The Retail Conference

The Retail Conference would like to thank Philip Worthington of Clear Communications, for this independent review of the day.

Several retailers and suppliers gathered in London in September for The Retail Conference 2007, which addressed the importance of information in retail today. It covered aspects of supply chain management and multi-channel retailing, with speakers from Woolworths, Waterstones, Entertainment UK (a major CD & DVD supplier) and two industry bodies, the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) and the British Retail Consortium (BRC).

Dr. Kevin Hawkins, Director General of the BRC summed-up the conference in his own closing words, by concluding that retailers tend to be very rich in data these days, but not necessarily very good at turning it into information that they can then apply to driving sales and profits.

"This underlying issue has led many retailers to look at how their businesses can become 'intelligent' businesses", he said. "How can we integrate our systems and processes in a way which makes relevant information accessible to those who need it, when they need it? What we need, in essence, is an information supply chain."

Dr Phil Streatfield, Commercial Supply Chain and I.T. Director of Woolworths PLC, considered the tangible and intangible benefits to retailers of becoming an intelligent business. He argued that a more detailed approach to analysing information helps employees to investigate, explore and improve business performance.

"Trying to make sense of a mountain of data can lead to improvements in availability with lower levels of stock", he said. "In the past, people would argue that this can't be done - and that more merchandise on the shelves could only be achieved with more reserve stock. But with improved business intelligence and demand forecasting, we're proving such a paradox to be wrong."

Mike Quintana, Head of Business Development at Entertainment UK (EUK), looked at how his company has been able to increase sales, reduce stock and overall costs in the highly volatile marketplace for CDs and DVDs. By using demand forecasting and promotion planning software through TXT e-Solutions, EUK has managed to reduce returns from retailers like Woolworths, Sainsburys and Amazon by around 8 per cent.

"With over 50000 items promoted a year and promotions becoming such an important part of selling DVDs and CDs today", he said, "we have to gauge the number of titles needed to make sure we don't end up with either too many left at the end of a promotion, or too few to maintain good levels of presentation on the shelves."

Oliver Ponsonby, Space Planning Manager at Waterstones, described how every bookstore is different in terms of its target customer and layout, and how space has to be allocated accordingly. With the help of software from Advanced Visual Technology, and by analysing sales data and trying to cluster stores based on typical buyer behaviour, Ponsonby was able to share his expertise into whether crime books should be located near biographies, and what sells best in market town stores.

"The front of your store is clearly the most important feature to lure people in, but your choice of books and location will be different depending on the mix of people likely to be coming into that store", he said. "There's also space constraints to consider, such as children's books not being positioned too high."

Another session was dedicated to multi-channel retailing and the need for integrated IT systems that enable retailers to sell products and services from any channel in a consistent and cohesive manner. Andrew McClelland of IMRG (the industry body for electronic retailing via the internet, mobile, interactive TV and kiosks) acknowledged that this has been a real challenge for the industry.

"Retailers have to treat multi-channel operations as simply another store, rather than a separate entity," he said. "Selling through the internet is now regarded as a key competitive capability for all but the smallest retailers, and the need for a single integrated system is as great here as in conventional bricks and mortar retailing."

Information, then, is vital to retailers; and trying to make more sense of it, actually makes a lot of sense.