As part of the Harvard-Wharton Project on Retail Merchandising Effectiveness, I have been looking at how retailers use information technology. You may find it shocking, but traditional retailers are extremely sloppy in using information they collect at point-of-sale and elsewhere, and translating all this data into superior solutions to the customer. To give an example, a prominent retailer that sells fashion apparel does not track either the size, style or color of the clothes they sell. Further, they do not digitize similar information about items which customers return to their stores. Result: excessive inventories, lost sales, low customer satisfaction, and poor execution.

How can the retailing industry use information to gain better control of its inventories? How can IT be harnessed to forecast demand and deliver products to customers when and where they need it? What are the best practices in retail IT? How can they be translated from one type of retailer to another? These were the questions we sought to address as part of this project.

On May 20th, 1998 I presented my preliminary findings to the group of participating retailers attending the Merchandising Effectiveness Conference at Harvard Business School. Some of the prominent attendees included James Halpin, CEO of CompUSA, Bob DiRoumaldo, CEO of Borders, Jerome Fisher, CEO of Nine West, and Mr. Jeff Sheppard, CEO of Meldisco.
A copy of my presentation can be found here. Further information can also be obtained by contacting me by e-mail.

In addition to such "conventional" concerns in retailing, I am focused on studying how the retail scenario works on the digital domain, i.e. the hot-growth area of e-tailing. We have all (over)heard about Amazon.com, but what about the hundreds of other ‘online stores’ that litter cyberspace? What kinds of challenges do they face, and how do they do a better job of planning, product development, and execution? What can we learn from the successful e-tailers who have revolutionized this domain?

Watch this page for an update on this project, and information on our forthcoming roundtable that addresses this issue in greater detail. From 'market-space' and 'mindshare' to 'cookie management' and 'one-click' shopping, we will cover it all.

Links:

Morgan Stanley offers a comprehensive analysis of the e-tailing phenomenon. A shorter rundown of current e-tail winners and losers is provided in this recent Forbes ASAP analysis. If you prefer products of the green variety, this SmartMoney Interactive comparision of on-line bankers is for you.