Yesterday NRF's STORES broadcast a live webinar, part of the STORES Knowledge Series, with SAP executives and subject matter experts discussing trends in today's retail and how to make the most of these opportunities.  Business Intelligence and role-based dashboards were key enablers in the retailer's recipe for success in an "uncontrollable world."

 

Now hot off the press, we have fresh findings from RSR Research on the important role that Business Intelligence plays in today's retail.  In this report, RSR Research explores the challenges, opportunities and technology enablers used to help retailers cope with today's unpredictable demand cycles.  Retailers continue to deal with enduring and some novel issues:

• Rise of social networks and capturing "customer sentiment"
• Having accurate, actionable information
• Making this Information available when and where it's needed

 

Whether you are looking at creating effective promotions, increasing average transaction value, improving return on your inventory investment, or simply being more responsive to market changes - It's all about the data, the real-time data, its capture and synthesis with other structured and unstructured data and transforming these to actionable insights at the right decision-making points in the organization (merchants, planners, replenishment, store associates, etc.).   According to Paula Rosenblum, co-author of the report, "Laggards are still debating the ROI case.  You could say they're fiddling while Rome burns."

 

RSR Research is an analyst firm providing market intelligence on retail technology trends.  Click here to download the report or to find out more about RSR Research click here.

 

The NRF STORES webinar on "Delivering Results: Clarity and Sustainability in Today's Retail" can be accessed here (registration required).  You can also find relevant information on Retail Analytics on the Retail Wiki page.