Data & Analytics

Retailers share online insights

Speakers at the recent Internet Retailer Conference & Exposition in Chicago discussed how the retail industry is using a number of digital technologies to assist performance in areas such as CRM, marketing, driving customer traffic and converting sales. Following are a few brief highlights:

Demand forecasting helps Curacao react to cultural shifts

Any good retailer gets to know its customers, and not just their product preferences but also who they are, where they come from and what they aspire to. This type of intimate knowledge allows retailers to forecast and meet product demand with the highest degree of accuracy.

Cloud technology opens torrent of customer data for Chico's FAS

Maintaining a wealth of customer data has become a primary directive for retail IT departments. In recent years, retailers have been making substantial investments in solutions that collect and store data relating to their customers' purchases, behaviors, preferences, demographic characteristics and almost any other traits you can think of. But after all this data has been captured, what do you do with it?

ERP solution helps online sports retailer Fanatics respond to customer demand

Retail at its core is a pretty straightforward industry. Regardless of a retailer's vertical, sales channel(s), customer base, or any other distinguishing characteristic, at the end of the day the goal is pretty much the same. Jay Omdahl, VP enterprise resource planning for online sports merchandise retailer Fanatics, sums it up succinctly: "Get the best product at the right time to the right place."

Price, location and selection fade as real differentiators

Remember when retail gurus used to say that when it came down to it, retail strategy was all about location, location, location? Location still matters, but not as much as it used to. With the explosion of online retail, brick-and-mortar retail strategies are changing. But it's not just location that has receded in importance. Price and selection don't matter as much anymore either.

Dramatic growth and purchasing power of U.S. Latino population demands retailer attention

Oklahoma City – Independent regional grocery chain Buy For Less is mobilizing in-store and back-end operations at its 14 stores using XG100 handheld devices from Janam Technologies LLC. The pistol-shaped mobile computers allow employees to perform tasks such as scanning barcodes and communicating wirelessly.

"The Janam XG100 wireless device allows us to leverage newer, better technologies and features that are more user friendly and ultimately provide greater value to our guests," said Jared Black, director of IT at Buy For Less.  

Chicago – A growing demand for on campus food service exists among US college and university students, according to new data from Technomic. The latest Technomic College & University Trend Report shows that 69% of college students purchase food and beverage from on-campus foodservice facilities once a week or more. This is close to the 71% of college students who did so in 2009 and is a substantial gain from the 62% who paid visits to campus foodservice facilities once a week or more in 2011.

Washington, D.C. – Shop.org, the digital retail division of the National Retail Federation (NRF), named six new members to its board of directors and also reappointed three existing members. All nine members will serve two-year terms.