Survey: Retailers looking to expand social media, tech solutions in product planning
BOSTON — Boston Retail Partners on Monday released a survey that highlights the issue of social media and technology solutions to deliver the products consumers want in an uninterrupted shopping experience.
BRP's 2014 Merchandise Planning and Allocation Benchmark Survey navigates the current state of the industry and how technology is shaping retail capabilities, highlighting the priorities, processes, tools and strategies of today’s retailers.
“Effective merchandise planning and allocation processes are critical to success of selecting the right products, in the right quantities, for the right locations and at the right time. Many selling seasons have been won or lost through planning and allocation decisions,” said Walter Deacon, principal, Boston Retail Partners. “While some retailers rely on very basic tools like spreadsheets to manage their merchandise planning processes, progressive retailers are leveraging sophisticated business intelligence and predictive analytics to further enhance merchandise planning processes and decisions.”
The survey results demonstrated the achievements of retailers that use technology to improve merchandise planning processes. The results showed that:
Close to 50% of retailers have integrated business processes and systems across channels;
31% of retailers utilize a single inventory across channels; and
26% of retailers have real-time visibility of in-store/online inventory.
Retailers also know that there is room to improve and will focus on the following areas, according to the survey:
33% of retailers utilize CRM data to feed their business intelligence tools; and
39% of retailers use social media to facilitate planning within product development, a 550% increase over last year’s social media analytics.
“While the usage is still primarily among early adopters, according to our survey, there was a 550% increase in the utilization of social media to facilitate planning for product development,” said Ken Morris, principal, Boston Retail Partners. “It is refreshing to see more merchants tapping customer insights from innovative sources to optimize their assortments and planning processes.”
For the complete 2014 Merchandise Planning and Allocation Benchmark Survey, click here.