Customer centricity part II: Gathering your customer information

 
In my March article, Customer Centricity, the Retail Buzzword of 2009, I wrote that customer centricity would be a hot topic for the New Year. Several popular breakout sessions at this month’s NRF; including Are You Truly a Customer-Centric Retailer, gave evidence customer centricity is a top priority for retail companies.

Customer Centricity, the Retail Buzzword of 2009

2009: The Year of the Customer
One trend I’ve picked up on from conversations with my retail clients is an urgent
need to modify their business processes to be customer centric. That’s why I’m
declaring Customer Centricity as the retail buzzword of 2009.
Customer Centricity is the use of a deep understanding of customer wants and needs
to deliver tailored [...]

Tuesday NRF ‘09 social media recap

Tuesday was the last day the EXPO floor was open at NRF. It sounds like the floor was very busy with people checking out the latest technology and networking. The NRF has a great article about the floor, More than just SWAG: What’s on the EXPO floor. Here’s what people were saying:
kadrorlj: day 2 walking #nrfexpo [...]

Monday NRF social media recap

The NRF Big Show was in full swing Monday, January 12th. The expo floor was open and the schedule was full of Keynote, Big Ideas, and Breakout sessions.
The Keynote address by Lee Scott, President and CEO of Wal-Mart, and Tracy Mullen, President and CEO of NRF, generated a lot of tweets early in the day. [...]

Sunday NRF social media recap

Sunday morning started with 14 Breakout Sessions followed by two Super Sessions in the afternoon. Two of the morning breakout sessions had the majority of the comments on Twitter.
Tom Davenport, President’s Distinguished Professor of Information Technology and Management at Babson College, presented the Analytical Trends and Directions in Retailing breakout session. Tom is co-author of the [...]

2009 NRF Big Show special edition

Even if you’re not able to make it to the National Retail Federation (NRF) Big Show this year, you still can keep up with what’s going on in New York City. There are a lot of attendees posting what’s interesting using Social Media technologies like Internet blogs and Twitter. We’ll post a daily summary of what people are [...]

Holiday 2008 — Holiday Spirit from the Retail Industry

I hope this Holiday edition of The Predictive Retailer finds you well. I want to take this opportunity to share with you a story that demonstrates the retail industry’s Holiday spirit.
Retailers are in the business of serving the communities they’re part of, however many retailers serve their communities in other ways beyond business.
It is not [...]

Promotion Optimization

“May you live in interesting times”
-Old Chinese Curse

Although The Yale book of Quotations claims there is no actual Chinese phrase to this
effect, the retail industry finds itself in, to put it mildly, said times for sure. With the
National Retail Federation reporting weak August sales as the lingering economic
downturn continues to put pressure on family finances, many retailers reported their
business decreased in September as well. Earlier predictions for this holiday season
expected a below average growth rate of 2.2%; and this was before early October’s
financial turbulence. Looks like “interesting” may be around for a while.