Name: Sanidhya Pandey

Registration no. 0219/57

Questions:
1. What in your opinion are the information technology infrastructure and applications Spencer’s
should have? [4]
2. Why? [6]
Ans1. Spencer can leverage information technology to tackle the apparent business needs and enhance
the customer experience.

I. A transaction processing system which collects data regarding which customer bought how
much and what was the typical frequency visit of that customer in a particular period (say a
week or month).

II. A generic decision support system which aids in maintaining the network of vendors from
which Spencer’s buy their stock for selling.

III. An automated system which orders for fresh supplies when the products in inventory goes
below a certain threshold

IV. Hands-free checkout from of the supermarket

Ans2.
I. A transaction system of the sort mentioned in point I of ans1 will help Spencer in segmenting
its customer base on the basis of buying frequency, buying habits, identify the loyal
customers and non-loyal customers. This may help in running loyalty programs which
modern day retailers run in order to increase ARPU i.e. average revenue per user.

II. A system which maintains the information of all the vendors from which Spencer buys its
stock will help in identifying which vendors are loyal and trustworthy, which vendor supplied
the product in good condition and which one supplied faulty products. Thus, it can go a long
way in determining the consistency of these vendors

III. The automated system for maintaining inventory is a necessity in modern day supermarkets,
if not now then in future Spencer will definitely has to invest in developing this capability
because this reduces the labour cost and record of this system will also help in identifying
which products get sold out quickly and which one takes time, further helping Spencer in
optimizing their inventory

IV. Hands-free checkout is a very advanced feature and very few outlets in the world have this
capability. In this facility, customer doesn’t has to deal with sales counter where he/she has
scan barcodes and pay. In hands-free system, customer swipes his card(credit/debit/loyalty
card provided by Spencer) while picking up the product from the shelf itself and the amount
get deducted from the customer’s account. This requires significant capital investment, but in
future all the modern sophisticated supermarkets will have this capability.