IT In The Malls

Organized

retailing in India has been hogging the limelight and dedicated focus from all

big and small IT vendors. There have been significant trends in customized

software for the retail segment and developers are honing their skills and

expertise to cater not only to the domestic market but also winning projects

outside the country.

But the

CIOs from the retail industry have their own challenges, glory moments and the

path ahead to trudge, to keep in sync with the rapidly expanding industry. With

the market getting more and more competitive and global giants such as Wal-Mart

waiting to feast, the industry is at its toes to not only stay ahead of

competition but also stave off the international giants. And strategic and

timely use of IT is the only reliable support. 

While

the biggest advancement is online retailing, it is still not completely adapted

in India. The industry is highly complex, as it caters to geographies, age, and

varied lifestyles across segments with a huge product line. There is high up

selling and cross selling in this industry. Here business intelligence (BT) has

been playing a critical role. The success lies in providing the right product at

the right place at the right time with a price tag acceptable to the customer.

The

more popular tools cater to trend analysis, customer user pattern, purchase,

promotion management, and life cycle analysis. Retailers are extensively using

BI tools and relevant new technologies integrated with the existing ERP, SCM and

CRM applications that enable them to identify key shoppers, and their needs and

interests. More and more front-end technology is also being used to enable

faster clearance. The advent of customer loyalty programs offered by all

retailers to extend benefits to retain and have loyal customers is a direct

result of these business analyses.

Use of

BI tools has made the campaigns and promotions associated with the stores more

focused to target customers at all levels. eCommerce (eg, inventory visibility,

on-site merchandising and cross-selling, price comparison, and multi-channel

congruity) is the next phase of evolution in the industry and will employ tools

and technologies to better understand customers and cater efficiently and

effectively to their needs.

A

centrally networked infrastructure with 100% network uptime offers precise

information related to merchandise, logistics, online customers and helps in

reducing the turnaround time required to take quick decisions. MPLS-VPN networks

are the more recent trends connecting the stores. The trend on the application

front continues to be PoS (retail back-office) applications like REM (retail

enterprise module).

The

CIOs are looking at deploying solutions to bring down the cost of communication

and the time to market to the customers. Constant innovation around these

solutions is what CIOs are working on.

Minu Sirsalewala 



minuvs@cybermedia.co.in