Sad but true!

Amusing quote from Baird's Retail IT Review - April 2005

"It is worth bearing in mind that the most important thing for a retailer is having the right products in the right place at the right time,and although lots of technology purports to help them do that, many retailers believe that it is best done by a team of managers and buyers using Post-It notes, Microsoft Excel and a fax machine. Many retailers regard the art of selling as having precious little to do with technology"

I think they are being a little extreme here, but there is a kernel of truth in what they say.

However, can you blame the retailers, who have been buying expensive "end to end" solutions and spending millions of pounds in the process, for becoming cynical about the claims of the systems vendors, and reverting to lower tech solutions?

I am not sure that post it notes and faxes are quite where we should be taking them, but then again I am no great fan of "integrated" ERP solutions either.

It's always sad to lose a client!

So Index has finally gone.

We were working with them on the merchandise planning process when all of a sudden everything just stopped a month or so ago. Now we know why!

It's a sad day for us but it just means a lost project. To most of the 3,500 employees it's a bit more serious than that.

It's funny that we haven't heard the government jumping on this bandwagon like they did with MG Rover the week before! Where are the state handouts here then? Rover has been leaching the tax payer's money for years, but it seems that they are more newsworthy (or should that be voteworthy?) than a few retail employees in Liverpool!

It's a pity too as Index were really starting to address the issues that had dragged them down for so long, and had attracted some very bright people to help them do it.

Good luck to them all anyway!

"Solving Out-of-Stocks: Are We There Yet?"

Apparently not!

"Industry estimates indicate that most consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers lose between 8 - 10% of revenue per year due to out-of-stocks." - Craig Silverman, VP Product Management, Information Resources, Inc.

Whilst this info is being used to sell a conference, it is still interesting to note that they are talking about CPG. CPG is normally defined as "consumable goods such as food and beverages, footwear and apparel, tobacco, and cleaning products". Note that we are including food here.

Whilst my local supermarket is pretty bad at keeping the shelves full, I would expect to see a still greater loss outside FMCG - in apparel for instance.

Scary stuff that underlines the need for streamlined and efficient merchandise planning processes!

How to make yourself loved by your future "subjects" Part 2

Well I stand corrected - apparently everybody is selling out of memorabilia for the wedding of the century!

Maybe the happy couple have done the tat merchants a favour after all ;-)

Attics across the world will now be stuffed with commemorative mugs and plates in the hope that they will one day be worth a quid or two more, and we won't be able to escape from images of the gruesome gurners at car boot sales for the next twenty years.

(Yes, you are right, I am not a monarchist ;-)

How to make yourself loved by your future "subjects"

So you are trying to plan demand for your Royal Wedding memorabilia (Nobody ever went broke by underestimating the taste of the British public).

You do some great analysis of similar events, you get your merchandise designed and manufactured, and then 4 days before the event they change the date.

If anyone looking for cheap tea towels with pictures of deeply unattractive aristocrats on them, there should be plenty about!

Apparently these things won't soar in value either. Last time the Royal family pulled a similar stunt with the coronation of Edward VII, the stuff with the right date ended up being worth twice as much as the stuff with the original date, so don't start spending that new E-bay fortune just yet ;-)