Opportunities Abound For Merchandising

September 2012 Integrated Solutions For Retailers

By Steve Rowen, managing partner, Retail Systems Research

Any insight that can help retailers predict what the customer will want more effectively — before they even know it — is the top opportunity to improving current merchandise processes.

Our newest report on the state of Retail Merchandising was just recently released on August 8, and when it comes to the opportunities retailers perceive, merchandising processes would greatly benefit from better incorporation of customer segmentation and preferences into the planning process. This data is even more telling when broken down by respondent group:
 

Retailers selling fast-moving consumer goods are even hungrier for segmentation and preference information: 59% identify it as their top opportunity. These high-volume sellers understand that knowing more about the consumer than their competitors represents one of their only means to remain relevant, particularly when the products they sell are becoming more available (and in more unexpected places) each day.