A friend of Retail247, we’ll call him Jim, recently told me the story of how, returning from the US, he was fortunate to be upgraded to First Class. Being his first time (no, it wasn’t Virgin Airlines) the flight attendant was particularly helpful and welcoming. Early on she ascertained that our friend did not wish to[…]
Continuing with the theme of applying Real World Thinking examples to the world of technology – it’s time to look at traffic queue theory – or at least a very simple version thereof. Random motorway queues at busy times are often formed by a single vehicle slowing down. Vehicles then arrive at the back of[…]
Historically, shopping can loosely be described as impulsive. Decide you want something, go out and buy it, immediate gratification. In the dark days before on-line shopping, we were used to getting things the same day and at our convenience. Today, consumer expectation has taken a subtle shift. Although purchasing fundamentally remains a mix of the considered[…]
I was impressed by the launch of the Apple watch recently. Of course they have done it with all the style and panache we have come to expect from their excellent brand and you can hardly fail to notice the high fashion influence of ex Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts. With Siri an integral part of the[…]
Short and sweet this week. I always worked on the assumption that any project would have an additional life cycle phase after, during or occasionally before, go-live. After Dev, Test, Imp etc comes, in my opinion, the most important phase of any project methodology, the phase whose length dictates whether a project is ultimately a[…]
Continuing with my thoughts challenging existing IT practice I thought I’d have a stab at the Service Level Agreement (SLA). As usual, all points are made in an attempt to provoke debate. The SLA is a contractual issue that I have spent many hours debating – and I have often questioned the point. When the[…]
Many retailers (both bricks and pure plays and everything in between) have dabbled with a gift registry service. Like most things, there are a variety of success stories and some not so great implementations. The benefits are clear – even from a short term perspective, the service can drive additional revenue. If done properly it[…]
As my career continues, I ponder the constant pre-occupation that some corners of the IT community have with ‘business’ integration. The mere fact that the phrase “IT & the business” is used builds the perception of a barrier between two sides at war. Are there groups of accountants sitting around asking themselves how to get[…]
We are implementing omni-channel strategies as this is the modern customer expectation – though probably an expectation we have created. There are however sensible benefits for the retailer. A retailer managing seasonal product is fundamentally focused on selling the most product at the highest price before entering a cycle of margin threatening markdown activity. A[…]
Well, it is – I just wanted a compelling headline, however from an operational perspective awareness and management of Stock Accuracy should be the dominant concern. When I raised the issue of Stock Accuracy several years ago, at the beginning of the multi / omni channel journey, I often had to explain the difference between accuracy[…]
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