Five tips for retailers with international growth ambitions on getting technology solutions right.
If your organisation intends to expand its operations overseas, you are likely to encounter challenges, particularly in your retail systems area. The following are the key points to consider before you get started, writes Andrew Gorecki*
1. Work with a retail expert
Many systems used by retailers have not been specifically created for the retail industry. If a retailer buys a system that was originally designed for manufacturing, or for an accounting business, then it won’t meet business requirements unless some serious money is spent.
It may not work anyway as only 30 per cent of IT projects succeed. Like with your health - when you have a serious problem, you should see a specialist. A mere GP will not be able to help.
If your systems are not retail-specific, get them checked to find if they can handle a shop in another country.
2. High prices do not mean high quality
It is a fact of life that in the absence of other criteria people tend to use price as a measure of product quality. Yet, there is no proof that such a relationship exists. This is why spending vast sums of money on technology does not guarantee you will get a good solution to meet the demands of your business.
For example, a chain of stores in Australia operating 160 outlets recently spent $100 million on its new computer system, when $10 million would have been enough. Its bottom line has been damaged for years to come and they were lucky to survive. There is such a thing as ‘killer technology’. Online Marketing Services Provider.
If you need to buy a new system to support your overseas expansion, do not spend millions.
3. Ensure operational efficiency and scalability
A retail company should have one IT person for every 100 shops it operates. This should be sufficient to handle all end-to-end retail functionality, allowing a business to grow without becoming a software house.
Such ratios are easily achievable if the right technology is used. Also, businesses must not assume that the system they originally adopted when the company started up will be able to handle their needs as the business expands. Many systems simply cannot scale up.
If your organisation intends to grow, it must adopt a system that will scale up to support the next stage of business development – larger size, new verticals, and new markets.
4. Select technology that can integrate across the business
Companies need systems that integrate across the entire organisation. Businesses need to ensure that information gathered at the point of sale is passed back quickly and analysed correctly within the head office environment. From here, this information must be used to make more effective plans for the business going forward by assessing the performance of stores and the stock within the stores. Direct Marketing Services Provider.
Your key objective must be to have a single database to handle data for the entire enterprise.
5. Do not focus exclusively on system functionality
Most retailers who look for a new system try to find a system with good functional match. Unfortunately, this is not enough. Like a house that may fall apart if the architecture was not completed properly, a poorly designed system will be a never ending source of grief.
Recently a large international vendor provided a system for a postal company in one of the developing countries and the functional fit was high – around 90 per cent. Only when they started to make modifications to address the minor functional gaps it was discovered that the system could not be changed and had to be completely rewritten. It is still being rewritten…
So, functionality is important, but it is only one of the selection criteria. Solid system architecture, single focus on the retail industry, high quality team behind the product, and good reference sites are equally important.
Retailers should not be afraid to ask a system provider to pass on details of customers who have previously deployed the system. It is essential to get an idea first hand of the experiences of retailers who already use the system in their business and assess if it works well for them.
Media Marketing Agency.
0 comments:
Post a Comment