CURRENT TRENDS AND TECHNOLOGIES

TECHNOLOGY TRENDS:

GLOBAL RETAILING:

            The world has entered the digital information age. Retailers in a variety of industries
are now using advanced computer systems to enhance their ability to understand,
communicate with and evaluate their market place and to anticipate and respond to their
customer’s needs, Retail shops are using bar code scanners at their check out point to gauge
the types of product their customers are buying.

IT OUTSOURCING:

Many retailers are turning to IT outsourcing as the means to control costs and
improve their service delivery. Some of the benefits that outsourcing IT can bring:
 Cost savings from exploiting the outsourced partner’s (OP’s) shared services model
  Innovation and business improvement
  Removes distraction and allows you to focus on your core business
  More predictable budgeting
  Flexible staffing, evening out peaks and troughs in resource demand
  Keeps the business up to date with new skills and technologies

 E-TAILING:

            Retailing on the net is known as E- tailing. Merchants that reach consumers through
different sales channels, stores, websites catalogues, find that they enjoy key advantages over
competitors that operate in just one world. E-tailing is still a nascent business model all over
the world and it is to be seen how it emerges in the future. E-tailing will also work best as an
adjunct and supplement to brick and mortar set up.
            On the flip side, retail stores can make consumers more comfortable with internet
shopping since most traditional merchants allows customers to return on-line purchase to
their offline stores.
 SMARTCARDS:

A smart card is a card that is embedded with a micro-processor and a memory chip.
Such cards can be used to hold money, such as prepaid phone cards, debit cards, and gift
certificate cards. Of interest to retailers is the popularity of the use of smart cards in loyalty
programs. In these programs, customers are issued a smart card along with their club
membership. Instant discounts are bestowed on purchases made using the smart card.

RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION (RFID):

Long checkout lines at the grocery store are one of the biggest complaints about the
shopping experience. Soon, these lines will disappear when the ubiquitous Universal Product
Code (UPCs) bar code is replaced by smart labels, also called radio frequency
identification (RFID) tags. RFID tags are intelligent bar codes that can talk to a networked
system to track every product that customer put in his shopping cart.

RETAIL MARKETING- STRATEGIC TRENDS:

MOVE TOWARDS SHOP IN SHOPS:

Retailers are increasingly looking to open shop in shops rather than own stores given
the paucity of capital in the sector. Instead of making this high capital investment, Retailers
are increasingly looking to set up shop in shops where they can retail their products in larger
department stores or multi-brand outlets with zero upfront investment.

CLOSURE OF UNVIABLE STORES:

There have been huge closures of stores over the last year as retailers embarked on
huge expansion plans without proper research on catchments and viability. However, going
forward Retailers are expected to be more circumspective before launching new stores and
the pace of expansion will also be slower and cooler.
KIDS IN RETAIL TRADE:

Children play an important role in the retail market. Children may influence 17
percent of family spending on vacations and as much as 80 percent on food purchases. Also
attracting children result in attraction of families to stores. It also helps in creating band
image of retailer in future customers mind.

KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER

Almost every giant supermarket chain is now compiling customer information.

Knowing your customer is suddenly so important because more and more consumers are
shopping online or by mail order. And Today’s consumer is extremely selective. If the
traditional retailer wants a customer’s business, that retailer must meet the very specific needs
of the consumer.