NRF
exhibitors customized marketing solutions
Joseph Grove , 19 Jan 2009 found at selfserviceworld.com
The first of three stories about some of
the exhibitors at the annual National Retail
Federation show, which took place last week in New York City.
Retailers need to understand who their
customers are, where they are and what their value is. BUXTON provides a
solution to come up with just such information. The marketing database helps
decision-makers know who’s spending what and where, and where to find
similar groups of shoppers in existing trade areas around their stores, all to
help with real estate, merchandizing and marketing solutions. LLAMASOFT showcased its Supply Chain Guru, an
application that empowers users to make the most of their supply-chain network
operations. According to executive vice president Toby Brzoznowski, the
company's products have allowed clients such as Best Buy and JCPenney to
"analyze very specific retail-focused questions as to how they buy
products, how they flow products through their network, and where and what the
best strategies are for stocking products at specific locations." RGIS presented a new service for retail
space-optimization, joining the company’s solutions for inventory, data
collection and merchandizing. The service combines a software platform,
in-store audits and consulting to help retailers best manage categories and
category adjacencies. TAURUS SOFTWARE highlighted its business
intelligence solution, Manage Metrix, developed in collaboration with
co-exhibitor F. CURTIS BARRY & COMPANY to provide intelligence across an
entire retail enterprise. "It is unique in that it not only consolidates
all the information across the enterprise into a single repository where
business users can access it to do analysis, but it goes a step further in
providing proactive, key performance indicators," said Taurus president
Cailen Sherman. "So it's actually searching through the data and
producing recommended solutions to problems that it spots in the system." Cash management "ARCATECH is all about cash automation
for retailers, and cash automation is all about reducing the costs associated
with handling cash," said Jim Halpin, ArcaTech Systems' director of
retail solutions. The company’s retail cash recyclers allow retailers to
virtually eliminate the back-office operations that go along with counting and
keeping track of cash and coins, and they also have sales-audit and
deposit-reconciliation capabilities. Halpin said that a retailer's associates
will often spend as many as 40 to 80 combined hours per week counting cash,
but ArcaTech's cash-recycling technology is faster, less expensive and much
more accurate than the manual-based processes. ArcaTech also sponsored a
cash-management forum. Executives from TIDEL ENGINEERING discussed
the company's new cash-recycling solution, the Revolution. The device allows
retail associates to quickly and easily get the appropriate funds for their
till at the beginning of a shift and turn in the till at the end of a shift,
all with no manual counting necessary. The dispensing and counting processes,
which take no more than about 30 seconds each using the Revolution, have been
totally automated, and the machine even has a touchscreen to easily guide
users through the process. The Revolution also gives retailers the ability to
barcode a till so it can be tracked to the clerk throughout a shift.
"It's the first time you can totally automate the cash room," said
Tidel CEO Mark Levenick. "It's really the Holy Grail of cash
automation." Human resources ACCU-TIME SYSTEMS brought its Global Series
line of human capital management technologies, including the Optimus, Maximus
and Prodigy solutions for time and attendance, payroll and security access.
"They provide empowerment to the employee and are tools for
compliance," said Peter DiMaria, founder and CEO of the company. Also at
the show, ATS introduced the terminals' newest feature: GSM cellular
capability that allows the devices to be used virtually anywhere, including
temporary venues like seasonal festivities and sporting events where Ethernet
and WiFi are not available. etc.. (end part1) customized marketing solutions for Retails big Show 2009
NRF Annual Convention 2009 Handouts
Association
for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS) Update (Francisca Vicente) -
Microsoft PowerPoint (1.5 MB)
Brands
that Have the Power to Change the Retail World (Lee Carpenter) - Adobe PDF
(1.2 MB)
Collaborative
Compliance: The Fair Factories Clearinghouse (Marianne Voss) -
Microsoft PowerPoint (1.5 MB)
Crisis
Strikes: Can You Serve Your Customers Tomorrow? - Microsoft PowerPoint
(252 KB)
Customer
Privacy & Data Security: Making It a Boardroom Topic (Robert Masse) -
Microsoft PowerPoint (534 KB)
Delivering
the Fashion Forward Supply Chain (Spencer Maynard) - Microsoft PowerPoint
(468 KB)
Developing
Top Retail Talent: The Cabela's Story (Copeland, Bera, Adams) - Adobe PDF
(2.0 MB)
Financial
Business Case for Improving Supply Chain Efficiencies (Kyle McIntosh) -
Microsoft PowerPoint (8.1 MB)
Going
Local: Breaking Boundaries in Pricing and Promotion Strategies (Nikki Baird)
- Microsoft PowerPoint (2.2 MB)
Holistic
Approaches to "Green" Retail Strategies (Kathy Doyle Thomas) -
Microsoft PowerPoint (40.1 MB)
How
Boomers Are Transforming Retailing (Again) (Matt Thornhill) - Adobe PDF
(8.3 MB)
Man on
the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Stefan Boubil) - Microsoft PowerPoint
(35.1 MB)
Optimize
Your Real Estate Portfolio: Making the Most of a Challenging Economic
Environment (Daroff) - Microsoft PowerPoint (2.4 MB)
Positioning
Your Brand for a Private Label Boom - Part I (Belinda Youngs) - Microsoft
PowerPoint (2.7 MB)
Positioning
Your Brand for a Private Label Boom - Part II (Belinda Youngs) - Microsoft
PowerPoint (2.4 MB)
Retailers:
Doing Well By Doing Good (Morley Ivers) - Microsoft PowerPoint (5.2 MB)
Risky
Relationships: How to Identify Customers at Risk, Retain Them, and Turn Them
Into Loyal Enthusiasts (Napolillo, Secilmis, Cantler) - Microsoft
PowerPoint (1.3 MB)
Supply
Chain Security - The Impact of Federal Programs on Addressing Key
Vulnerabilities (Earl Agron) - Microsoft PowerPoint (3.0 MB)
Sustainable
Retailing: A Call to Action (Bergh, Mohan) - Microsoft PowerPoint (4.5 MB)
The
Employee's First 30 Days: Liars & Tyrants, I'm Bored! Oh My! (Harold
Lloyd) - Adobe PDF (276 KB)
The
Magical World of Traffic (Rosemary Rose) - Microsoft PowerPoint (22.1 MB)
Try It,
You'll Like Love It! - Microsoft PowerPoint (1.7 MB)
Using
Science to Enhance Art: The Power of Data to Improve Profitability (Clarence
Kelley) - Adobe PDF (3.5 MB)
VIRC is
the New BRIC: Emerging Markets (Gurski) - Unknown (1.7 MB)
No retail marketing solutions revival on horizon
Tue. January 13, 2009 at www.tradingmarkets.com
Jan 13, 2009 (The Record - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Retailers are facing a new reality of a fundamental shift in consumer spending that isn't going to change any time soon, attendees at the National Retail Federation convention in New York City were told Monday.
That warning came from keynote speakers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Chief Executive Officer H. Lee Scott, as well as from economists and analysts.
It also was the unspoken message on the exhibit floor, where many of the more than 500 vendors found themselves with nobody to sell to.
Retailers are reeling from the worst holiday shopping season on record. The International Council of Shopping Centers reported December sales at stores open at least a year fell an average of 1.7 percent, the first December decline since recordkeeping began in 1969.
Vendors at the convention said the exhibit hall was quieter than past years, but said retailers are still looking to buy software and systems that boost efficiency and help manage employees. The companies, which sell business solutions to retailers, said their sales are growing and they are adding new workers.
Retail is about to enter a period of "shakeout" when the weaker chains will disappear and the survivors will emerge stronger, said Ira Kalish, global director of research for accounting and consulting firm Deloitte.
The consensus among executives and experts at the convention is the economy won't improve until early 2010.
"The first part of this year will be extremely challenging," Scott said. "I don't see anything that tells me it's going to turn around quickly."
Carl Steidtmann, chief economist for consumer business for Deloitte, predicted many shopping malls will "go dark" as a result of the retail retrenchment that has begun. "Some malls will go away altogether" and other "desperate mall developers" will seek new uses for their properties.
Last January, Tracy Mullin, president and CEO of the National Retail Federation, predicted 2008 would be tough and said retailers would have to "seduce" shoppers to get them into the stores. Retailers over the past three months tried drawing shoppers, offering markdowns as steep as 70 percent, and still failed to boost sales.
"No amount of retail seduction could lure [shoppers] into the stores" in 2008, Mullin said.
Wal-Mart's Scott, who will step down as CEO at the end of this month, urged retailers to respond to the tough times by helping the country to respond its toughest problems -- "the embarrassment of 46 million uninsured," the reliance on foreign oil, and issues of sustainability and the environment. "In politics, as well as business, the hard questions rarely get addressed during the good times," he said, because people aren't willing to make changes, and sacrifices, when things are going well.
Attendance at the show was estimated to be down about 10 percent from last year, when 18,500 retailers came to the Javits Convention Center.
The annual convention is the world's largest retail gathering. It serves as an annual post-mortem on the holiday season, as well as a crystal ball for the coming year..
The NRF usually issues its forecast for the coming year at the meeting, but will not do so this year until the end of January. NRF spokesman Scott Krugman said economists are waiting for December figures from the Commerce Department, due Wednesday, before drawing conclusions on how bad Christmas 2008 was, and what that bodes for 2009.
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