quarters saying they would divulge media usage, 73% willing to tell demographic information and 61% fine with sharing identifying information such as a name and an address.

Consumers between the ages of 18 and 25 would rather shop in brick-and-mortar stores for clothing and shoes, according to a study, although two thirds said they head online to do product research and price comparisons first – a fact that has been evident almost since the beginning of ecommerce. So, whilst social media plays a role in brand awareness, 88% said they opt not to shop on Facebook or Twitter.

With the growing number of selling channels, product choices and unprecedented access to information, retailers are challenged to keep pace with changing consumer buying behaviours. The omni-channel retail environment is making it more difficult for companies to meet increasing service-level expectations while minimising inventory costs and maximising margins. Solving these challenges was a huge focus of many vendors in the Expo, and is certainly the focus of our core campaigns for 2012 as a leading Microsoft Dynamics AX for 2012 Retail partner which launches virtually on 1st February this year.

Searchandising is...

"The magical state of being that occurs when a retailer achieves the right balance of search engine optimisation in its merchandising."

Pardon?

"Combining a comprehensive search engine with ecommerce data and rules for delivering relevant high-margin results to the customer."

Ok...

"Searchandising is an e-commerce term used to describe a site search to promote products when users search for certain keywords or phrases. Also called multi-faceted search, this technology trend is making the site search engines much more effective and useful for both the site owner and site visitor."

Of course.

In Practise

Searchandising is about delivering the most accurate search results for the site visitor, and reducing the off-putting unhelpful results that will. When a customer mispells a word, for example, or uses a phrase that does not fit in with the exact listing of products, a searchandising engine will still identify and fixed, list similar results. If you think about Google's "do you mean..."where it returns a range of alternatives for you.

Searchandising  can  increase your sales by presenting products that may be missed with a standard search, and it can also make recommendations to push sales in the areas you wish to focus on (overstocks, cross-sells etc.) Really good searchandising relies on having accurate real-time information - search results can be affected by variables such as inventory levels, so results display items in your product catalogue that have higher inventory levels, or which you have designated as a priority sell; yet all within the parameters of what your customer is looking for so that the results are still relevant to the individual.

This Is Important Because

It has been estimated that 80% of all shopping trips start with some type of search-such as keyword or  guided navigation, making your ecommerce site search facility an important component for helping customers get to the products they are looking for.

As Matthew Bredel says in his Buzzle post Searchandizing Your Way to Increased Sales "Picture yourself again at your favorite online store. Only this time, you use the site search engine and come up with zero results. Are you likely to keep trying different words until you come up with the right results or will you go to another site that carries those holiday plates you are seeking? Why risk losing the sale? With Searchandizing you can keep the visitor and possibly sell more than you would have without this site-enhancing tool."

Resources

For those wanting indepth information on searchandising, you can find more in the Internet Retailing magazine supplement, Searchandising and Recommendation, November 2010.

Tony has a passion for the fast moving retail industry and has detailed knowledge of the key functions - Plan, Buy, Make, Move and Sell,  and he understands the interdependencies of information, products and services. Since joining K3 he has taken a pro-active role in helping the company deliver its multi channel vision to the retail sector. Tony’s deep understanding of the commercial issues facing retailers and developing IT solutions and business processes to improve product availability, drive profitable sales and reduce costs has been invaluable in establishing K3 as a leading provider of multi channel solutions.

Outside work Tony plays drums in a local band and tries hard to maintain a very old Caterham 7 (car). He has four daughters who also require a lot of maintenance and a permanent taxi service.

We asked Tony to put his future goggles on and give us his latest insights into the world of retail and multichannel.

What issues do you think retailers should be looking at now?

At the moment retailers should be trying to understand the retail opportunities surrounding the 2012 games. ‘2012, Opportunities for Retailers’, run by Retail Knowledge, will be good for those who make it. It’s a chance to look at the ‘Games Roadmap’ and come to grips with all the issues surrounding the games. The event will be covering a lot of areas, such as smoothing the supply chain, exploiting new technologies, queue management and promotional activity as well as looking at what technology you will need and how to take full advantage of that technology. I’m looking forward to presenting there as well, asking ‘Will 2012 Be the First Multichannel Games?”

The opportunities London 2012 present to UK Retail are huge. It’s important to realise that it’s not just at the games, it’s before during and after that need to be considered as well, and it is not all about London either, it will benefit retailers all over the UK.

Aside from London 2012, what else should retailers have on the horizon?

Well, the last four years have really been about transactional retail, so retailers need to capitalise on the investments they’ve made and build from there. I see two key areas that they’ll need to look at:  the technology side and the customer side.

In terms of technology I see things growing in areas such as RFID, mobile…and multichannel, including the technology that supports that. A lot of retailers may consider their operations as multichannel but in reality it is multiple channel. They offer products across a range of channels but there is not the real unity a truly joined-up operation offers. You really have to ask ‘How good are we at accessing data across all our channels?’ The strength of a joined-up multichannel operation cannot be understated. It gives you speed, cohesion, transparency and control – from web to store to mobile.

Mobile, as I mentioned, is an area retailers need to keep an eye on. What is the mobile going to do? We’re going from customers using the phone to browse and research, to carrying out transactions. So be aware of what is happening with mobile. There are a lot of mobile platforms, so if you are looking at applications, you need to think about which platforms (iPhone, Blacberry, Nexus) your clients use and how they use them.

The other key area that demands a lot of attention is the need to understand the customers’ eCommerce journey. To really use the technology that is out there, whether you already have it or are looking to invest, you need to take a close look at your customers shopping behaviours. The channels they use, where they browse, where they spend. Capturing the data so you can turn it around to give your customers the best experience is important.

There is this symbiosis between technology and customer – both leading each other at various stages, but overall developing together. For each retailer the technology used will be dictated by the different customers they have, or want to have. If you do not understand how your customers shop, how will you know which technology you need to invest in and how you should use it?

Does the growing strength of multichannel and the technology surrounding it mean there is nothing for the Bricks & Mortar retailer?

No, not at all. There will always be a need for customers to go into the store - that face-to-face contact is important. What we should see is in-store operations reflecting, supporting and capitalising on other channels. This goes back to understanding and catering to customer shopping behaviours. For example, online customers can get reviews of products from a range of impartial sites. In-store customers can ask their friends or the sales staff. What about if customers could also get reviews using kiosks or in-store displays? They’d need to be genuine reviews; the good and the bad - the integrity of the information is important.

In-store kiosks have been incredibly successful. They’re a fantastic way of upselling and a valuable tool for sales teams. If customers can check the availability of an item and locate that item, then that frees up staff to focus on other aspects of customer service. The days of ‘I’ll just check out the back” should go. If an item is not in-store then a customer can see other stores, perhaps nearby, that do stock the item, or they can order online from in-store. It’s an incredibly versatile tool.

I mentioned in-store displays. There are so many ways for retailers to use these. For a start there is in-store advertising and promotions. Imagine if this was all controlled centrally - Head Office determining a promotion and it being implemented in real time across all stores, along other channels and promoted to customers there and then. Customer love ‘surprise’ bargains, but don’t like hearing they could get the same item cheaper from the online store – that goes back to the importance of a fully joined-up operation.

Other ways this can be used…fashion retailers can show their clothes on the runway, so customers can see how the clothing looks on, how it moves etc. Home retailers could display price and feature comparisons between products… …again, the technology is there, business just need to be creative in how they use it.

Final words?

Dig down and really understand customer shopping behaviours, and then use technology to support that.

Here’s an example I like to refer to. There’s a train station in Germany, in which a lingerie retailer has put in a kiosk rather than open a store in the station. A customer can shop via the kiosk; is able to search and pay quickly. As part of the checkout they can enter their train ticket details, which acts as proof of ID and also gives the lingerie retailer the time by which they need to deliver. Nearby, at a store, the order is received and a courier delivers the ordered and paid for items over to the station. The customer takes delivery at the designated customer waiting point.

I like this example for two reasons. Firstly it demonstrates how technology supports the customer. You can shop conveniently and quickly, and it fits in with your travel plans; they don’t need to worry about missing their train. For the retailer the technology allows them to be located elsewhere, so the stock they carry is not restricted by space and they avoid high store lease costs.

The technology is getting better and better, and people are adopting it. For retailers there is this ever increasing need to get behind that and get the most out of the technology. Give people what they want, or be innovators, show customers a better way of shopping.

"Even through the recession many of the best known brands in the UK have achieved significant growth over the past year. Of the top 100 brands, many have moved up the chart, where others have fallen off and there are many new appearances and this report gives you analysis of their secret to success. There are also some well known brands that didn't make the list but have none the less demonstrated phenomenal growth."

Retail Week looks at why fashion week is important to retailers.

How long does the survey take? Five minutes - about as long as it would take for you to have a cup of coffee. Oh, it's times like these I wish I was eligible to enter, alas....but YOU CAN, so get someone else to make your cuppa and get answering!

That could be why I noticed the ‘Celebrating 130 Years’ on the store front of the local Cargo homewares store, as I breezed past with my shopping bag emblazoned with the history of the Marks & Spencer logo.

“Forget swine flu, the new epidemic sweeping the country’s creative agencies is nostalgia fever!” says Retail Marketing Maxim. This trend seemed to kick off last year with the wonderful Hovis ad, before Virgin Spiced things up with their 25 years Still Red Hot Campaign, sweeping us back to the 80’s.

On the retail front it was two giants, Marks & Spencer and Sainsburys that really grabbed us by the bygones; their nostalgia-based campaigns coming out within days of each other. Amidst a little humming and hawing over who exactly introduced the avocado to the UK, (M&S conceded it was Sainsburys), the campaigns have been trotting around stirring up fond memories of days that, in our tired minds, seemed easier.

In David Sprotts article “The power of reflection: an empirical examination of nostalgia advertising effects” he notes there can be no coincidence that this trend has appeared at a time when we struggle with the current climate. Nostalgia campaigns bring us comfort and reignite the "we will fight them on the beaches" spirit. All done, of course, in the hope that we will spend our somewhat more limited resources with 'an old friend'.

In a world where we find ourselves overloaded with viral marketing, click on this or scratch that to win an iDongleWhatsit and customer call centres that offer every option but ‘press 1 to talk to a real live human being’…then the soft cushion of nostalgia gives us somewhere to sit down and take a breath, while appealing to a base human need to ‘go home’.