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Retail Paradox Weekly

Volume #6 * Issue #15 * April 17, 2012
IN THIS ISSUE

Global Retailing 2012: Innovating Customer Engagement

US vs. EU Round 2: Price Transparency

Frugality Fatigue and Economic Recovery

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Pricing
Retailers appear to have returned to a spray and pray approach to promotions – an increase yet again in promotional activity, but without any of the customer data or capabilities to enable the kind of targeting that makes your price possible.

Supply Chain
Retail supply chain’s history of evolutionary-style changes is running headlong into retail’s transformation under the pressures a global economy and cross-channel consumers.

eCommerce
Never before has an exciting online shopping experience that understands the customer’s lifestyle – and how the brand and products can engage and suit that lifestyle - been more important. We examine which processes and technologies are helping retailers in their efforts.

The Chief Marketing Officer
Retailers are currently struggling with something beyond a proliferation of channels – it’s more like an explosion - both for selling to and communicating with consumers.  This report explores the challenges and opportunities for retailers navigating these uncertain times in the world of Marketing.

Business Intelligence
In RSR’s fifth annual study of business and analytics capabilities, for most retailers, consumer grade usability has become the order of the day, as many retailers seek to use smart mobile technologies such as the iPhone and iPad in their operations.

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Global Retailing 2012: Innovating Customer Engagement

By Paula Rosenblum, Managing Partner

The University of Arizona’s Global Retailing Conference has jumped to the top of my “must see” events. Where else can you hear the likes of Terry Lundgren (CEO, Macy’s), Frank Blake (CEO, Home Depot), Rick Darling (President, LF USA), Michelle Goekler (SVP Walmart, GMM Home), Bob Moran (Chairman and CEO PetSmart), David Calhoun (CEO Nielsen), and others speaking candidly about the state of their companies and the retail industry at large in a single 48 hour program? Well, those folks and more were what I saw last week.
 
The Terry Lundgren Center for Retailing...  Read More
US vs. EU Round 2: Price Transparency

By Nikki Baird, Managing Partner

I wrote recently about a couple of trips to Europe that I took that underscored some of the differences that I see between the evolution in omni-channel in the US vs. the evolution in Europe. I identified six: differences in demand forecasting, inventory localization, cross-channel inventory optimization, personalization / relevancy, store labor, and finally, price transparency. Today I want to tackle the last one - price transparency.
 
This is a very hot topic right now...  Read More
Frugality Fatigue and Economic Recovery

By Brian Kilcourse, Managing Partner

Back in 2009, RSR partner Paula Rosenblum coined a great phrase to explain retailers’ hope of a strong holiday season: “Frugality fatigue”. At that time, consumers had engaged in serious belt-tightening. Aggressive pricing and promotions were the rule of the day; for example, in July 2009 grocer Safeway Stores announced that after nearly a decade of pursuing something more akin to Whole Foods as a destination for “ingredients for life”, they were rolling out a EDLP (“every day low price”) campaign in response to consumers’ frugal ways. In January of 2010, the chain’s profit margin dropped 12.7% as a result, although by summer of 2010 the grocer had managed to build it back up to its “level set” of about 1.6%.
 
The point of such an action by a national chain was...  Read More

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