Recent TRG blog posts

It is that time of the year again when keen retailers, from top level managers to single store operators, gather for the flagship retail event by National Retail Federation (NRF) in New York. From Jan 13 - 15, visit Retail Pro in booth #769 of EXPO Level 1 and see for yourself why best global brands trust it for their operations.

In 2002 Amazon reported revenue of US$3.93bn, an impressive figure in itself but a drop in the ocean in the US$2.3trn US market; this year Amazon’s revenue should pass the US$50bn mark. Total virtual marketplace accounts for around 10% of the US market and 13.2% in UK market in 2012. Although emerging markets have further to go, the rate of growth is even more rapid.

In 2012, China has taken the lead from USA and become the world’s largest food and grocery market. Next year, they are expected to be the biggest player in the luxury good market and surpass USA again by 2016 as the world’s largest retail market. While Western consumers reduce their spending expenditure, the rapid growth in emerging markets will contribute to a hugely different global retail landscape in 2022.

I was once called into see a new client who had a problem they wanted to discuss: "We undertook research about 18 months ago on how we could improve our customer experience. Our customers told us we needed to improve our billing. We have just spent $X million on a new billing system and it has taken months to implement. It's now been running for some time and yet our customer satisfaction scores haven't moved at all. What is the problem and can you help?"

More and more retailers are recognising that customer management can bring long-term value to their business. Since applying these strategic approaches is not an easy task, retailers should consider implementing an appropriate retail management system to make all processes invariably smoother. Such a system will aid enterprises in:

Retail Pro is pleased to announce another monumental V9 upgrade. Concrete, the leading Egyptian fashion retailer has successfully rolled out the Retail Pro V9 hybrid system across 71 stores. They join a long list of satisfied Retail Pro customers who are enjoying the enormous benefits that a V9 upgrade can offer. Concrete have been a Retail Pro customer for the last ten years and their decision to stay with the Retail Pro retail management system and upgrade is, without doubt, testament to their trust in both the Retail Pro products and the unfaltering service provided by Retail Pro’s Dubai business partner, Philip Toledo ltd.

A major element of failure has been the tendency to implement customer management ideas without first identifying the firm’s resources and its competitive strengths. Retailers need to spend time considering the following factors:

Human errors are the source of many inventory valuation issues, making it more troublesome for retail officers to certify financial results with confidence. A study by AMR Research in 2004 showed that 15% of retail loss was due to administration errors.

If embracing new technologies wasn’t enough of a challenge, today’s marketplace presents an increasingly difficult challenge to provide the right service to the consumers that shop within them. Given the penchant for being constantly connected, the consumers of today are more informed today than any previous generation, and therefore are requiring a different approach when it comes to ‘closing’ the proverbial sale. The retailer is faced with a consumer that is often more informed about a given product than most of the staff within the stores they are shopping.

If embracing new technologies wasn’t enough of a challenge, today’s marketplace presents an increasingly difficult challenge to provide the right service to the consumers that shop within them. Given the penchant for being constantly connected, the consumers of today are more informed today than any previous generation, and therefore are requiring a different approach when it comes to ‘closing’ the proverbial sale. The retailer is faced with a consumer that is often more informed about a given product than most of the staff within the stores they are shopping.