The retail industry is the engine of growth for many countries in the developed world. Consumer spending in the United States is approximately 71% of total GDP. Industry and strategy experts have described the current retail environment as a perfect storm with changes in consumer behavior, consolidation and intensive competition. Other researchers tout evidence pointing to a new consumer frugality, especially in the US, where retail expenditures are shifting in a search for lasting value. Moreover, as shoppers experience greater value in lower priced products, they are trading down and setting new buying behavior. Still other experts correctly note that retailers and their suppliers need to constantly adapt to the changing consumer behavior.
Whatever the root cause, we can all agree that we are operating in a new reality from a few years ago, and that retailers have learned they need to stay "on guard" at all times to respond to changes - whether they come from the economy again, regulations, technology (think mobility), or customer trends (Facebook anyone?). Our new reality is still that, new, and prone to changes - so anyone assuming "this is the way it will be for the next decade" does so at their own peril.
Given the needs retailers have today, SAP's Innovations 2010 offers retailers modular solutions that can be deployed "as needed", and can help navigate through these and future uncertainties:
- Insight to Understand: Increased transparency into your shoppers and your operations giving you clarity of action
- Sustainable Profitability: Leverage a foundation for profitable and sustainable growth with increased efficiencies
- Adaptability to Grow: Prepare for and capitalize on the right growth opportunities whether in new regions, new technology/channels or new offerings
- Future-Proof Platform: Protect your IT investment by collaborating and innovating on a single platform with flexible architecture
While some may seek the elusive "magic bullet," successful retailers will consider building their organization's strengths in people, processes and systems to accelerate future growth and find the opportunities by going on the offense in their respective market areas:
- Provide business users the right information on any device to make the best decisions
- Span organizational silos to eliminate redundancies
- Leverage a platform with the flexibility to enable collaborative innovation
Regardless of the retail segment you operate in, SAP provides you with the right insights in modular, process-based applications and solutions that enable your people to make better and more timely decisions along a path of profitable growth during these challenging times.
SAP retail solutions for retailers turn around several key processes where consumer insights inform all major decisions. With current and planned releases, increased capabilities and modularity for implementation will continue along areas key to the business user, such as:
- Loss Prevention Analytics: Offering pre-processed patterns to recognize fraudulent activities and integration with POS Data Management application
- Sustainability Performance Management: Providing a framework to support measuring, monitoring and communicating goals for sustainable development
- Promotion Management for Retail: Offering an integrated and streamlined process for planning, creating, and executing promotions with visibility into projected financial performance
- Merchandise and Assortment Planning: Allowing retailers to forecast and plan sales and inventory at any level of the merchandise hierarchy, defining store-level assortments, and integration with open-to-buy
- Retail Inventory Management: Presenting a Retail stock ledger executing retail method of accounting or extending the cost method
By visiting the retail area on BPX, you will be able to stay on top of upcoming product releases, documentation, and tips and tricks: the BPX retail landing page offers you a convenient entry to a multitude of retail resources, the retail wiki is the retail knowledge repository on BPX, while the gives you more opportunities to engage with and learn from your peers, partners, and SAP experts.
