Multi Channel Fulfilment for Retailers

I recently had cause to look at this solution from the IVIS Group.

Smart retailers now understand that gaining the potential benefits of a multichannel strategy - increased market share, increased sales, improved customer equity and reduced costs - takes a lot more than simply expanding the number of channels used to reach customers.

Giving your customers the consistent and rich buying experience they demand means ensuring that your brand, products, promotions and pricing are presented in a coherent way to all customers, whatever channel or mix of

channels they choose to buy from.

Setting up and operating a multi-channel environment opens up huge opportunities but also brings many challenges, principally the need for well managed, consistent and rich information across all channels.

The solution as presented in the IVIS whitepaper assists in:

• Aligning information across channels to ensure a consistent customer experience
• Integrating information - product, price, descriptions, specifications, availability and images - across online and offline channels to increase customer satisfaction
• Delivering cross-channel category management, merchandising and promotions
• Enabling cross-selling and up-selling by optimising the purchasing process from research to browsing and point-of-sale
• Facilitating rapid implementation of new channels, products, partners and processes
• Enabling dynamic promotion of high margin and overstock products while demoting out of stock and uncompetitive products

Multi channel Fulfilment Planning and Forecasting

The objective of Planning and Forecasting is to drive growth and profitability across the business by accurately predicting key performance metrics by channel and managing inventory in line with demand as it changes.

This analysis has shown that the Direct channels of Catalog and Web have significant differences in behaviors, structures and metrics, compared to the Store channel.

To optimize the planning process it is therefore critical to take account of these unique characteristics and treat each channel as distinct selling vehicles to proactively drive demand. An organization also needs cross-channel visibility to trends and the impact of changes in each individual channel on the ability to execute the overall strategic goals. However, trying to plan all channels as if they were the same will only result in a suboptimal plan and lost opportunities.

It is helpful to think about multi-channel planning in a similar way to how a customer shops. The customer expects the overall brand experience to be consistent across Web, Catalog and Store, but each selling vehicle represents a different experience for the shopper in terms of promotional offers, the amount of product information available, merchandise presentation and convenience.

These differences impact the way these channels need to be planned. Trying to support catalog planning or web planning with a store-focused planning process or solution will ultimately compromise customer service and erode profit margins.

Online shopping - The Australian Perspective

Recent articles published in The Age newspaper are giving us a clearer picture of the Australian online market place.

There's a 20 per cent annual increase in the number of people shopping online. The online market is current;y estimated to turnover A$9.5B

Online retailing is here, growing fast and not about to be curtailed.

Read the full article http://www.theage.com.au/business/finally--a-clearer-picture-of-online-shopping-20110729-1i2yl.html#ixzz1TW4vRTcD

The rise & rise of Private Label Retailing

The Global Private Label Mgmt (PLM) trend (as seen in the USA , UK) is well and truly on the rise in Australian Retail. Most big retailers are actively growing their stable of private label products.

Private label used to be less than 5% of revenue but today the targets are up as high as 40+%.

This makes sense if you're in the FMCG sector , pharma sector or any retail arena that has high and competitive volume sales.

But we should also be aware that PLM can deliver;

■ Greater product innovation and brand differentiation

■ Accelerated sales and reduce market lead times

■ Streamlined supply chain working practices

■ Collaborative category management

■ Complete and validated product due diligence

■ One truth database for providing consumer facing information

■ Compliance to legal, ethical, environmental and safety regulations

■ Increased sales volume and reduced time to market

■ Elimination of duplication and waste

■ Control of brand integrity

■ Create a collaborative product development environment for retail colleagues;

■ Collaborate with suppliers and 3rd parties critical to your supply chain, e.g. laboratories or auditors, around one dataset and one lifecycle process;

■ Rapidly increase private label volume without increasing costs;

If you'd like to know more then please contact me or click on the link above..

Australian Retail: Cost reduction solutions

The current lack of retail consumer confidence ( and spend) is hitting retailers hard.

Revenues are down , foot traffic thru stores is down.

The only growth area seems to be Internet sales. Many retailers are looking at cost reduction strategies in order to maintain their margins. This makes good sense as it can deliver immediate savings and also provide a platform for long term process improvements.

In my travels across Aust i see significant interest in eSourcing initiatives being used to lower the cost of goods sold. A strong dollar and strong global trade means that sourcing from Asia and Eastern Europe has never been better value.

All retailers looking for better sourcing for their products should in my opinion look at SaaS based esourcing as a winning solution in these hard times.

Summary . IDC Retail Insights Community . Retail Industry Focused Groups . IDC Insights Community

Summary . IDC Retail Insights Community . Retail Industry Focused Groups . IDC Insights Community

2011 Retail Customer Experience Top 100

CLikc on the link to the retail customer experience website to review a great range of relevant whitepapers

Top results from Multi-Channel Retailing
Cash Automation Devices: How to Choose the Right One for Your Application
Social commerce: What's possible, and what's actually happening
Converging the Retail Experience to Connect with the Changing Shopper
Luxury Apparel Leader Empowers Sales Agents to Thrive, Gets Ready for Growth
Using multichannel customer care to maximize the holiday shopping season
View all Multi-Channel Retailing listings

Top results from Social Media
Social Media: An Inside Look at the People Who Use It
Social commerce: What's possible, and what's actually happening
Automating Social Recruiting for Better Hiring
2011 Retail Customer Experience Top 100
HMV leverages social networking to connect with customers
View all Social Media listings

Top results from Retail - Warehouse
Assisted Selling and the Point of Decision
Increased Productivity with Interactivity
Digital Signage Hardware
Slides: Enhancing the In-Store Experience
Competing for Transactions: Making a Good Impression Pays Off
View all Retail - Warehouse listings


Top results from Online Retailing
Urban Outfitters responds to massive site traffic surge, increases revenues
Social Media: An Inside Look at the People Who Use It
German Retailer Creates New Fashion Shopping Experience
Retain online customers with back-to-basics approach
Ready to Buy: The In-Market Consumer
View all Online Retailing listings

Top results from Retail - Mall
2011 Retail Customer Experience Top 100
75,000 Red LEDs Wrap 7-Story Mall Facade
Sourcing Retail Store Fixtures from China
Top results from Department Stores
Webinar - Mobile Retail: What Comes Next?
The Benefits of Retail Kiosks
2011 Retail Customer Experience Top 100
Sourcing Retail Store Fixtures from China
Self-Service at Supermarkets and Grocery Stores
View all Department Stores listings

Top results from Specialty Stores
Retail digital signage: Rogers Wireless
Growing Beauty Supply Chain Saves Hours, Trims Costs, and Brings in New Revenue
Curiosk wine kiosk offers specialty retailer the expertise of a sommelier
2011 Retail Customer Experience Top 100
Acrilex builds backdrop for Urban Decay products in Sephora stores
View all Specialty Stores listings

Top results from Retail - Convenience Stores
Expanding ATM Usage in a Credit Crunch
Transaction Equipment Corp. Warehouses Speed Customer Service
2011 Retail Customer Experience Top 100
Self-Service at Supermarkets and Grocery Stores
Ten Attributes of a Superior Self-Checkout Solution Environment

5 retail technology trends to watch in 2011

A great article from the retail customer experience website on retail tech trends in 2011.

The shopping outlook for the holiday season seems to be positive. Online sales are expected to have a high single digit year-on-year growth like last year. The highlights have been better product assortment, lower prices, and good promotion strategies. As a result, cross-channel fulfillment and inventory optimization have become imperative to sustain business.

Here are the five big IT trends that will impact retailers in 2011:

In Store Experience: After being at the forefront of technology news for most of 2010, apart from the shopping app, tablet devices such as iPad remain relatively unexplored for the retail world. High-end retailers would look at providing a custom in-store experience for walk-in customers using these tablets. The usability of this tablet could be explored for the store associates/attendants for functionalities such as item search etc. Given the large screen of the tablets, it can prove to be extremely useful in providing a real life experience such as exhibiting products in various colors and viewing merchandise that is otherwise unavailable in stock.

Multi-Channel Fulfillment: Shopping across channels is available as order online and pick-up in store, or order in-store and get it shipped to a delivery address. Despite this becoming a norm in the retail industry, only a few have managed to master it. Thus, multi-channel fulfillment will form the point of convergence for providing a great shopping experience and customer retention, as well as the retailers’ own inventory optimization.

The existing approaches to fulfill this are:

Order online and in-store pick-up
Order in store and delivery at customer address
The retailers who have already successfully implemented these solutions could look at further optimization, such as a combination of both i.e. order online and ship-out from the store. This would reduce shelf life of in-store inventory.

Better Online Experience: Among the indicators of non-conversion of online sales, the most evident one is shopping cart abandonment. There are a few areas of improvement for retailers:

Better sorting, searching, and filtering: A majority of sites are still struggling to provide filtering while multi-options filtering is almost non-existent.
Multi-brand combination in single cart: Multi-brand retailers should be able to combine shopping carts across brands and apply promotion on the complete cart.
Clarity on Price and Delivery rate: Prices and delivery dates should be clearly marked with no ambiguity.
Payment Options: Payment should include more non-credit card options.
Return policies: Return policies should be clearly explained.
Check-out options: A buyer should be able to complete checkout without registering with the seller.
Planning and Forecasting: Profiling of each store and assortment planning are the key areas to optimize inventory in these times. Even though forecasting at the organizational level is pretty common, the implementation of the correct assortment mix at the store level becomes a challenge. In order to obtain better efficiency at the store level, retailers are likely to invest in new products or enhancements to their existing systems. This could range from systems to measure customer mix, customer behavior towards changing in price changes, and promotions in a particular month or quarter of the year.

Mobile Platform: The mobile platform has become an important channel for retailers with the much more advanced smartphone. Smartphone providers such as Apple, Blackberry, or Android have open platforms for development of software applications for their OS. Since mobile phones are discretionary points of spending, retailers are likely to cater to this need with their own shopping applications. These shopping apps are a low-cost investment and can quickly become a popular channel for shopping, provided they have ease of usability and offer hassle-free shopping.

Sharad Singh is pre-sales head and solution architect, retail at MindTree Limited.

Innovate. Differentiate. Profit.

Tech-savvy, fickle consumers and a volatile economy threaten precious margins every day. Being innovative and creating the most differentiated consumer experience wins new and repeat purchases.

Deliver a more alluring consumer experience, drive value chain innovation, and generate profitable growth with innovative technology and retail best practices.

The team at Retail and Supply Chain (RSC) Advocates bring the latest in retail technologies and operational excellence to your business.

We offer:

· Retail consultancy

• End to end professional services and support

• Customer Experience programs

• Business Intelligence solutions

• Multi-channel\ online solutions

• Loyalty and CRM systems

• In store video and TV

• Community TV solutions

• POS systems

• Printers, scanners & utilities

• CCTV, security systems

• Integration services

• Traditional, in store, cloud or web based POS

• Head office, regional or in store retail solutions

• Self service kiosks

• Mobile payment solutions

• Social Media integration

• Shelf talkers

• IT services and support

• Hardware and Software independence

• and much more...

So if you’re interested in:

Improving your margins

Improving your revenues

Reducing your costs

Upgrading your technology

Improving your customer’s retail experience;

then the team, @RSC would love to hear from you,

so please call or email Peter & the RSC team today for a free consultation

Invest Victoria, Melbourne, Australia: Victorian Government Investment Promotion Agency IPA

Invest Victoria, Melbourne, Australia: Victorian Government Investment Promotion Agency IPA

Mystery Shopping - Customer Experience

i was recently given a real insight into the 'behind the scenes' workings of a mystery shopping company.

Very impressive , very labor intensive and very interesting all round if i do say..

The technology and solutions offering seem to best suit, high volume customer focused companies with 100's of retail outlets, like telco's, large food franchise that have a very competitive market place.

If you've not looked at this area before i would recommend you do.

Melbourne Point Of Sale

i met up with a POS vendor yesterday - MELBOURNE POS .

Very impressive product, great functionality, very knowledgeable team and a well priced solution.

They work mainly with HP hardware.

If you have a moment check out the link. http://www.melbournepos.com.au/

The health of the Retail Sector in Australia

I have a potential concern with the health of the Australian retail sector at the moment.
Its just a few weeks to Christmas and the shopping mall of Australia should be buzzing..
But the mall and shops seem to be, ( at least to me, ) quiet.
And behind the scenes cost cutting measures are in place in many of the large retailers.
Companies are announcing head count freezes, delaying projects and everybody seems to be preparing for soft sales numbers during this period.

Lets hope it will all rebound in 2011.

Australian Card Authentication Technology

Ventures International Group is representing an Australian Card Authentication Technology company (“The Company”) which is already achieving market acceptance and has been adopted by Visa Europe who are currently actively promoting it to their member banks.

The Company is now actively engaging with potential strategic partners for whom the technology is synergistic with their current business in either the Global Payments industry (credit cards, ATMs, POS, interbank networks, SI’s), or the Security space.

• The company is seeking to raise AUD $33.5M to facilitate an offer to be made to one of the major global accounting firms to enable it to exit from its current 51% stake in the business
• This represents the world’s first and only multi- feature authentication, transaction integrity and identity protection solution that is commercially endorsed and supported by a leading Payment Card Industry (PCI) member – Visa Europe.
• The Company was established May 2006 by a group of security and technology specialists with more than 25 years combined experience in strategic information security, risk management and commercialisation of technology software and services.
• The Company aims to become the global leader in innovative security solutions spanning multiple potential markets. Its flagship product is a credit/debit/ATM/ID card with embedded keypad, display, microprocessor and proximity chip that is currently marketed for use in card-not-present transactions.
• The use of the technology could also be extended for use in all card-present transactions such as ATM, PIN-Entry-Devices (PED) and Point-of-Sales (POS) terminals.
• The enabling technology is strongly protected by worldwide patents.
• This is a multiple-capability security solution that addresses the numerous security threats associated with financial fraud and theft, as well as identity theft. The unique ability to combine multiple security solutions in a single delivery unit (either an ISO:7810 compliant card or a mobile phone), enables the general public - for the first time - to greatly enhance their security, without the onerous need to memorise multiple passwords, or the need to carry, and look after, multiple tokens and cards.
• The revolutionary and patented solution has the capacity to largely eliminate many of the more prevalent financial frauds such as card skimming and online payment fraud, while reducing the ease by which to perpetrate other attacks such as phishing, all of which affect everyone involved in using electronic banking, PED and POS transactions, and of course paying for goods and services on the internet.
• For the first time there is a product available to the public that will protect their financial transactions, and their identity, in a format that is easy to use, effective, and even desirable. The possibility of marketing a piece of security technology and making it a sexy, advanced technical status symbol (think iPhone vs any other mobile phone), means that for the first time greatly increased security can become a ‘Pull Marketing’ product that the public will actively demand from their banks.
• Independent research revealed has an extremely high approval rating amongst techno savvy Gen-Y consumers willing to pay for the chance of getting hold of a card.
• After an extensive evaluation, testing and certification process, Visa Europe signed a deal with the Company that will see the technology made available across all Visa Europe’s 4,600 member banks. Visa Europe has over 380 million Visa debit, credit and commercial cards in use. ( The USA card market is in excess of 1.3B cards)

We would pleased to provide more detailed information, including the Information Memorandum, upon execution of the attached NDA.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Olavs J. Ritenis CEO Ventures International Group
M : +65 9185 3044 (Singapore) M : +61 405 448 938 (Australia)
E : olavs@ventures-international.net

20 Cecil Street, #15-08 Equity Plaza, Singapore 049705
www.ventures-international.net

New RFID Manu..

Shenzhen New Force Communication Technology Co., Ltd is a high-tech enterprise specializing in researching, developing, producing and selling 915M ultra high frequency (UHF) of radio frequency identification (RFID) Products. We master core technologies and win independent intellectual property rights covering UHF RFID reader, antenna, electronic label and RFID application system.

The New Force Communication own enormous technological potential. Since its inception, the company has been coming off with the following honors: Shenzhen hi-tech sector, Shenzhen Double software enterprise, FCC certification of USA, CE and RoHS certification of EU. And the patents for invention about UHF reader were applied for also. The New Force Communication’s products are widely applied in parking, access, logistics, warehouse management, assets management, theft-proof and counterfeit-proof, automation of assembly etc, and covering many provinces of China mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, Southeast Asian, North American and Europe etc.

The New Force Communication have founded a RFID Joint Research Lab with Hunan University, one of the famous University in China. This provides powerful support and scientific foundation in theory, experiment, calculation and application aspects for the company engage in hi-tech innovation. The RFID Joint Lab combines the advantages of manufacturing, institution and research teams, ensures the leading position in RFID technology. The New Force Communication’s enterprising and cooperative researching team transfers the technological achievements which they research&develop quickly, offers customers the best solutions which adapt to every special need in different area in time, include software and hardware development, systems integration, after-sale support and personnel training etc.

SCM Software as a Service (SaaS)

Less Software build native SaaS applications on the Force.com platform from SalesForce.com which enables users to efficiently Buy, Manage and Sell their Inventory to their customers.
The Application supports multiple channels for selling their products, including Field-Sales Tele-Sales, Web-Stores and eBay which enables companies with the ability to Acquire, Manage, Distribute products and Fulfill customer’s orders.

Modules Include:
Acquisition Inventory Management Order Fulfillment

Business intelligence at the start…
Less Software’s approach to building applications starts with asking the business intelligence questions first then build the application to answer the questions using analytics, reports and dashboards to help our customers manage their business.

Specialties
Supply Chain Management, SCM, SAAS, supply chain management, inventory management, supplier relationship management, supply chain solutions, logistics software, procurement software, supply chain logistics, scm software, logistics management software, supply management software, saas logistics, saas procurement, web based supply chain software and I.M.

Social Media for the Winery Business

If you are a winery and do not have a formal Strategy for Online marketing, then please download this pdf from ewinery as it discussed the pro's and con's , do's and don'ts of social media as it pertains to the wine industry.

While social media is improtant to your brand and messaging its only part of the online marketing or direct to consumer growth market.

Contact me to discuss further..

Top 100 Retail Movers 2010

This free report, sponsored by Motorola, highlights the top companies, people, issues and trends that dominated retail in a very tumultuous year.

Retail Business Intelligence

Manthan - The latest in Retail Technology B.I

As a retailer today, you know - better than anyone - the need for speed in retail.
The need to arrive at optimal enterprise-wide strategies and tactics, as swiftly as possible.
The need to formulate the ideal rapid responses to ebbs and flows in the market.
In short, the need for accurate, fluid, streamlined decision making.
This is why you need solutions that have evolved beyond providing mere decision support. Products and services that are designed with our deep domain expertise in retail, to do more than merely provide raw information.
Tools that let you make sense of the flood of data pouring in from across your organization, and help you choose the best course of action.
And then, help you implement your decisions, seamlessly, enterprise-wide.

Retail Technology Webcast

"Facing a difficult economic environment, retailers have started to scrutinise their IT investments. As a result they are prioritising solutions that cut costs, improve efficiency and enhance their customers experience to boost profitability, even in saturated markets."

Planet Retail's Joachim Pinhammer, Senior Retail Technology Analyst

Session 1
Focus: Retail Technology Date: 28 June 2010 Time: 11am (UK Time) Duration: 40 minutes