Turn on the lights, it's show time!
I attended a CIO roundtable last spring where the following question was thrown to a panel of CIO's:
How do you think your company perceives the role of the CIO today? (or something like that ) One of the CIO's responded that unfortunatley the role is perceived as 'the guy who keeps the lights on'. Pretty sad but i know exactly what he meant. (Ken
)
The IT role in many retail organizations has yet to move beyond the perception of a service arm and into the strategic role that it truly is. But all that is for another discussion. The picture that came to my mind when that comment was made was that of a large server box with cables running into it like spagetti and the CIO caught up in all the spagetti, strapped to the box. The last cable was being droped from a big black hole above (with a snakes head)and upon contact, the lights went out! Now, hows that for a vivid imagination? The problem is that it is true. So many retail organizations are constanlty sitting in the dark and the CIO is tied to the box so he/she really can't help.
So what do we do? Well i for one listen to Nikki Baird (Forrester) so when i had access to one of her free presentations about Trends in Store Mobility, i jumped on it. (presented by Intermec..we must give credit where credit is due). Nikki of course pontificated on how technology can bring rich information to the consumer. (We love that. It scores big in ME Factor, ChaChing pts). She reminded us of the access to intel that retailers have today both through business intelligence as well as through online and in-store patterns. She showed us what some of those apps are but then she reminded us that much of this technology is being embraced very slowly. whoa is me.
Tell me, why would a retailer who has seen the numbers (and they are real) that show 73% of buying decisions are made at the shelf.;throw in the fact that retailers and suppliers argue a good bit over how well their ad dollars are being spent; And then add to the mix that we are seeing an average of 15% more sell thru using in-store media (thanks again Nikki). Why oh why are they embracing this slowly? No one watches ads anymore but we still need to know stuff that we don't already know that will help us make decisions.
Of course i do know part of the reasons why retailers are not using the information they have access to, why they are not embracing technology, etc. It has a lot to do with the spagetti architecture that sits at the store level today. What do they tackle first? Clean up the mess or add new technology? And if they add new technology how many years wil that last before they have to rip all that out and start over? These are good questions and we have lots of brains out there in retail technology land so i remain hopeful that someone will develop the 'retail stack' but that alas, is fodder for another chat.
The thing is, doing nothing is NOT the answer. Retailers really need to just turn the lights on! Decide who they want to be and, to coin an already much used term, Just Do It! (thanks Nike) or at least, Just Do Something! Lets look at Bloomingdales (we all know how much i like to shop there, thanks Amber). Whether it was their intention or not, their loyalty program is what drives their business. No need for more technology right now (other than getting the twenty-somethings out of the brochures that they send to me
). I shop there and at Chicos (sorry i missed your presentation Gary King) because they basically make it seem that THEY are paying ME to do so. What a concept! ChaChing, top score on the ME Factor scale!
So retailers everywhere, the time is now and the word is 'go for it'. Decide what you want to be when you grow up and it all starts when you turn on the lights and KEEP THEM ON!
Yous Truly:
The Shopper Next Store
How do you think your company perceives the role of the CIO today? (or something like that ) One of the CIO's responded that unfortunatley the role is perceived as 'the guy who keeps the lights on'. Pretty sad but i know exactly what he meant. (Ken
) The IT role in many retail organizations has yet to move beyond the perception of a service arm and into the strategic role that it truly is. But all that is for another discussion. The picture that came to my mind when that comment was made was that of a large server box with cables running into it like spagetti and the CIO caught up in all the spagetti, strapped to the box. The last cable was being droped from a big black hole above (with a snakes head)and upon contact, the lights went out! Now, hows that for a vivid imagination? The problem is that it is true. So many retail organizations are constanlty sitting in the dark and the CIO is tied to the box so he/she really can't help.
So what do we do? Well i for one listen to Nikki Baird (Forrester) so when i had access to one of her free presentations about Trends in Store Mobility, i jumped on it. (presented by Intermec..we must give credit where credit is due). Nikki of course pontificated on how technology can bring rich information to the consumer. (We love that. It scores big in ME Factor, ChaChing pts). She reminded us of the access to intel that retailers have today both through business intelligence as well as through online and in-store patterns. She showed us what some of those apps are but then she reminded us that much of this technology is being embraced very slowly. whoa is me.
Tell me, why would a retailer who has seen the numbers (and they are real) that show 73% of buying decisions are made at the shelf.;throw in the fact that retailers and suppliers argue a good bit over how well their ad dollars are being spent; And then add to the mix that we are seeing an average of 15% more sell thru using in-store media (thanks again Nikki). Why oh why are they embracing this slowly? No one watches ads anymore but we still need to know stuff that we don't already know that will help us make decisions.
Of course i do know part of the reasons why retailers are not using the information they have access to, why they are not embracing technology, etc. It has a lot to do with the spagetti architecture that sits at the store level today. What do they tackle first? Clean up the mess or add new technology? And if they add new technology how many years wil that last before they have to rip all that out and start over? These are good questions and we have lots of brains out there in retail technology land so i remain hopeful that someone will develop the 'retail stack' but that alas, is fodder for another chat.
The thing is, doing nothing is NOT the answer. Retailers really need to just turn the lights on! Decide who they want to be and, to coin an already much used term, Just Do It! (thanks Nike) or at least, Just Do Something! Lets look at Bloomingdales (we all know how much i like to shop there, thanks Amber). Whether it was their intention or not, their loyalty program is what drives their business. No need for more technology right now (other than getting the twenty-somethings out of the brochures that they send to me
). I shop there and at Chicos (sorry i missed your presentation Gary King) because they basically make it seem that THEY are paying ME to do so. What a concept! ChaChing, top score on the ME Factor scale! So retailers everywhere, the time is now and the word is 'go for it'. Decide what you want to be when you grow up and it all starts when you turn on the lights and KEEP THEM ON!
Yous Truly:
The Shopper Next Store
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