The Candid Voice in Retail Technology: Objective Insights, Pragmatic Advice

The Agile Merchandising Lifecycle In The Age Of Disruption

With the exception of fast fashion, the merchandising lifecycle has been less than agile for many years.

Now, in the pandemic, consumers expect more sustainability, the pandemic has changed requirements.  It’s time to push the “go faster” button.  But it begs the question: go faster in which direction?

The answers are not so simple. We have pre-pandemic data and pandemic era data – but really don’t know what will stick and what won’t. Retailers and their merchandise vendors must find ways to create a more iterative and faster design, produce, allocate, ship cycle.

What are they thinking? Is near-sourcing an option?  What technologies do they believe can support them?  And….how will they implement those technologies with a predominantly home-based workforce?

This report uncovers retailers’ attitudes about what exactly agility in merchandising means and the challenges they perceive in getting there.

The Future Of Pricing

In an era of inflation and scarcity, with consumers more price conscious than ever, where does the role of pricing go from here?  To find out. we need your help.

Please take our survey here.
https://www.research.net/r/SGRDN5H

Are Retailers And Consumers In Sync On Social Responsibility?

In the middle of a global pandemic, one would think that sustainability and environmental and social responsibility would take a back seat and fall off the front pages of the news.

It turns out just the opposite occurred. The impact of climate change brought once-in-a-lifetime wildfires in California and Australia, a massive number of tropical storms in the Atlantic, recognition of the oceanic problems caused by single-use plastics caused many governments to ban them, and inhumane practices in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region led to calls for a boycott.

Of course, retail store and distribution center employees achieved “front-line worker” status and consumers took note of who rewarded those workers and who did not.

While some believe that concerns about sustainability and sourcing are limited to those with enough money to care, others believe that environmental concerns are here to stay and represent yet another hallmark of the generational shift we have been talking about for several years.

The purpose of this research is to find out if retailers and consumers are in sync on this issue. Is it simply a “luxury” that the wealthy care about, or is it reaching into the very core of consumer consciousness?  And, do retailers get it?