Oracle

Redwood Shores, Calif. -- Improving the cross-channel customer experience and optimizing the supply chain ranked as retailers’ biggest challenges in a new study by Oracle. The report also found that mobile access is key: Forty percent of retailers said that providing store associates with mobile access to customer, product, inventory and other information is critical to their business, along with providing the entire organization with a more consistent and complete view of the customer (40%).

The customer experience is fueling IT spending like never before. That was my main takeaway from Oracle Retail CrossTalk 2012, which was held June 26 -28, in Chicago. The following are some insights and observations from a few of the speakers at the event.

Gary Penn, VP e-commerce, Quiksilver:
“Handheld traffic is growing exponentially, and so is the revenue. You have to address it. If you don’t, you are leaving a good part of your audience out in the cold.”

CINCINNATI — Marketing solutions provide Dunnhumby has hired Nishat Mehta, formerly of MicroStrategy, to lead the company’s growing global partner business. As EVP global partners, Mehta will be responsible for driving the global expansion and commercialization of Dunnhumby solutions, such as digital advertising, targeting and measurement, through strategic partnerships with data companies that deliver a comprehensive understanding of consumer behavior across channels. He will be based in New York City.

Redwood Shores, Calif. -- A “Live Help” feature, detailed information about products and services and access to personal account information are the three most important features consumers expect to find at a company’s website, according to an annual survey by Oracle. The company surveyed more than 3,000 consumers worldwide regarding their use of customer service channels including call centers, live chat, click-to-call and email.

Redwood Shores, Calif. -- Oracle announced that it has taken another step toward helping companies handle peak online volumes of traffic and transactions with the news that its ATG Web Commerce platform has improved performance by 300% on Oracle Exalogic and the Oracle Exadata database machine when compared with systems similar in size and configuration.

The performance gains were achieved during multiple benchmarking tests.

NEW YORK — Saks Inc. has selected Oracle's retail merchandising, planning and optimization applications and the Oracle e-business suite 12.1 to help integrate business operations and improve margins and profitability across all channels.

The implementation is part of a business-wide initiative by Saks to establish a modern, flexible and scalable IT platform that will provide finance, human resources, merchandising, commerce and store operations teams with real-time, mobile access to sales, inventory and performance data they require.

New York -- Saks Inc. has selected Oracle's retail merchandising, planning and optimization applications and the Oracle e-business suite 12.1 to help integrate business operations and improve margins and profitability across all channels.

The implementation is part of a business-wide initiative by Saks to establish a modern, flexible and scalable IT platform that will provide finance, human resources, merchandising, commerce and store operations teams with real-time, mobile access to sales, inventory and performance data they require.

Redwood Shores, Calif. -- American Apparel has chosen Oracle ATG Web Commerce and Oracle ATG Web Commerce Customer Service applications to help grow its global, multi-channel retail business. The apparel retailer will use Oracle's ATG Web Commerce to personalize the customer experience across all channels, including the web, contact center, mobile devices, social media and in stores.