Few things are worse than not having the right inventory to meet consumer demands. While many retailers are focusing on improving the shopping experience through mobile websites, ecommerce and new retail POS software, some industry experts suggest merchants should be focusing on developing their supply chains as well.

At the recent Retail Conference in London, retail expert Claire Rayner reasserted the importance of supply chains. She stressed that retailers shouldn't be prioritizing customer engagement models over the improvement of their supply chains.

"It is as if their core commercial processes – supply chain planning and distribution systems – have been de-prioritized by retailers in favor of spending budgets on new apps, mobile websites and so on. I believe that retailers that are not investing in revitalizing the day-to-day operational areas of the business are putting their businesses at risk," says Rayner.

A number of retailers struggle with inventory management – they don't want to overstock, but they do want to be able to meet demands. Better supply chain management is crucial to mitigating those risks.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Wednesday, March 21st, 2012 at 9:56 am .

Retailers in Italy have observed a significant increase in consumers shopping on the web and via their mobile phones. Despite lagging behind several Western European countries in terms of economic recovery, ecommerce and mobile commerce have improved by 20 percent and 210 percent, respectively, in 2011, recent research from Netcomm found.

"In a stagnant economic scenario, the ecommerce market in 2011 had a value in excess of 8 billion euros (US$10.5 billion)," explains Netcomm president Roberto Liscia. "The Italian ecommerce market is still atypical, with service sales surpassing product sales but the gap closed last year with 14 percent and 29 percent rises respectively in the sale of services and products."

The top four major retail sectors were: Clothing, computers and consumer electronics, publishing, music and audiovisual, as well as groceries and healthcare products. Italians are making the switch to mobile and online commerce due to the convenience factor – they like to be able to shop without having to leave the comfort of their own homes.

Merchants should be sure to use retail software that enables them take advantage of this growing online audience abroad.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Tuesday, March 20th, 2012 at 9:31 am .

Smartphones are increasingly being used as a retail companion. New data from Nielsen suggests approximately 60 percent of smartphone owners used their devices for shopping purposes over the 2011 holiday season.

Some of the most popular mobile retail spots include Amazon, Best Buy, eBay, Target and Walmart – shoppers used both mobile apps and websites optimized for handsets to access these brands. Target and Walmart were most popular among females, whereas Best Buy skewed male. Amazon and eBay were popular among both genders.

"Retailers need to think of their business as a multichannel environment that can potentially include mobile, online and brick-and-mortar stores," John Burbank, president of strategic initiatives at Nielsen, said. "Winning with shoppers requires a consistent experience across channels that reinforces the values you represent as a retail brand, whether it be price, service, reviews, selection, style or other key attributes."

Mobile shopping is picking up steam in other countries as well. For example, separate research from Netcomm found mcommerce was up 210 percent in Italy last year.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Tuesday, March 20th, 2012 at 9:30 am .

Brick-and-mortar retailers continue to feel the added pressure of online and mobile commerce. According to a new report from ClickIQ, approximately one-third of consumers who use smartphones to research goods while shopping in-store end up buying that item online through e-tailers such as Amazon.

Retail merchants appealing to men's interests may want to consider revising their store operations to be more competitive, as 55 percent of the people using their phones to research were males. Age is another factor to consider – 26 percent of consumers between the ages of 30 and 39 and 25 percent of shoppers between 18 and 29 are likely to use their phones for research.

The research also noted that big-name brands lost the most sales to this behavior.

"The retailers most frequented for research by these respondents were Best Buy at 36 percent, Walmart at 30 percent and Target at 29 percent. In this study, Best Buy had more males do online research in the store than females," the report added.

Some brick-and-mortar retail merchants are fighting this habit by offering price-matching policies for consumers who find the same goods cheaper elsewhere.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Monday, March 19th, 2012 at 10:38 am .

Many Americans are continuing to practice their recessionary buying habits, with a significant number of shoppers noting that price is still the biggest factor when they choose which retailer to go to.

This, according to the new Times and Trends report from SymphonyIRI, which found 75 percent of shoppers still say price weighs heavily in brand decisions. However, this could change if the economy continues to improve – some respondents said they would be more willing to open their wallets should conditions keep progressing.

"There is a sizable consumer segment that is feeling more optimistic about the road ahead, while a similar sized group is expecting a continued deterioration of economic and personal financial health," Susan Viamari, editor of Times and Trends at SymphonIRI, explains. "Among optimistic and pessimistic shoppers alike, all indications point to continued frugality and conservatism in 2012."

Retail brands need to be cautious when trying to appeal to deal-hunting shoppers – many big-name merchants struggled to meet shareholder expectations after massive discounting during the holiday shopping season.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Monday, March 19th, 2012 at 10:37 am .

Australian retailers need to reconsider store operations and how they do business to better compete with online merchants or else they may fall behind, a new report from the National Retail Association reports.

The $1,000 threshold for importing goods encourages many consumers to simply buy retail products online and import them into the country to avoid paying higher domestic prices. Smaller merchants say this practice hurts their business because it means Australian consumers are buying from foreign companies rather than domestic ones.

Gary Black, executive director of the NRA, asserts that other countries have lower thresholds that discourage this behavior. However, the government argues that lowering the threshold would result in the tax costing more to collect than it would earn. Black counters that argument by also noting the negative impact importing has on retail jobs.

"When you factor that into the numbers there's an overpowering case for the removal of the threshold," he told the Daily Telegraph.

Other countries have a much lower threshold to promote local retail. In the UK, for example, the threshold is at 15 GBP.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Friday, March 16th, 2012 at 10:10 am .

A new law that will require retailers in Europe to get permission from shoppers before placing a cookie on their computers has been lambasted by merchants. According to new research from EConsultancy, approximately four out five respondents (82 percent) believe the new law is a bad idea and will hinder their web efforts.

Cookies are used to track consumers' online actions. For example, retailers using cookies will be able to tell which sections of websites shoppers have visited and which items they looked at. This information can be used to develop more relevant campaigns – for example, customers who looked at iPods at an electronics site could be given discounts on other Apple products in the future.

"There's total confusion on how to apply [the new law] and what it should be applied [to]," one participant asserts. "There are a few nice implementations [but] nothing which everyone agrees on, which means a disjointed user experience from site to site."

This adds yet another challenge that retail merchants must account for as they further enhance the online shopping experience. Given the number of people shopping online, however, the shift to ecommerce is something they must do.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Friday, March 16th, 2012 at 10:07 am .

Retail merchants targeting Millennials – consumers between the ages of 18 and 34 – may want to reconsider their approach, as a new report from WSL Strategic Retail suggests shoppers in this demographic are spending less.

Millennials, who are saddled with student-loan debt, struggle to find jobs and are pessimistic about the economy, are peeling back the amount of money they spend on retail. For brands that target this consumer base, such as Gap, this may result in lower-than-normal sales. Additionally, merchants that aim for slightly older shoppers may also be impacted as they won't have a new crop of customers to sell to.

"There is a notion among retailers that young shoppers are more resilient and will come back sooner," WSL chief executive officer Wendy Liebmann said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg. "The reality is that they don't have money to spend, and retailers aren't paying enough attention to this."

Approximately one-quarter of Millennials don't have the money to cover basic living necessities, such as rent, car payments and food, let alone the latest iPad or the hottest fall fashions.

With that in mind, retail merchants need to consider refocusing their marketing dollars to reach consumers that do have the income to drive sales.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Thursday, March 15th, 2012 at 8:58 am .

Mobile devices are predicted to become a ubiquitous part of the shopping experience in the future – whether it's consumers making purchases online or researching products in-store – and professionals in charge of retail software need to prepare.

While retailers have been just as excited as they are lost amid the rising number of mobile consumers and applications, it's imperative that they fully understand how their customers are using them prior to engaging in development or marketing surrounding these devices.

With the future upon us, retailers will be able to use this information to create mobile applications that serve as virtual shopping companions, an article for Forbes magazine explains. These applications will be expected to provide consumers with the same level of support and service they would get from a flesh-and-blood employee or a retailer's website.

Retailers will also need to make sure that all product and price information is up-to-date to prevent customer confusion or missed revenue opportunities.

"Mobile sites should also check inventory availability so that an empty shelf doesn’t stop a sale," Forbes explains. "This includes having a rapid 'order now + free expedited shipping' option to provide a compelling reason for customers to order from them and not a third-party retailer."

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Thursday, March 15th, 2012 at 2:54 am .

Today's companies conduct retail merchandising in a myriad of locations. One of the most popular outlet spaces is the airport.

Airports are increasingly ditching souvenir stands for local businesses and high-end designers and chains, making it imperative for retailers who operate within them to properly target their customers and keep abreast of demographics trends.

In fact, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times, retail spaces are increasingly being devoted to formerly overlooked shoppers – women, children, the tech-savvy and many others. However, airport staples such as business shoppers and the affluent are not being overlooked.

"For retailers, airports offer 'a captive audience in today's post-9/11 world,' said Gerry Cecci, vice president of airport management at mall operator Westfield, is quoted by the LA Times. The source adds that after clearing security, passengers' wait time may extend past an hour.

Retailers can keep stock of their customers in a number of ways, including working with professional demographic analytics firms and soliciting advice via Facebook or email surveys.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Thursday, March 15th, 2012 at 2:50 am .