NSB`s Magazine

Transcription

NSB`s Magazine

NSB’s
Fall 2005
Connected Retailer
Magazine
Connected Retailer
Managed Services
All inclusive, hosted program delivers
NSB’s solutions with low TCO
Doneckers proves the
value of CRM
A rural retailer draws customers from far
and wide — and keeps them coming back
Raw materials
management
Self-sourcing: the competitive advantage
that puts designer-driven retailers on the
cutting edge
Expertise Innovation Execution
The view from the top
Success in retailing can be evaluated in many ways. The leaders in our
industry have proven expertise: They have learned over time what
their businesses require and their customers want. Winning retailers
are innovative, continually striving to provide fresh and relevant offerings. They are also committed to executing their plans thoroughly, to
consistently deliver their brand promise at every point of contact.
We at NSB assess our own performance according to these same
standards. For example, after 33 years in business, our company has
acquired the real-world expertise to know what works and what does
not. We apply that expertise in everything we do, and have detailed
best practices to help you define and achieve your unique retail vision.
In this issue of Connected Retailer magazine, we present a variety of
those best practices for boosting ROI with Merchandising, improving
data collection with CRM, and bringing products to market faster by
self-sourcing raw materials.
Like you, NSB is committed to innovation. Throughout our history, we
have remained at the forefront of retail solution development by leveraging advanced technology to respond to established needs and
trends. A feature article on our new Managed Services offering
describes how we have done this recently by making the benefits of
our Connected Retailer ® solutions more accessible and affordable to
mid-sized and smaller retailers. And, in another example of NSB innovation, we introduce you to North America’s first retail implementation
of mobile CRM technology.
Equally important, we work with you to clearly define your technology
and implementation needs, then execute the agreed-upon project
plan to your complete satisfaction. NSB is recognized as the “go-live”
company, and we have used our standards-based methodology to
complete hundreds of implementations. We are pleased to report on
two of these in this magazine, and on our ranking by IHL Group as the
premier provider of POS to soft-goods specialty retailers. We also
present news on the positive long-term results achieved through
another implementation, with a case study on how Doneckers is growing their business with support from CRM.
Expertise. Innovation. Execution. These words are more than just
ideals: They summarize what we offer the market, our ongoing commitment to our clients, and the very foundation of our success.
Nikki Beckett
Chief Executive Officer, NSB Group
contents
3 Connected Retailer Managed Services:
big solutions, low TCO!
6 Our Microsoft Gold Certified Partnership
and what it means for you
7 NSB ranked #1 for Store
8 Self-managing raw materials: the new
secret of sourcing success
10 Reality retailing: an analyst's perspective
12 Doneckers: high-end destination shopping
with CRM
14 Maximizing your Merchandising ROI
17 What's new with Connected Retailer:
A&R 4.1 and Assortment Planning 4.0
18 Privacy, security, and CRM:
making the marriage work
20 Going mobile with Build-A-Bear and
Casual Male
21 Learn peak performance retailing in just
one hour!
22 In the news
Editor: Doug Campbell
Writers: Doug Campbell, Gerald Maidment, Melanie Tabet
Design and layout: Alan Russell
Proofreading: Veronica Schami Editorial Services
Contributing photographer: Vadim Chiline
© 2005 NSB Retail Solutions Inc. All Rights Reserved. Connected
Retailer, NSB, the NSB logo, and certain other marks are trademarks
or service marks of NSB Retail Solutions Inc. and/or another NSB
company. Other marks are the trademarks or service marks of their
respective owners.
Proven solutions for connected retailers ®
NSB Retail Solutions Inc.
2800 Trans-Canada Highway
Montreal, Quebec
H9R 1B1
Canada
Phone: 514-426-0822
Fax: 514-426-0824
Email: [email protected]
Connected Retailer Managed Services: hands-free
IT, developed, implemented, and hosted by NSB!
Now, it’s easier and more affordable than ever for almost any retailer to get the competitive
advantages of the industry’s leading suite of retail solutions.
At NSB, we know how hard you work to remain competitive. We
also know how tough it can be for some of you to get the solutions you need to reach your full potential. Most full-featured,
best-of-breed systems require a large, upfront capital investment
and ongoing resources that may exceed your capabilities —
especially if you run a modest retail enterprise or have a small
technical staff.
Today, we’re proud to introduce an answer to this dilemma:
Connected Retailer Managed Services. This all-inclusive, hosted
offering includes proven solutions that are developed, packaged,
and maintained by NSB, and delivered directly to your stores and
head office via high-speed, persistent networks. By dramatically
reducing your requirements for on-site technical infrastructure,
Managed Services enables you to benefit from our acclaimed
Connected Retailer suite while lowering your total cost of ownership (TCO).
turnkey solution that apparel, footwear, and specialty retailers
can use with confidence to gain the competitive advantages of
our Connected Retailer solutions, while dramatically reducing
their costs and in-house requirements.”
Connected Retailer Managed Services provides everything you
need for a fixed, quarterly fee (plus a one-time setup charge).
• NSB delivers our proven Connected Retailer Store, CRM,
Sales Audit, and Merchandising solutions, plus Microsoft
Great Plains (when required), all in real time.
• NSB supplies the infrastructure for both the host and store
hardware, so your implementation is streamlined and fast.
• Your system is monitored and maintained around the clock,
your data is automatically backed up, and you’re covered by
our complete disaster recovery services.
• Updates are installed at no extra cost, so your system stays
current, year after year.
“With NSB’s Managed Services offering,
we will leverage the latest retail
technology without incurring the higher
costs or risks of running it in-house.”
The best of the Connected Retailer
Geneviève Bulgin
Director of Retail Operations
The Jean Shop
At the heart of the Managed Services offering are the key solutions in the Connected Retailer suite. They integrate smoothly
with Microsoft’s leading financial software, which is available as
an option.
• 24/7 support is always just a phone call or mouse click
away.
Merchandising synchronizes your retail functions with flexible
.NET tools. The Managed Services Merchandising applications
include Enterprise Data Management, Product Data Management, Purchase Order Management, Price Management,
Inventory Management, Allocation and Replenishment, Invoice
Matching, Stock Ledger, Merchandise Analytics, and Open to Buy.
Store combines essential in-store tools with the superior integration capabilities of .NET to enable exceptional operations,
customer service, and cross-selling and up-selling opportunities.
Managed Services Store applications include Point of Sale, Instore CRM, Communications, Customer Payment, Store Inventory
Tracking, and Back Office.
Finally — advanced IT for all retailers
“Managed Services is a complete offering designed to let retailers focus on running their businesses,” says Leo Rabinovitch,
NSB’s Senior Vice President for Managed Services. “It is a
Sales Analytics provides a central repository of accurate transaction data from all channels and devices. You’ll run a highly
efficient and well-connected enterprise using our Sales Audit,
Credit Settlement, real-time Flash Sales, and Voucher
Management applications.
CRM lets you capture, analyze, and apply customer information
to manage and optimize loyalty programs and improve your
NSB’s Connected Retailer Magazine - Fall, 2005
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marketing initiatives. CRM includes our powerful Customer
Information Management and Customer Analytics applications,
which support data from all channels (your stores, Website,
catalogs, and call centers).
Microsoft Great Plains for Financial Management enables you to
integrate and automate financial processes to improve your performance and reduce costs. Using Accounts Payable, General
Ledger, and Bank Reconciliation, you will reduce the time and
effort required for key accounting tasks and connect smoothly
with operations across your entire business.
With Managed Services, your Connected Retailer solutions are
the same ones proven in use by leading retailers throughout
North America. You get the same advanced features and benefits, and the same architecture for efficiency, scalability, and ease
of use. You can also bring the solutions in house at any time, with
no costly interruptions to your business and no conversion
requirements.
Building value through partnership:
Enhancing NSB’s Managed
Services with Microsoft
Great Plains
By including Great Plains for Financial Management as
an option with the preconfigured Connected Retailer
Managed Services software, NSB continues to reinforce
its Certified Gold partnership with Microsoft.
“NSB’s long-standing partnership with Microsoft has
helped us deliver superior solutions and value to our
retail clients,” says David Henning, NSB’s Vice-President
of Marketing. “Our new agreement with Great Plains
brings even more of these advantages to our Managed
Services clients.”
Leading hardware and peripherals
Connected Retailer Managed Services also includes hardware
and infrastructure from the industry’s best manufacturers.
• IBM supplies their SurePOS retail-hardened POS register, a
completely integrated register unit that includes an LCD
touch screen, integrated check reader, Raid 1 redundancy,
and other advanced features.
• Symbol provides tried-and-true scanner and wireless handheld hardware.
• Ingenico is our partner for industry-leading PIN-based debit
terminals.
• Lexmark makes the laser printers for your in-store report
printing needs.
• Microsoft provides SQL Server databases and Windows
operating systems.
In addition, NSB will work with you on your terms to provide your
wide area network, using NSB’s preferred national network communication partner or the carrier of your choice.
Comprehensive services
To ensure your Managed Services consistently deliver the value
and results you expect, NSB provides a complete range of support services.
• Professional services will install the head office applications
on NSB’s servers, install and set up your store hardware,
and provide complete training.
• Security and disaster recovery services include vigilant,
24/7 monitoring, redundant systems on- and off-site, and
reliable disaster recovery for your data and retail IT operations. This critical component of NSB’s Managed Services
program is designed to ensure the safety of your data, and
to exceed the expectations of the most risk-averse retailers.
• Database tuning, enhancement, and maintenance services
ensure your Microsoft SQL databases are always operating
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Microsoft agrees. “We’re pleased that Microsoft Great
Plains has been selected by NSB Group as the business
solutions platform for their new Connected Retailer
Managed Services offering,” says Jeff Young, Great
Plains General Manager with Microsoft. “We’re looking
forward to a successful partnership providing our combined, highly competitive solutions for mid-market
retailers.”
at peak performance, and eliminate any need for third-party
resources. People with these skills are expensive to attract
and keep in-house. With Managed Services from NSB, you
don’t have to.
• Data management services ensure the day-to-day movement and integrity of your retail operations’ data. NSB will
ensure the data you rely on to make your retail business
decisions is always easy to access, whenever you need it.
• Software updates are automatically included with your
Managed Services package. NSB will install and test all
software enhancements, from routine fixes or maintenance
releases to major upgrades, to ensure you will always benefit from the latest functionality.
Predictable, fixed terms
Connected Retailer Managed Services are offered on terms that
simplify the budgeting process and bring integrated automation
well within the reach of almost any retailer. Your one-time setup
fee will cover the cost of data conversion, implementation and
training, payment processing certification, and POS register
staging services. As an option, we can also take care of on-site
POS register installation and remote support.
Following the implementation, your fixed quarterly fee is allinclusive. It covers access to your Connected Retailer solutions,
the Microsoft Great Plains software (if selected as an option), all
hardware and head office infrastructure, plus the security and
support services needed to manage the solutions in our hosted
environment.
Low TCO
As a hosted, fee-based solution, Managed Services dramatically
lowers your TCO, compared with traditional retail systems.
you focus on what you know and do best — successfully
running your retail business.
For more information on our new Managed Services offering,
please contact Clifford Perlman: [email protected],
(514) 426-0822, ext. 2266.
• The capital investment required to get you started will be a
fraction of what is typically required to license and implement traditional retail solutions.
• You will not require your own in-house systems infrastructure or a large IT staff. You will also eliminate costs associated with custom development, testing, and implementation.
• You will benefit from discounted group pricing on payment
processing, networking (installation, implementation, and
monitoring), and supplies.
The last migration you’ll ever need
In developing our Managed Services offering, NSB has leveraged
more than 30 years of retail insights and best practices to create a packaged configuration with everything you need. Our
proven track record in designing, engineering, integrating, and
installing retail systems includes remote and on-site support of
head office servers, operating systems, databases, networks,
and communication infrastructure.
“Managed Services is an ideal way to consolidate, streamline,
and update your retail systems, with the industry’s most experienced solutions provider,” says Clifford Perlman, Director of
Business Development for Managed Services. “This offering is
ideal for retailers seeking to overcome the burdens of outdated
systems and limited budgets. And once you are migrated, we
assume full responsibility for all updates and upgrades — which
makes Managed Services the last formal migration you will ever
need.”
Is it right for you?
NSB will work with you and your team to assess whether
Managed Services is the right option for your retail enterprise,
carefully considering your history, infrastructure, objectives, and
budget.
As part of this discovery process, we will also fully evaluate the
TCO of both your existing system and the Managed Services
option. “We will account for all elements of cost and return, and
ensure you fully understand what to expect in year one and in
every year thereafter,” says Rabinovitch. “With an accurate TCO
calculation, you will be in the best possible position to make the
right decision. And once your decision is made, we will create a
blueprint to deliver our all-in-one Managed Services offering in
the manner that best suits your retail operation.”
Learn more today
You have a vision for your enterprise, and we have the retail solutions to help you realize it. Partner with NSB as a member of our
Managed Services program, and get the retail solutions that let
Connected Retailer
Managed Services
the right fit for
The Jean Shop Limited
Longtime NSB client The Jean Shop Limited recently selected
Managed Services to support their stores, enhance customer
experience, and improve efficiencies at the head office.
Geneviève Bulgin, the company’s Director of Retail Operations
says, “With NSB’s Managed Services offering, we will leverage
the latest retail technology without incurring the higher costs or
risks of running it in-house. Since we have a limited budget for
our systems and few IT resources, Managed Services is the
perfect solution for our business. It will let us focus on running
our stores without worrying about our systems.”
“We have worked with The Jean Shop Limited for many years
and understand their business,” says Leo Rabinovitch, Senior
VP of Managed Services for the NSB Group. “Our all-in-one
software, hardware, and maintenance package will enable them
to work more productively as retail entrepreneurs. Having a
solution that is hosted and supported by us effectively extends
their IT staff. Managed Services also lets The Jean Shop benefit
from the latest technology while lowering their capital costs,
TCO, and risks.”
NSB Group recognized for Microsoft Gold
Certified Partnership
NSB Group has met the stringent criteria of Microsoft’s Gold Certification Program achieving Microsoft
Gold Certified Partner status for the ISV/Software Solutions core competency. This highest level of
collaboration is offered to a select few vendors. It represents NSB’s demonstrated expertise with
Microsoft technologies and our proven ability to leverage them to meet our customers’ needs.
Concrete benefits for NSB clients
“Our Gold Certified Partner designation with Microsoft gives us
an exclusive seat at the table for early involvement in the evaluation of new products and technologies and priority access to a
support team of Microsoft-certified systems engineers,” says
Glenn Kerrick, NSB’s Senior Vice President of Development.
“With Microsoft as an NSB Group industry partner, we’ve lowered
our total cost of ownership, experienced benefits in application
development productivity, and achieved a higher level of interoperability. Microsoft is helping us meet the diverse requirements
of our retail clients and deliver cost-effective licensing schemes
in a competitive market.”
NSB has been working closely with Microsoft to leverage a number of its next-generation products and technologies. These
include Windows Embedded for Point of Service; the next version
of the Windows operating system, code-named Longhorn;
Microsoft’s next-generation Web-services technology, codenamed “Indigo”; and Microsoft’s unified graphics-presentation
subsystem for Windows, code-named “Avalon.”
A mutual commitment
“NSB is an important industry partner in the retail space and has
shown vision and leadership in developing and delivering highvalue enterprise-level solutions built with Microsoft .NET,” said
Brian Scott, Vice President of Microsoft’s Retail & Hospitality
Industry Solutions Unit. “As further evidence of its commitment to
Microsoft Smarter Retailing, NSB continues to enhance its retail
offerings, becoming one of the first retail software companies to
embrace the new retail-hardened Windows Embedded for Point
of Service operating system. We will continue to work with NSB
to reduce IT complexity and drive cost savings for retailers via
technology.”
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“Microsoft Gold Certified Partners, which have certified expertise
and direct training and support from Microsoft, can build a positive customer experience with our technologies,” said Janet
Kennedy, Managing Director for Microsoft’s Retail & Hospitality
Industry Solutions Unit. Microsoft recognizes NSB as a new
Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for demonstrating its ability to
serve its customers and help drive their business success.”
NSB ranked #1 for Store
NSB Group has been ranked by IHL Consulting
Group as the leading installed supplier of POS
software to top specialty softgoods retailers.
A recent IHL report, A Retailer’s Guide: POS Software for
Softgoods Retailers, evaluated vendors of POS software installed
among the top 250 retailers in the specialty softgoods space and
ranked the top 10 according to:
• Total number of vendor accounts among the
leading 250 softgoods retailers
• Estimated number of POS systems
running the vendor’s software
based on store count and
lanes per store data
• The retail revenue represented
by the vendor accounts
NSB ranked number 1 in all categories!
Greg Buzek, President of IHL, commented, “This
report looks at several aspects of POS software
as it relates to North American specialty softgoods
retailers, including core functionality, economic and
technological trends, and market share statistics.
NSB Group finished first in our analysis in all criteria. Their
customer base, track record for innovation, and close Microsoft
partnership are strong qualities that should help them stay at the
top in this space going forward.”
“It’s gratifying to be ranked in this top position, particularly since
our client base includes some of the hottest names in specialty
retail,” says Stuart Mitchell, Chief Financial Officer for the NSB
Group. “Thanks to our client community and our three decades
of experience, we’ve become both market leaders and thought
leaders for POS. We’re extremely proud of the successes we’ve
achieved together.”
The Connected Retailer Store Solution is a comprehensive and
innovative store automation system that delivers enhanced multichannel retailing capabilities, improved employee productivity,
and increased levels of customer service and spend. The solution enables retailers to respond rapidly to changing business
needs without jeopardizing the upgrade path to future releases,
ensuring a long-term, favorable cost of ownership.
According to Mitchell, “Retailers consistently tell us they’re looking for a solution that will make them more agile, while still
retaining their ability to move from release to release. This is why
we adopted Microsoft .NET as the technology platform for POS,
and we believe the results speak for themselves.”
For more information about Connected Retailer Store and how it
can benefit your retail business, contact Mark Wallinger:
[email protected]; 614-840-1848. Alternatively, visit
the “Connected Retailer Solutions” section of nsbgroup.com.
The .NET Store advantage
Why did we choose to develop our industry-leading Store Solution
on Microsoft .NET? With .NET, retailers benefit from complete
deployment flexibility (thin-, fit-, or thick-client configurations),
full support for multichannel retailing, greater connectivity to
distributed applications, easier customization and cross-application
integration, and lower total cost of ownership. The .NET
architecture allows retailers to interact with their customers and
staff using the full spectrum of current and emerging technologies.
NSB has helped bring the benefits of Microsoft .NET technology to
many leading retailers, including The Orvis Company. "With a
certified .NET POS platform in place, we are now positioned to
incorporate true multichannel retailing practices into our business
by leveraging Web service assets in the store, on our website, and
in our call centers," says Mark Holmes, Vice President of
Information Services for Orvis, the premier outfitter of distinctive
country lifestyle and sporting traditions since 1856. "I feel like we
are poised to jump out ahead of our competitors, and implement
the capabilities that everyone's talking about."
Other clients deploying NSB's .NET solutions to connect
information, devices, and people in a unified, personalized way
include Donna Karan, Lamps Plus, Mothercare, Reitmans, and
Chico's.
Self-managing raw materials:
the new secret of sourcing success
Today’s designer-driven apparel retailers are gaining a competitive advantage by sourcing their
materials in-house. Connected Retailer Sourcing and Product Development, powered by Momentis,
can put you on the cutting edge.
Global sourcing has become an imperative for vertically integrated apparel retailers. Overseas manufacturing offers substantial
cost savings, due to relatively inexpensive labor, and sourcing
products both domestically and internationally ensures retailers
the widest possible range of choice.
However, with so many retailers now following this approach,
those who want to stay at the forefront of their markets are looking for a new competitive advantage. And thanks to the advanced
capabilities of NSB’s Sourcing and Product Development
Solution, powered by Momentis®, many are obtaining that advantage by sourcing their own raw materials.
The need for speed
Traditionally, most apparel retailers have contracted their manufacturers to take care of the entire garment production process
— including the complex and varied preproduction tasks. The
simplicity of “one-stop shopping” has been seen as a reasonable
trade-off for the extra time the manufacturers require to source
the materials and have them approved before proceeding with
samples, cutting, and final assembly.
Leading retailers are now rethinking the cost of this convenience.
They recognize it is critical to reduce lead times and production
cycles to quickly turn product and introduce new merchandise.
They need to stay ahead of changing trends by bringing new
styles to life with highly original and appealing materials.
Similarly, they understand that quality control is more important
than ever before. Today’s designer-driven retailers are seeking to
achieve all this and more, because today’s design-conscious
consumers are demanding nothing less.
Solutions to each of these challenges can be found by bringing
the process of sourcing raw materials in-house. Using the
advanced functionality available with Connected Retailer
Sourcing and Product Development, powered by Momentis,
retailers are able to manage all the steps and variables associated with sourcing and buying fabrics, to precisely execute their
visions and get new products to market fast.
Shorter cycles, faster turns
For manufacturers, raw materials sourcing can account for up to
half of the overall production cycle. “If I go overseas with a design
I want produced but I don’t already have the fabric position, my
manufacturer has to locate a suitable mill, then go through the
whole approval process with me,” says Leonard Litwin, Senior
Project Manager with Momentis Systems. “That’s going to add a
lot of time, especially if I end up rejecting the first samples and
we have to start over from scratch. Typically, it’s going
to take at least 15 to 20 weeks to get the finished products on my shelves. And in today’s
market, that’s just too long.”
“In contrast, if I’ve already bought or
located my fabric and proven it with
my designs, all I have to do is supply
it to the factory, and all they have
to do is go ahead and cut, sew,
and ship,” Litwin continues. “That
greatly reduces my lead times,
and puts new products on my
shelves much faster than my
competitors.”
By taking an early position on their raw materials, retailers can often cut
the 15- to 20-week production cycle down to a mere
eight or nine weeks.”
Stay on top of quality and
ahead of the trends
Self-sourcing materials also makes
retailers much more responsive to
changing market trends. Instead of relying
on the manufacturer to obtain suitable fabrics and trims after a
design is ready for production, the retailer’s design staff can
focus well ahead of time on fabric trends. They can identify the
latest materials, locate the right producers, and thoroughly
pretest samples against their designs. As a result, a self-sourcing retailer can offer more original, higher quality merchandise.
Use the right solution to achieve the right results
In spite of these clear advantages, many retailers have been
reluctant to take ownership of their materials sourcing. The
process has often been viewed as being too complicated, and
too dependent on highly specialized skills.
That view, however, does not accurately reflect the current state
of the industry or the capabilities of today’s advanced sourcing
technology. Connected Retailer Sourcing and Product
Development brings the benefits of raw materials management
to almost any vertically integrated apparel retailer. The
Momentis-based system is designed to streamline not only the
actual production process but all the steps leading up to it as well
— from researching, sourcing, and tracking the fabric to buying
the trims — while directing the critical path and coordinating
every action involved.
Control your fabrics and trims
For example, “shade happens,” says Momentis’s Katia Berlin.
“You may need 9,000 yards of fabric, but if the capacity of the
dye kettle is only 3,000 yards, each batch will be slightly different. And if the fabric isn’t mixed perfectly, you’ll even get shade
variations within each roll.”
Streamline communications and approvals
Sourcing and Product Development not only helps you manage
specific tasks associated with raw materials, it helps you coordinate them for improved garment production.
For example, clear communication is critical to smooth production, especially when dealing with tight timelines and companies
overseas. Sourcing and Product Development includes a variety
of modules to ensure efficient data and process management, so
that each action involving your raw materials is based on clear
directives, appropriately timed, and visible to all concerned.
Using the Vendor Connect module, offshore stakeholders can log
in to the system to provide status and task updates. This lets you
track and direct overseas processes continuously and to communicate approvals more quickly, using as much information as
you would normally obtain from your local manufacturers. Such
clear communications also serve to strengthen your relationships
and thus to further improve your performance over time.
The production process itself is controlled by a separate module
called Critical Path Management. It allows you to map the production process and issue tasks to everyone involved, internally
and externally, at a level that is as detailed or high-level as you
need.
Take control!
Connected Retailer Sourcing and Product Development, powered
by Momentis, has the tools you need to dramatically increase
productivity at the front end of your apparel creation process and
throughout your supply chain. In the words of Martin Thibodeau,
Vice President of Information Technology for La Senza
Corporation, “The Momentis-based sourcing system is as key as
email in our international success.”
To learn more about how Sourcing and Product Development can
sharpen your competitive edge, contact Ben Sherren:
[email protected]; 514-426-0822 x2792, or visit the
“Connected Retailer Solutions” section of nsbgroup.com.
“Sourcing and Product Development is designed to carefully
manage dye lot control and all other fabric variables,” she continues. “The system identifies each roll with numbers that track
all of its unique characteristics, including its length, width, material, color, shading, and any internal defects. In this way, any
inconsistencies that could affect grading and marking from one
roll to the next can be caught and corrected before anything is
actually cut and wasted.”
The solution also lets you control all other materials, including
linings, trims, padding, and buttons. It helps you source all these
products and get them in stock on time so you can go ahead and
produce.
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Reality retailing: an analyst's perspective
Retailers and software vendors alike often rely on industry analysts when making important business
decisions. Paula Rosenblum, Director of Retail Research with the Aberdeen Group, shares her views
on the role of analysts, key issues facing the industry, and how retailers can address them.
What is the role of a retail analyst, and
what skills does it require?
Analysts act mainly as filtering agents. They work with retailers
to help create awareness of new technologies available in the
marketplace, and to help users understand what winners are
doing to succeed. They contextualize what vendors are offering
and help the user decide what is best for them.
Comprehensive, up-to-date industry knowledge is obviously
essential in this role, as are good communication skills. But to
provide real value to your clients, you also need grassroots experience. You need to have walked in their shoes to understand
what their challenges are. Having done that means that I am able
to distinguish what is practical from what is merely fancy. I am
proud that I am able to bring a dose of reality to the table.
customers, you can be highly efficient yet still struggle as a
business.
In contrast, a retailer with interesting, innovative products cannot
only attract more customers, he is also less price-sensitive. I feel
the time is right for retailers to refocus on innovation. The art of
choosing and designing exciting products should support — not
supplant — the science of deciding how much to buy, where to
sell, and what price to charge.
Where does your sense of “retail reality”
come from?
Retail is in my blood. My father supported my whole family as a
single-store retailer, and I started out stocking shelves for him
when I was 16. I learned the business from the ground up. I also
learned to appreciate the important role played by the small- and
medium-sized retail businesses — to the industry as a whole,
and to people and communities across North America.
My first job in retail technology was at Hit or Miss. My boss there,
Ray Benoit, was a true mentor who taught me the fundamentals
of management in the real world. Since that time, I have worked
in a number of different positions. I was a CIO for seven years,
and have served as a director with several companies. In total, I
have 23 years of senior retail experience, which I have applied as
an analyst since 2001. I am especially pleased to be doing this
at Aberdeen, since we focus on making quality research accessible to all retailers, not just the major chains.
What are some of today’s most important
retail issues?
Key challenges at the store level include a return to true customer-centricity and consistency in execution. You can talk all
you want about putting the customer first, but the moment of
truth in defining a store’s brand is when that customer walks
through your door. As I reported in Aberdeen’s Empowered Point
of Service Benchmark Report, success for today’s retailer lies in
creating a more compelling and convenient in-store experience
and delivering it time after time.
Improving speed to market and reaction times are also important
challenges for today’s retailers, but supply chain efficiency only
really matters if the customer is interested in what you are selling. If you are selling mediocre products that don’t excite your
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Within the enterprise, extended supply chain visibility is
becoming very important. So are sourcing programs and
business performance tools that enable retailers to more
effectively manage their whole business.
Across the industry as a whole, I think we’re entering the
post-Wal-Mart era. Many consumers are getting tired of
uniformity; there is a growing demand for personalized
service and more distinctive products.
Another current supply chain challenge is the temptation to
source all products from one country based on cost alone.
Retailers who do this are vulnerable; a single, major event such
as a terrorist act, an outbreak of disease, a tsunami, or even a
dockworkers’ strike could have a devastating effect on supply.
It’s important to use technology to broaden supply networks and
develop backup plans.
What lies ahead and how can retailers
prepare?
Within the enterprise, extended supply chain visibility is becoming very important. So are sourcing programs and business performance tools that enable retailers to more effectively manage
their whole business.
Retailers must also make better use of technology to measure
overall performance across the retail enterprise. I call it moving
beyond the “tyranny of turn” to truer, more robust pictures of
retail enterprise health. Any application that helps monitor the
cost and revenue impact of every decision will be helpful (such
as dashboards, analytics, and benchmarking tools). Advanced
forecasting tools that allow for effective price management are
also becoming increasingly popular.
Across the industry as a whole, I think we’re entering the postWal-Mart era. Many consumers are getting tired of uniformity;
there is a growing demand for personalized service and more
distinctive products. Here too, technology has an important role
to play. Increasingly, retailers are turning to advanced CRM solutions to help tailor their offerings, and to PDAs and other tools
that can assist store associates and their customers on the selling floor.
For these reasons, I think the future looks good for mid-sized
retailers, and even for family businesses. They are now being
taken over by the computer-savvy children of their retiring owners, and they’re selling products that Wal-Mart doesn’t offer, in
neighborhoods that want a variety of shopping alternatives.
Corporate expatriates are also going into retail. They are smart
enough to know what they are doing and experienced enough to
use technology to achieve a competitive edge.
Have you been surprised by any
trends?
I was surprised by the adoption of self-checkout. I did not think
that retailers would be interested in it and that consumers would
be willing to adopt it. And at the moment, I am surprised by the
interest in biometrics as a form of payment. I just do not find carrying credit cards around to be that inconvenient.
However, I am not surprised that RFID has not yet taken off on a
large scale. Although retailers spend a lot of money on managing physical inventory and RFID promises to make this process
much more efficient, chip and reader technology has to become
better and cheaper before it comes into widespread use.
What do you ultimately want to contribute
to your clients and the industry?
I view being an analyst as the capstone of my career — and
what I do as a serious responsibility. Someone at NSB once said
to me, “You know, we come to analysts for advice and, based
what they tell us, we spend real money. Someone needs to be
accountable if that advice is not correct.” I was really struck by
that statement. It was a clear reminder that our suggestions
influence actions with real consequences, and that careers are
made or broken based on some of the things we say.
My hope is therefore that I can share some of my knowledge on
winning strategies and technologies to directly improve my
clients’ success. It’s great when a retailer tells me they used a
report I wrote or a speech I’d given to make a positive difference
in their business.
Paula Rosenblum
As director of Aberdeen Group’s Retail
Research practice, Paula Rosenblum
focuses on the critical issues facing
today’s retail executives. Her research
gives retailers insights into strategies to
optimize their enterprises, empower the
customer through the art of merchandise
selection, and marry world-class
technology with logistics management.
Paula holds an MBA in Management of
High Technology from Northeastern
University, and has more than 20 years
of experience as a retail technology
executive. She can be reached at:
[email protected].
11
Doneckers: successful high-end destination
shopping with CRM
With help from NSB’s CRM Solution, a multifaceted, rural retailer motivates customers to drive far and
wide to shop at their stores, and keeps them coming back.
Values inspire growth of a community
In an age in which higher-end merchandise is often associated
with urban affluence and downtown glitz, Doneckers is a refreshing study in contrasts. Located in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, an hour
north of Philadelphia in the heart of Amish country, this multifaceted retailer has demonstrated that sticking to proven principles
while providing exceptional goods and service can draw customers from far and wide, and be a model for successful retailing almost anywhere.
The enterprise began in 1949 when C. Paul Donecker and his
son, H. William (“Bill”), started a mail-order business called Club
Plan. Eight years later, they opened their first store, a showroom
for the furniture and dry goods they continued to sell by mail.
Once the entire family became involved, in 1961, Doneckers
began a steady program of expansion by broadening their merchandise lines and opening a number of complementary operations. Their original location now forms the heart of a graceful
complex that includes an exclusive furniture gallery; fine jewelry,
linen, and specialty department stores; several inns; a gourmet
restaurant; and a banquet hall for weddings and other elegant
functions.
“Reliably, effectively, and in a time-efficient manner, NSB’s
CRM Solution lets us manage and target the mailings and
monitor the responses for hundreds of events each year at
our specialty department store.”
Ellen Mowrer, Vice President for Corporate Development,
Doneckers
After 55 years and many changes, the family values that originally inspired the Doneckers are still reflected in every part of the
business. The stores are still closed on Sunday — as well as on
Wednesdays, at Mr. Donecker’s request. Many of their 300
employees have decades of service with the company, and all
are dedicated to providing outstanding, highly personalized customer service. It’s one reason why, in spite of their five-day-perweek schedule, Doneckers is close to being one of the top-10 US
single-unit specialty stores based on sales revenues.
Creating and maintaining a shopping destination
In the process of transforming a simple, small-town enterprise
into a refined shopping destination, Doneckers has worked
steadily to retain and expand their customer base. “Because
12
we’re located outside of major markets such as Philadelphia and
New York, only 45 percent of our clients are local,” explains the
VP of Corporate Development, Ellen Mowrer. “Forty percent come
from outlying districts, including Maryland, Philadelphia, Jersey,
and Delaware, and the rest are from elsewhere in the US, as far
away as California, Texas, and Florida.”
To serve these varied markets, Doneckers offers a range of better, best, bridge, and designer merchandise. “This allows us to
appeal to the more value-oriented local customer, while providing the higher-end exclusives that attract our best customers
from further away,” Mowrer says.
The retailer’s main challenge is to not only attract its target customers, particularly women with household incomes greater than
$100K, but also to make sure an outstanding shopping experience keeps them coming back. “We do this in many ways,” says
Mowrer. “We combine accommodation and meal packages at
our inns and restaurant, we offer numerous shows and events
throughout the year, and we stay in close contact with our customers to present promotions and new offerings.” To do this,
Doneckers relies on the Connected Retailer CRM Solution from
NSB.
Meeting direct marketing needs with CRM
Doneckers’ original CRM Solution was the Customer Profile
System, an NSB product they implemented in 1993, which
included interfaces to their point of sale and merchandising systems. But as their client base expanded, so did their CRM needs.
To meet them, Doneckers purchased NSB’s next-generation
Connected Retailer CRM Solution in 2002.
“To support our marketing initiatives, we needed a CRM solution
that would enable us to track and reach all our customers,”
Mowrer says. “We also needed an adaptable system that could
help us grow and embrace new opportunities, such as our
points-based loyalty program. NSB’s Connected Retailer CRM
Solution met all these requirements.”
So many events, so little time!
In just four months during the spring of 2005, Doneckers held 65
trunk shows, parties, vendor appearances, and special events
featuring everything from bridal merchandise to Mongolian rugs
to famous New York hat designers. They also staged eight fashion shows and a Mother’s Day banquet. Yet, surprisingly, the
retailer has only one person dedicated to marketing these
events.
“Given our limited resources, we could not achieve this level of
activity without a reliable and responsive CRM solution,” says
Mowrer. “These events are critical to our business, which is driven
by service, not sales or discounting. Our highly targeted mailings
find the right customer for the right event, thanks to the detailed
information and analytical tools in the CRM database.”
Tracking and targeting the right customers
Beyond looking at what someone bought, how much they spent,
and the last time they visited the stores, Doneckers determines
where their target customers live and how likely they are to make
the trip for any given event, based on distances and seasonal
weather variations. The retailer also plans its events to drive traffic
during quiet times, like high summer or the depths of winter. With
all these activities, an effective database is critical to their success.
“Our database is cleaner than any list we’ve ever rented or been
given,” says Mowrer. “Our mailings go first class on a Friday to
ensure that time-sensitive information is received no later than the
following Wednesday. This lets our customers plan their agenda for
the coming weekend. And first-class mailings mean we get every
change of address or return, so we can rigorously update our database with the new information.”
Results speak for themselves
Using CRM, Doneckers achieves excellent response rates for their
mailed invitations and thank-you notes, which typically include
offers. Rates for frequent customers are often between 25 percent
and 30 percent, and even vendor pieces usually generate responses of more than 10 percent.
“We capture from 80 percent to 100 percent of a customer’s transactions, and the ones we don’t catch are for low-price items like
cards,” explains Mowrer. “The information feeds through automatically from our POS to the CRM database. Combining high capture
rates with a clean database means that 99.5 percent of our mailings reach their destination, and we have a very effective and
responsive line of communication.”
The retailer pays special attention to customers who make frequent, large purchases — most of whom tend to buy items for
themselves rather than as gifts. “The CRM solution helps us understand and respond to the needs of our super-customers,” Mowrer
says. “The accuracy and detailed nature of our CRM database
allows us to address them personally as individuals. And when you
are in the business of maintaining the highest standards in merchandise, service, and communications, you absolutely need a reliable, detailed, analytical database to drive your programs in a personalized way.”
“Our clients truly appreciate the high level of service we provide
through our marketing programs and in the stores,” she continues.
“I produce an employee newsletter twice a month, and each one
includes four or five letters from customers who have written to tell
us what an outstanding job we do.”
For more information on Connected Retailer CRM, contact Dave
Burton: [email protected]; 412-249-8043. Alternatively,
visit the “Connected Retailer Solutions” section of nsbgroup.com.
• Multifaceted retailer based in rural
Pennsylvania
• Offers high-quality apparel, jewelry,
home furnishings, and furniture
• Also operates inns, a restaurant, and
reception facility
• Local, regional, and national customer
base
• NSB solutions: CRM and Merchandising
Maximizing your Merchandising ROI
Connected Retailer Merchandising can help you boost profits in spite of tighter competition. Here,
Barbara Zaron, a Senior Solutions Consultant with NSB, presents a selection of best practices for
enhancing your return on investment and overall retail operations.
Today’s retail environment is characterized by competitive pressure and rapid change. As the rising costs of labor and store
operations outpace price inflation, margin is shrinking. As consumers continue to shop in more channels and expect more
choices, you are compelled to turn your inventories more quickly and keep your offerings fresh.
To address these challenges, you must work smarter than ever
to optimize your retail performance. You must be able to overcome impediments that compromise efficiencies in your merchandising processes — from logistics and labor scheduling to
planning and purchasing — while making faster, better decisions about your assortments and sales.
Use the right tools — in all the right ways
Connected Retailer Merchandising can improve your results in all
these key areas. This .NET-based solution contains a variety of
advanced modeling tools to help you reduce the uncertainty of
demand. It enables clear analyses and well-coordinated actions
at all stages of the merchandising process. In addition, it is flexible and scalable, so it doesn’t need to be customized as you
change your business rules.
Above all, Connected Retailer Merchandising enables you to
become fast, focused, and smart: to quickly procure products,
recognize trends, and make decisions; to thoroughly understand
your business, competition, differentiators, and customers; and
to easily access, manipulate, and extract the right data, whenever and wherever you need it.
Nevertheless, the value of your merchandising system depends
not only on the right tools, but also on being able to use them the
right way. Maximizing your ROI means combining advanced
technology with proven retail practices to control costs, work
more efficiently, boost revenue, and reduce both your inventory
and risk.
Control costs
Tailor warehousing and shipping to suit your needs. Connected
Retailer Merchandising can help you determine the ideal frequency of replenishment picks, by location. You can also instruct
the warehouse management system to pick by store (to impact
your best stores quickly) and by style (to save costs at the warehouse), and to fill case pack or cross-dock orders. All these decisions will affect the cost of your operations.
Manage your freight. Most carriers impose minimum charges
that increase your costs when you make multiple, small deliveries. Our Merchandising Analytics application shows you how
many shipments you generate per store and volume group, to
help you manage freight costs. Scheduling high-volume stores
14
more frequently than smallvolume stores can keep goods
funneling to volume drivers.
With the same goal in mind,
work with your warehouse management team to develop minimums for case content and an
effective location picking
schedule, so they will support
your cost objectives with both
routine shipments and special
events.
Barbara Zaron
A planning and
merchandising
systems specialist, Barbara joined NSB in July 2003,
with 23 years of experience in retail
merchandise management. Formerly
VP of Planning and Allocation for
Brown Shoe Company’s Naturalizer
Division, Barbara established their
Planning and Allocation department
by building the right team, creating
best practices, and implementing
new systems. She successfully
planned and delivered four consecutive years of SFS gains and transitioned the Naturalizer brand from
mature to “Footwear Brand of the
Year” in 2001.
Minimize transfers. Most interstore transfers are not costeffective, given the time
required to pick, pack, ship, and
unpack. Connected Retailer
Merchandising 3.0 can limit
which products and sizes are
eligible. In addition, Merchandising’s integrated Allocation
and Replenishment module
reduces the need for transfers
by balancing your inventory
through allocations against
store plans, dynamic store clustering, advanced forecasting for
replenishment min/max levels, and bottom-up size buys using
each store’s selling history.
Work efficiently
Automate tasks and coordinate staff. Streamlining processes
enables you to do more with less and better allocate your
resources. Sometimes the main challenge is simply to identify
and map out the activities of various team members, to eliminate
redundant efforts and speed up key processes. Using exceptionbased reporting, Connected Retailer Merchandising can automate the analytics to support key processes like suggested
markdowns and key item replenishment levels. In addition to
automating a wide range of routine tasks, it lets you control
access and approval capabilities according to the roles of your
employees.
Set priorities. Ask whether doing “X” will help you sell more “Y,”
and incorporate those priorities in your policies and routines.
With replenishment, for example, focus on the top 20 items for
the top 20 stores, and always make sure those goods are back
in your stores for your next big sales day. Establish clear deadlines for shipping, reforecasting, store plan adjustments, and
communications between stores and warehouses, so everyone
knows what’s expected. Key messaging, process coding capabilities, and attributes in Connected Retailer Merchandising can
help you set and respond to priorities in each of these areas.
and location. You can also perform lost sales calculations to
adjust your sales history and reduce future stock-outs.
Enhance accountability. Your team members can accomplish
amazing things when they are empowered to make decisions
and be accountable for the results. Merchandising encourages
and supports this by making it easier to access critical informa-
Test key items. Testing programs can help you avoid costly merchandising errors. Evaluating the performance of key items in a
small number of stores to assess the potential sell-through can
bring you big-dollar benefits. Paying air freight to get product into
a few stores can give you a jump on reorders or enhance your
tion. With Merchandising Analytics, for example, reports and
alerts can be delivered to any desktop to communicate variance
to plan or last year, suggested markdowns, or reorders. And with
Purchase Order Management, online open-to-buy, along with
vendor minimums and an approver’s “in-basket,” can assist the
collaborative effort and speed the PO approval process.
customer profiles for allocating by location, to improve the balance of initial inventory distributed and reduce costly transfers.
Once the items go chain-wide, follow-up analysis is key, to compare the sales history from your test stores to store cluster performance. This will help you assess the test stores’ reliability as
indicators of future performance.
Maximize revenue
Profile product attributes. Attribute profiling of products and locations can help you understand consumer demand. Assign specific attributes to each product (e.g., high fashion, trendy, classic, conservative, etc.), then measure your store-level sales in
each category. This will help you cluster the right type of merchandise and stores more effectively. Set percentage-to-total
benchmarks to assess whether you are achieving an acceptable
sales and gross margin ratio.
Manage your portfolio. Compare your inventory investments in
each merchandise category with your sales and margin contribution levels. If your results are less than invested, rebalance
your portfolio so that your sales, inventory, and contribution are
in line with the sales percentages you have planned or your dollars per square foot of available floor space. Merchandising’s ad
hoc reporting capabilities, combined with our integrated Planning
Solution, can help you assess and adjust future purchases to balance your inventory investment needs.
Reduce stock-outs. Connected Retailer Merchandising has many
features to help you reduce stock-outs. For example, the solution’s automated vendor reviews help you manage purchase
orders on key item programs, while SKU-level forecasting and
store protection features ensure sufficient inventory by product
Understand your store dynamics. Assign attributes to products in
your windows, front-line tables, and end caps to determine traffic counts and lift from your displays. Compare these figures over
time as you change your displays to track what works best and
learn how often to make a change. Choosing the right merchandise for those prime visibility areas can make a huge difference
to your overall conversion rate.
15
Perform life cycle analyses. Analyze the sell-through of items, by
attribute, as they move from the front to the middle and back of
store. The goal here is to evaluate the turn rate and revenue contribution of each selling area. Some retailers get higher margins
and/or faster turns by moving items from the middle of the store
to higher-traffic areas at the back.
Reduce your inventory and risk
Aim for just-in-time receipts. Connected Retailer Merchandising
can help you receive just enough merchandise to cover what
you’re actually selling. To determine your ideal order schedules,
its graphing tool lets you easily compare your sales and inventory curves to see where they meet. You can also use lead times
and weeks of supply for forecasting min/maxs, and to better plan
the receipt of merchandise from different vendors.
To manage your shipments, the solution’s Purchase Order
Management component supports automated vendor orders and
multiple shipments. You can reorder more frequently, and your
deliveries can be received in designated portions over time.
Optimize your assortments. To avoid going too deep or wide with
your assortments, create a matrix of your styles, and measure
their performance against sales dollars, gross margin contribution dollars, inventory dollars, and related variables. Maximize
best-sellers by identifying which styles contribute the most sales
dollars and gross margins relative to your inventory investment.
This analysis will also help you reduce the number of SKUs you
carry.
And speaking of Merchandising…
NSB’s Merchandising Solution is used by more
than 100 leading retailers. How is it helping
them achieve their retail vision?
“Merchandising is used by all our designers, planners,
and technicians. It lets us customize reports and
generate them automatically for our executives, and
lets our managers drill down on-line to find answers to
all their queries. This system is the bedrock of our
enterprise.”
Ilene Elkaim
VP, Logistics and IT, Roots
“We expect to see ROI on our new Merchandising
Solution within two years, thanks to the cost savings
we’ll realize in different areas and increased
efficiencies we’ll see across the business.”
Vince Jackson
Director of Retail Information Systems, adidas Retail
Rate your vendors. Connected Retailer Merchandising includes
scorecards to help you track the performance of your vendors. By
assigning reason codes to your POs, you can easily identify when
a vendor has delivered late, shipped the wrong goods, or has not
complied with your instructions. The information can be emailed
directly to your Accounts Payable department and used to support claims for discounts or chargebacks, and to prioritize your
most reliable vendors to minimize your risks.
Set optimal prices by location, style, and color. As the familiar
saying goes, “There are no bad items, only bad prices.” Identify
your bottom dwellers, then use alerts to create a Suggested
Markdown Report in Merchandising Analytics to specify ideal
sell-throughs or forward weeks of supply for each stage in the
product life cycle. Use price statuses and pricing groups to set a
markdown cadence in motion, by region or store group, while
tracking sales at regular price and at each markdown level.
Merchandising Analytics can be set to handle exception pricing
that may apply to special locations. It will also identify price conflicts to prevent overlaps and confusion before changes are
made.
Be fast, focused, and smart!
With all your merchandising functions, the key to success is to
keep pace with change. Connected Retailer Merchandising has
been designed to meet that challenge by helping you to quickly
identify critical variables and patterns, reinforce those that are
favorable, and correct those that are not. It’s the one solution that
lets you streamline your operations, unify asset management,
and manage your business more effectively, end to end.
16
For more information on how the Connected Retailer
Merchandising Solution can help you maximize your ROI, contact
Ben Sherren: [email protected]; 514-426-0822 x2792.
Alternatively, visit the “Connected Retailer Solutions” section of
nsbgroup.com.
What's new with Connected Retailer
Allocation and Replenishment 4.1:
Forecasting success
Assortment Planning 4.0:
A picture is worth a thousand words
As part of our work on the next release of Connected Retailer
Merchandising, NSB is pleased to introduce Allocation and
Replenishment 4.1. Enhanced functionality within this fully integrated .NET application will provide you with numerous added
features to boost your productivity and results.
NSB’s new Assortment Planning product is a visual tool for
planning assortments in your stores. It allows your buying and
merchandising teams to define which products to purchase,
what quantities to order, and where to send them. With
Assortment Planning, you can easily compare your developing
assortment against your financial plan values for stock, sales,
and receipts.
Sales forecasting. Allocation and Replenishment now provides
forecasting — from the style/color level to the SKU/location
level. This powerful new feature lets you create models by choosing from among nine algorithms and adjusting each one for
different timelines, stores, exceptions, and other variables. You
can then test each model against your historical data to determine the best match and which model is therefore most likely to
provide an accurate sales forecast.
Integration across and beyond Merchandising. This latest version
operates and shares data without replication or the need for
interfaces with the other components of Merchandising.
Streamlined operations. The new Allocation and Replenishment
gives retailers a standard and consistent way of operating across
the allocation and replenishment processes. This unified product
uses a single core of software and data that does not need to be
replicated in multiple areas.
More consistency and productivity. The application employs
powerful tools to support querying, work lists, security, and
approvals. These tools serve to simplify operations, ease
navigation, provide a consistent user experience, and enhance
productivity.
Seamless operation with Purchase Order Management. Thanks
to its integration with POM, Allocation and Replenishment lets
retailers seamlessly allocate merchandise from either existing or
new POs. It also lets buyers create new POs using allocation
activities. Users can apply key functions in real time, regardless
of the application they’re in, to avoid navigating between different applications, transferring data, or cutting and pasting information from one panel to another.
Get a real view on your products. Clear, graphical representations
of your products give you a visual take on your assortment
planning. Your planners can better determine the best mix of
products for each grade of store.
More intuitive planning of your product mix. Build your product
range using quick and simple drag-and-drop functionality: Just
use your mouse to move pictures of your products, and the
numbers are updated automatically!
Planning made easy. Assortment Planning is an integrated component of the Connected Retailer suite of applications. As such,
this solution automatically generates allocations. These can then
be used to generate purchase orders, after your planners have
completed their assortment plans.
For additional information on our latest Allocation and
Replenishment or Assortment Planning products, contact
Ben Sherren at [email protected] or (514) 426-0822
ext. 2796.
Privacy, security, and CRM:
making the marriage work
When collecting personal information for your CRM database,
meeting your legal obligations — and your customers’
expectations — will strengthen your bottom line.
Customer information is the lifeblood of your CRM program.
Increasing loyalty and sales depends on capturing data effectively through your various channels, then using it to support
targeted marketing initiatives. Your success also depends on
protecting that data, in compliance with both the law and your
customers’ expectations.
According to Leo Rabinovitch, NSB’s Senior VP for CRM, “To
serve and retain your customers you obviously need to understand them — which means encouraging them to share their
information. The best way to do that is to earn their trust, by
assuring your customers you will safeguard that information, and
by clearly explaining how it will be used.”
Many consumer advocates nevertheless argue that technology
has made it too easy for personal information to be surreptitiously collected, distributed, stolen, or misused. They also maintain that the lure of incentive programs may pressure consumers
into providing information, and that consumers are seldom fully
aware of how that information could be applied.
Evolving legal requirements
In an effort to balance privacy, security, and marketing interests,
California has led the way in establishing laws governing the
collection and use of specific types of CRM data.
Section 1747.8 of the state’s Civil Code, which came into effect
in 1996, made it unlawful for a retailer to collect personal information, such as addresses and phone numbers, during a credit
card transaction.
In 2003, California passed its so-called “Sunshine” law, a landmark privacy bill that empowers individuals to learn how
businesses sell their personal information. Under this law, which
came into effect in January 2005, companies doing business
with California residents have to either let customers opt out
of information sharing or disclose in detail how personal
18
information will be
shared for direct marketing
purposes.
Also in 2003, California’s Bill 1386
required any business that owns or licenses
computerized personal information to promptly disclose any
breach of security.
Other jurisdictions have developed comparable regulations. In
Canada, the federal Personal Information Protection and
Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) of 2000 requires retailers to
notify customers if their credit card and other personal information is to be used for marketing purposes, and to give customers
the opportunity to opt out.
More recently, the payment card industry’s Data Security
Standard was enacted to protect customer information wherever
it is stored, or transmitted over a public network. The PCIDSS
requires retailers to use firewalls, customized system passwords
(not vendor-supplied defaults), encryption, access restrictions,
and various other safeguards.
The end of CRM?
NSB informally surveyed more than a dozen retailers about their
data security practices. While most believed they were compliant
with the California laws, some have stopped capturing personal
information in that state altogether. Is this a sign of things to
come? Will growing concerns about data privacy, and related
legislation, eventually lead to the end of CRM as we currently
know it?
“Of course not,” says Rabinovitch. “On the contrary, CRM practices will continue to evolve in ways that benefit both retailers
and their customers. Retailers who run responsible, value-oriented CRM programs can spend less time pushing products and
more time satisfying verified customer needs. And when the
focus is placed on service, everybody wins.”
With that objective in mind, here are some suggestions for
aligning your CRM practices with today’s legal and social norms.
They include ideas from a recent NSB eSeminar featuring
Diane Binford of Jones Apparel Group and Fred Newell of
Seklemian/Newell, who offered proven tips for turning customer
relationship management into customer-managed relationships.
Ensure your compliance with the laws. It may seem obvious, but
it’s important to make sure your staff is well informed of all relevant laws governing the collection and use of customer data. In
our recent informal survey, a surprising number of retailers indicated they were not aware of the PCIDSS requirements or of legislation affecting CRM in California. Connected Retailer CRM 5.2,
to be released this fall, will let you automatically encrypt credit
card numbers to support your compliance with PCIDSS.
Prioritize customer service. Focus on CRM as a service opportunity with sales benefits — not the other way around. Your marketing programs form an inherent part of your customers’ experience with your company and stores, so your CRM activities
should be designed to help your customers and build relationships, not merely to promote your products. Connected Retailer
CRM provides a Web-based interface retailers can use to engage
their customers at all touch points, to provide truly exceptional
service.
Explain your program and ask for information. Ensure that your
customers clearly understand what they will get in exchange for
their personal contact information, how to opt in and out of your
marketing programs, and your policy on privacy and data security. Take advantage of every opportunity and channel to promote
your programs and obtain information. NSB’s In-Store CRM and
Web Extensions enable retailers to gather and confirm customer
data efficiently so it can be leveraged throughout the organization.
Accommodate different attitudes. Some customers will exchange
their information for almost any chance to benefit from an incentive, promotion, or sale. Most, however, will be somewhat cautious or risk-averse: They will either consider each opportunity on
its own merits or refuse on principle to participate. Try to account
for these different attitudes when speaking with your customers
and when designing and targeting your communications.
Let your customers choose. Ask your customers how they prefer
to be contacted: by email, mail, or phone. Make it clear that you
wish to advise them on their own terms of relevant merchandise,
offers, and events. With Connected Retailer CRM, opt-in flags on
each customer record let you note all contact preferences.
Leverage your initiatives. Respecting your customers’ choices
doesn’t mean ignoring your opportunities. Use one channel or
media to refer to your communications in another. For example,
phone messages can draw attention to offers or events that are
also being promoted through postcards, emails, or your company’s website. Similarly, use emails to request postal address
updates or hard-copy mailers to ask for email opt-ins.
Build rich customer profiles. To truly understand your customers,
collect data from all channels and combine it to create in-depth
customer profiles. Use transaction information to infer what each
customer values and needs, and any information gaps as opportunities for further engagement. With NSB’s CRM solution, each
customer record can have hundreds of fields, allowing you to
track and leverage a vast amount of contact, demographic, and
transaction information.
Create personalized communications. Use your customer profiles
to develop well-targeted marketing offers. For example, using
data from Connected Retailer CRM and support from Yesmail™,
Jones Apparel Group sends customers who have bought narrowwidth shoes personalized offers that highlight narrow-width
shoes, along with individual discount and store information.
Click-through rates for these emails typically exceed eighty
percent!
Learn more tricks of the trade!
Privacy concerns don’t have to compromise your ability to develop highly personalized and effective marketing communications.
With the right approach — and the right solution — CRM will
continue to provide vital opportunities to enhance your retail
success.
To learn more about how you can profit from data-rich customermanaged relationships, review our recent eSeminar. Just click on
nsbgroup.com and sign in under “News and events.”
For case studies illustrating how NSB’s clients are using
Connected Retailer CRM Solution, visit the “Solutions” section of
nsbgroup.com, then click on “Contact us.” Alternatively, contact
Dave Burton at [email protected] or 412-249-8043.
Number crunching...
Today's consumers are looking for companies that market personally and responsibly, while
protecting their vital personal information. How important are these concerns?
330 Number of respondents to survey of 600 consumers who said they would be willing to pay a little
extra to get only the kinds of marketing they prefer.1
258 Number who said they want to receive marketing that is short and to the point.2
80 Percentage of online consumers interested in being offered personalized information and promotions.3
63 Percentage who expressed concerns that their personal data might not be secure if they provide it
to create a personalized online experience.4
1, 2 2005 Yankelovich Marketing Receptivity Survey (as reported on www.crm2day.com; April 19, 2005).
3, 4 Survey conducted by ChoiceStream Inc. of 923 adult Internet users who purchased at least once online in the previous six months
(as reported on www.crmdaily.com, August 16, 2005).
Going mobile with Connected Retailer CRM and
Store
Casual Male boosts shopping
experience with mobile CRM
Breaking news: There’s a brand-new technology for use with
retail CRM! Casual Male, the largest US retailer of big and tall
men’s apparel, is preparing to put CRM data literally into the
hands of their store associates. The company is currently piloting
a wireless, handheld version of NSB’s Connected Retailer Store
and CRM on Symbol Technology’s Digital Enterprise Assistant
(the MC50), which it plans to roll out across the 500-store chain
in 2006. This innovative solution, co-developed by Casual Male
Retail Group (CMRG) and NSB, is the first implementation of
mobile CRM technology in the North American retail industry.
In keeping with their commitment to provide the ultimate shopping experience and personalized service for guests, Casual
Male wants their associates to be able to review and update their
clients’ information — such as collar size and pant length —
while serving them in-store. Sales associates will also be able to
query the CRM database, which is updated in real time, to learn
their customers’ contact and address information, personal preferences, previous transactions, and returns. Eventually, as
Casual Male fully implements NSB’s CRM Solution and a comprehensive loyalty program, sales associates will be prompted by
various sales triggers based on a customer’s loyalty status and
previous shopping trends.
“We want to provide better, more personalized service,” says
Dennis Hernreich, CFO of CMRG. “By giving our associates the
tools they need to interact more knowledgeably with our customers right up front in the shopping process, we should improve
the overall customer experience in the stores. Sales
associates will be able to suggest products based
on previous shopping habits and preferences,
and to update shopper profiles as they serve the
customer. Ultimately, this will serve to improve
conversion rates in our stores, customer retention, sales, and
gross margin.”
Leo Rabinovitch, Senior Vice President of CRM, adds, “In today’s
customer-centric society, consumers expect the best service.
NSB continues to help forward-thinking retailers such as Casual
Male Retail Group provide this service through our innovative
CRM and Store technology.”
Welcome to the Build-A-Bear road show
When most retailers think of mobile POS, they picture an
advanced application that brings the checkout right to the customer, to reduce lines and improve the customer experience. But
Build-A-Bear Workshop decided to extend the concept —
and its value — by creating an entire mobile store!
With a fully equipped, 53-foot-long truck, supported by
Connected Retailer systems from NSB, the innova-
The mobile store is part of the Build-A-Bear’s strategy
to continue to grow the business by reaching new
markets and keeping their offerings fresh.
tive, St. Louis-based retailer is bringing its
renowned animal-friends workshop directly
to where their fans and prospective customers have fun, outside the mall.
Build-A-Bear’s store on wheels hit the
road in February, and by the end of
the year, it will have stopped at more
than 30 sports and entertainment
events and covered about 29,000
miles.
Build-A-Bear, a longtime NSB client,
was a 2004 recipient of a Hot Retailer
Award presented by the International
Council of Shopping Centers. The mobile
store is part of the company’s strategy to
continue to grow the business by
reaching new markets and keeping
their offerings fresh.
Watch for in-depth information on these innovative
mobile solutions in our next
issue of Connected Retailer
magazine and in upcoming
editions of our eNews. To subscribe, visit nsbgroup.com.
Learn the art and science of peak performance
retailing in just one hour!
Do you want to boost your retail knowledge and sharpen your skills fast? NSB’s free eSeminars bring
best practices from the industry’s leading retailers right to your PC! In just one hour, you’ll learn
how to:
• Turn your integrated CRM data into profits
• Make customer relationship management pay... BIG!
• Address today’s most important data security issues
• Trim costs and boost profits with trusted sales data
• Fulfill your CIO’s vision and CFO’s need for ROI
• Take control of product development and sourcing
• Improve sales audit processes end to end
• Sell more in less time with the right store systems
• Capture more customers and profits at POS
• Achieve a strategic advantage with Microsoft .NET
It’s all just a click away…
• Cut your sales auditing time in half
For complete information and easy, free access, sign in at nsbgroup.com
under “News and Events.” New sessions are presented live regularly, so
check out what's next and register today!
• Measure and lower the TCO of your next POS system
• Create tomorrow’s customer-service culture today
21
In the news
More clients, more solutions
NSB is proud to welcome a number of leading retailers as new members of our growing Connected
Retailer community, and equally proud to serve our long-standing clients with a variety of additional
solutions.
Cut from the right cloth… is how St. John Knits International
views the solutions and professionals from NSB. The upscale,
California-based apparel maker and retailer selected Connected
Retailer Merchandising, Planning, Sales Analytics, Warehouse
Management, POS, CRM, as well as hardware and professional
services, to support their plans for growth.
“We feel that the NSB suite of solutions is the perfect choice
based on their proven expertise in the specialty retail vertical,”
says Scott Huckleberry, CIO for St. John Knits. “NSB’s commitment to provide retailers with advanced, integrated solutions lets
us focus on the business at hand: serving our customers.”
David Henning, NSB’s Senior Vice President of Enterprise Sales
and Marketing, agrees. “With the Connected Retailer, NSB
enables leading retailers such as St. John Knit’s to advance from
where they are to where they would like to be, and to achieve
their unique vision of retail success,” he says. “We are proud to
have this opportunity to serve as a partner in their success, and
look forward to a very productive, long-term relationship.”
Stay connected with NSB!
Planning for profits… describes how Mexx Canada will use their
new Connected Retailer Planning and Allocation solutions, which
will be implemented across the 80-store chain by spring of
2006. The company had been using spreadsheets, but needed a
better system that could easily integrate with GSI for merchandising and provide efficient, easy-to-interpret information to
improve their planning and allocation processes.
“We believe these software systems will enable us to plan better
for markdowns and provide the right assortment mix to the
stores,” says Eric Champagne, VP of IS and Logistics for Mexx
Canada. “Based on these two key performance indicators alone,
we should see a payback in less than one year.”
“NSB’s Planning and Allocation solutions help retailers like Mexx
Canada better understand supply and demand for their products,
allocate effectively to their stores, and increase profitability for
their business,” says David Henning. “Planning links top-level
financial requirements with micro-market variables to successfully marry supply with demand, while Allocation balances inventory across the chain to ensure that proper levels are maintained,
down to SKU level, at all store locations.”
22
NSB gives you many ways to stay in touch and up to date with
today’s most important retail issues, challenges, and solutions.
Don’t miss out! To make sure you receive our eNews, eSeminars,
or Connected Retailer magazine, visit the subscription center at
nsbgroup.com.
Comprehensive connections… were made by G+G Retail Inc.,
when they signed on recently for Connected Retailer
Merchandising, Planning, Sales Audit, and WMS solutions to support their hundreds of G&G, Rave, and Rave Girl stores. NSB is
pleased to have this opportunity to serve G+G as their “one-stopshop” technology partner, and to match their requirements with
the right resources and retail and technology expertise.
“For more than three decades, we’ve been implementing and
supporting retail systems across the enterprise,” NSB’s David
Henning says. “Our Connected Retailer solutions are tried and
true, proven to resolve the specific challenges faced by today’s
retailers. We look forward to working with G+G Retail as they
prepare for further growth.”
Moving forward by going live
In addition to signing numerous new license agreements, NSB has recently completed important
implementations at Donna Karan, Orvis, and other major retailers.
Donna Karan, one of the world’s leading fashion design houses
and a longtime NSB client, went live this spring with Connected
Retailer Store 6.0 and Merchandising 3.0. The company originally chose to evolve their business with Connected Retailer
solutions because they wanted an enterprise system that could
give them one consolidated view of all of their full-price and
outlet stores.
“We have worked with NSB for many years and felt that their
specialty apparel retail expertise and thorough understanding of
our business made them the perfect choice for a retail technology partner with whom to grow,” says Doreen Vandewater, Donna
Karan’s Vice President of Retail Systems. “This implementation
project went extremely well. NSB’s project management was
excellent — the project plan was well thought-out and properly
detailed, and whenever an issue arose, I knew I had every
resource from NSB working to resolve it.”
Leading lifestyle and sporting goods
retailer The Orvis Company is also taking advantage of Connected Retailer
Store, particularly from enhanced
cross-channel promotions and checkout speed. The company reports
numerous specific benefits, including
better promotion tracking using
barcoded direct marketing coupons at
POS, faster credit authorization and
receipt printing (reduced to just five
seconds from an average of 45), a much shorter learning
curve for new sales associates (reduced from weeks to days),
improved back-office efficiency, and greatly reduced IS support
requirements.
The 30-store rollout followed a successful two-store pilot in the
fall of 2004 and was completed in less than four months.
According to Mark Holmes, Vice President of Information
Services for Orvis, “Strong leadership, a common understanding
of what success looked like from the earliest stages of the sales
process, and an unrelenting commitment to achieve that vision
of success enabled Orvis and NSB to deliver a quality result
together.”
“NSB’s Merchandising Solution provides us with accurate, transaction-based information in a real-time environment, which in
turn leads to better planning and allocation of merchandise,”
Vandewater adds. “The new software is clean, well organized,
and logical, so our people will get the most out of it. At the store
level, we now provide our associates with online access to a single, concise customer database, which makes it even easier to
check customer histories up to the very last transaction and offer
better customer service. The possibilities are limitless.”
Holmes adds, “With a certified .NET POS platform in place, we
are now positioned to incorporate true multichannel retailing
practices into our business by leveraging Web service assets in
the store, on our website, and in our call centers. I feel like we
are poised to jump out ahead of our competitors and implement
the capabilities that everyone’s talking about.”
Orvis is the oldest continuously operated catalog company in the
United States, and has been the premier outfitter of distinctive
country lifestyle and sporting traditions since 1856. The company’s international headquarters for its mail order, e-commerce,
retail, and wholesale businesses are in Manchester, Vermont.
Congratulations — and thank you — to all these retailers for choosing Connected Retailer solutions and the NSB Group team!
23
Preoccupied with retail?
We can relate, because retail has been our preoccupation for more than 30 years. That’s why we’ve
developed our Connected Retailer® solutions to help you master your game in retail planning, merchandising,
sourcing and product development, CRM, sales analytics, store operations, and POS.
With NSB, you’ll find the experience and proven results you’re looking for in a retail technology partner.
So when the work day’s done, you can focus on the business at hand.
Proven solutions
for connected retailers
www.nsbgroup.com
Connected Retailer is a registered trademark of NSB Retail Solutions Inc. and/or another NSB company.
Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
© 2005 NSB Retail Solutions Limited & NSB Retail Solutions Inc. Connected Retailer, NSB logos and certain other marks are trademarks or service marks of NSB Retail
Solutions Limited & NSB Retail Solutions Inc. or another NSB Group company. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are owned by their respective companies.
The contents hereof are confidential and proprietary to NSB. Any unauthorized reproduction or disclosure, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited.

NSB`s Magazine

Transcription

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