A recent article in CIO magazine offers some insights to retail enterprises gearing up for the holiday season. Author Sharon Goldman offers IT executives four tips – a focus on infrastructure fundamentals; an emphasis on security; leveraging of data analytics and a connection of front-end consumer experience tools with back-end supply chain systems.
All good stuff.
A couple of suggestions to add. Regarding infrastructure, couldn’t agree more on the need to focus on fundamentals. But that focus should include thinking carefully about what to include on the list of fundamentals and, specifically, what might have fallen through the cracks. For example, are you ensuring that certifications, updates and licenses are up to date? While those items might not be top of mind on a list of infrastructure essentials, they are essential to managing unanticipated events such as expansions, mergers and acquisitions or new regulatory requirements.
On the use of data analytics, meanwhile, my advice would be to start small and to create manageable and digestible sets of data that are targeted and specific. Focus on loyalty, buying patterns and rebates – on people who shop a lot at your store and use your apps and loyalty cards. If you have analytical tools for market baskets, for example, use them. I’ve seen many cases of the “peanut butter” effect where businesses have oceans of customer data but it’s spread too thin to provide any real insight. This results in little more than shooting in the dark – and if you doubt that retailers sometimes resort to guesswork, look in your mailbox and at all the stuff you get that’s completely irrelevant to you.
Finally, as the holiday prep season kicks off in earnest, I would urge preparation, preparation and more preparation. Test everything thoroughly, and in advance, from your website to disaster and recovery plans to contingency scenarios. When the doors open you want to be standing there straightening your tie.
