New Book - out now on Amazon

Latest publication by BCS features couple of my articles. The title of the book is “Management Skills in IT” and it is now available onAmazon.

Retail technology needs to think on its feet

I came across an interesting and relevant blog post by Paul Broome, CTO at TOREX. He lists a number of examples of innovative retail trends and experiments such as, Ebay shop on Oxford Street, Shoreditch Boxpark, John Lewis pop-up shops (listed below) and then argues that IT can play a significant role in leading such future innovations.

• E-tailer giant eBay has taken its proposition to an empty shop just off Oxford Street where it has opened the eBay Boutique. The store is stocked with 350 eBay bestsellers ranging from perfumes to digital cameras and flatscreen TVs. There are no tills, instead customers pay with their smartphone by reading QR codes on product tags.
• Shoreditch's Boxpark project mall recently opened; this being the world's first pop-up mall, built from stripped and re-fitted shopping containers.
• John Lewis pop-up shops at the Vintage at Goodwood festival for the last two years running. The shop was geared towards the festival's audience, stocking vintage products and running sewing workshops, fashion and furnishing advice.

In an example of how technology can respond he cites Apple example. Apple has been using its own products as portable POS system for some time. The combination of a HTML5 POS with the portability and low cost of tablet computing means this type of technology is well-suited to retailers, restaurants and bars looking for a flexible solution. The technology is applicable for delivery through a cloud-based service, making it easily accessible, without a big investment in hardware and can be set up in a matter of minutes. He argues that, such agility and flexibility could allow retailers to explore new sales channels to meet targets, particularly in the run-up to Christmas and over the January sales.

How $1.25 Billion Gets Spent In A Day - Cyber Monday

Further sticking with the theme of past few posts....sharing an interesting article by Karen Frankel on Blockbuster Cyber Monday. She notes that the spending increased 22%, the largest jump on record. Ten million people bought products online, comScore says, gobbling up $1.25 billion in goods easily beating the online sales offered on Black Friday.

Given the chilly economy, this turnabout is something of a surprise. One factor may have been "austerity fatigue," says comScore's Vice President, Industry Analysis, Andrew Lipsman. Consumers were so hungry for a break from the ongoing constraints of the financial crisis that they indulged like chocolate addicts at a Godiva outlet. Shopping sprees at work, where buyers could avoid family members looking over their shoulders as they selected surprise gifts, accounted for half the dollars spent, comScore said. Consumers also had greater-than-ever-access to online promotions and searchable coupons.  Over 550 merchants made special offers on Cyber Monday, including free shipping, hourly specials and exclusives, and sneak peeks of the hourly deals shared via email alerts.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday Bring Much Needed Retail Cheer

Picture courtesy - Reuters

Silicon Valley Business Journal reports, that retailers reported strong holiday sales on Black Friday, through the weekend and more is expected for so-called Cyber Monday. Sales on Black Friday were up 6.6 percent from a year ago, according to the consulting firm ShopperTrak, compared with only a 0.3 percent gain in 2010. For instance analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray said on Monday that Apple Inc sold about 15 iPads per hour at Apple Stores on Black Friday, a 68 percent increase from last year. 

As New York Time reports, cyber Monday may have started as a made-up occasion to give underdog e-commerce sites jealous of Black Friday a day of their own, but it has become an undeniably real thing surprising even the people who invented it. NY Times further reports that, last year was the first time that the Monday after Thanksgiving was the biggest online shopping day of the year by sales, and the first day that online spending passed $1 billion, according to comScore, a research company that measures Web use.  

Reuters report confirms the trend for this year, online sales reached $1.251 billion on Monday, up 22 percent from the same day last year, said comScore Inc, a closely watched Web tracking firm. IBM Benchmark, a unit of International Business Machines Corp, put the increase at 33 percent compared with Cyber Monday in 2010. Department stores saw online sales surge 60 percent this Cyber Monday, compared with last year, while sales of home goods rose 68 percent, IBM Benchmark added.

And this trend may long continue to the delight of retailers as Matt Warman reports over in the Telegraph, Apps are driving Christmas Toy sales.Sales of app-inspired toys and games increased 65 per cent week-on-week in the run-up to Christmas, John Lewis says. Elaine Hooper, John Lewis toys and books buyer said that “App toys are one of the fastest growing toy categories ever seen.”She claimed that “alongside other technology gifts including miniature digital cameras, camcorders and electronic learning tablets” there were now new types of toy. “Moshi Monsters and Angry Birds were barely on radar last year but are on every child’s Christmas wish list for 2011. We sold two app-inspired products in 2010 compared to the current 14”.

Holiday E-Commerce Spending Set to Grow 15%

The CIO magazine is reporting that, based on the first three weeks of November, comScore is forecasting 15% growth in e-commerce spending for the 2011 holiday season. U.S. consumers have so far spent $9.7 billion online during the first 20 days of the November-December holiday season, which is up 14% compared to the corresponding days last year. The heaviest online spending day of the season to date came on Nov. 16, when sales hit $688 million. Last year, U.S. consumers spent a total of $32.6 billion online during the holiday season (excluding auction sites and travel spending). This year's online holiday spending is expected to top $37.6 billion for a 15% gain, according to comScore's estimates.

"With the persistent backdrop of macroeconomic uncertainty and continued high unemployment, consumers appear to be increasingly favoring the online benefits of convenience and lower prices," said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni, in a statement. "Due to the strength leading up to and during the holiday season-to-date, comScore's statistical models are forecasting that U.S. retail e-commerce spending will grow at a rate of 15% vs. last year."

In a related story Bloomberg reports that, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and EBay Inc. (EBAY), aiming to get more consumers to shop online this holiday season, are taking their fight to brick-and-mortar retailers’ home turf on Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year. EBay is planning holiday “pop-up” locations in New York, San Francisco and London that will let consumers scan a barcode and buy products on the spot, using mobile phones. Amazon opened an online Black Friday deals store on Nov. 1. It’s packing the site with offers each day to keep shoppers checking in over the Web, instead of heading to the mall. 

Internet sellers aim to spur more buying from couches and armchairs among the more than 95 percent of U.S. consumers who still shop in stores, ratcheting up rivalry with traditional retailers as economic weakness weighs on spending growth. EBay’s outdoor displays and shopping cafes, for example, seek to catch the eye of shoppers who are hurrying in and out of stores, offering an alternative to post-Thanksgiving crowds and lines. 

Multi-Channel Retailing Takes a new Meaning with Retail Apps

Retail Reference Architecture, it's evolution and real-life pragmatic implementations happens to be one of my key interest area. So far on this blog I have discussed the concept of Retail Reference Architecture, proposed a concise yet complete Simplified Retail Reference Architecture and also shared some of the innovations from real-life implementations of Retailers such as ASOS. As a matter of fact I do follow fortunes of ASOS with great interest. To me this is a bold, new take on the science of retailing (...some might call is an Art of Retailing) which combines best practices from innovator's such as Amazon.com and presents a unique and deceptively simple business model. This post shares some of my further observations about ASOS and more importantly how they continue to lead the innovative use of Information Technology in the retail space.

Since summer ASOS  has launched its App for the Apple range of mobile devices. The new service has been designed for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users, and along with the function to ‘save for later’ any item of interest sold by the trader, the app also includes a locator for local drop-off points for customers looking to return unwanted purchases.
Free to download, the new app lets you browse and shop directly from fashion editorials, very similar to Net-à-Porter's. The app comes with trend reports and also contains content originally produced for the online version of the Asos magazine as well as exclusive footage and features such as video and 360-degree views of clothing items. The iPad app is available for free from the App Store since August this year with both Android and iPhone versions scheduled to launch by the close of 2011.

As the App design James Davie says, "this App design provided a series of new challenges. Most importantly striking the perfect balance between giving the user the familiar ASOS shopping experience, and the equally familiar iPad navigation experience. The final result is a balance of both which should give the user a quick, painless and enjoyable shopping experience."  Having personally used this App now I can confirm that this is one of the best fashion retailing App available out there with intuitive navigation, fresh content, catalogue, bold designs and just tons of "coolness"! Above the cosmetics, what stands out for me is the fact that, customer accounts are totally synchronised across all of the retailer’s platforms so whether they are using the new apps, the standard website or the mobile site all of their details will remain consistent.

This App and iPad appear to be made for each other and not just a lift-off from ecommerce site made to fit with iPad format. Just to clarify I am not a regular ASOS shopper but as a keen Retail Technology practitioner and follower...this company and it's innovation are worth watching!

Google Commerce Search: New Trend for Retailers for the Festive Season?

Google unveiled on Wednesday its Commerce Search Partner Program, designed to market and implement mobile e-commerce sites. The system integrators participating in the program will anchor the implementations with Google's Commerce Search, a cloud-hosted application that retailers buy to power the search engine of their e-commerce sites.

Google states that, "We wanted to make it easier for retailers to adopt Google Commerce Search to help them achieve amazing results and meet their customers’ needs. Through this new program, resellers can work with us to bring the unique capabilities of Google Commerce Search to their retail clients." Branding Brand has worked with Timberland and earlier this year GNC to turn their mobile visions into reality. Before GNC optimized their mobile website, 10 to 15 percent of their e-commerce traffic came from mobile. Since launching it this summer, there are twice as many visitors using search, and mobile search conversions are up 50 percent.

Google claims that, their newest customer, Timberland, just went live with their mobile-optimized website powered by Google Commerce Search in a matter of days. Chris Hardisty, director of Timberland Global E-Commerce, says: “Our first priority in developing our mobile website was making sure customers had the best experience possible. Shoppers today expect fast and relevant results especially on mobile, where speed and interactivity matter most. Since we launched our mobile-optimized website, we have seen mobile sales grow 20 times faster than our desktop site sales.”