Role of Technology in Retail Essay

Developing effective retail management is utilizing the space in the store in order to display items that provide the largest contribution to overall profit. Retailers attempt to draw maximum attention to their most profitable products

Technology is/and still playing a vital role in any business. The growth of online selling in the UK and the world has led to large increase in its online sales. The raising numbers of people, who own computers, smartphones and tablets; and having access to internet which has a high positive impact for their online sales. As there is an increase in demand of new technology, developments of new tablets, computers are rising in popularity and John Lewis sells a wide range of these. For John Lewis to keep up with the demands of their customers they had to move in-line with the recent development of new

 Are there any relatively new technologies that the company believes has dramatically changed their

Technology is one stronghold that has put the company over the edge ahead of many other retailers. The company discovered the power of

Executive summary The purpose of this report is to have an overview of the opportunities and challenges in relation to the retail industry, specifically focusing on Myer as a department store. An analysis on the macro environment including a PESTLE analysis of the retail industry as well as porters five forces in relation to Myer. A VRIO analysis is also conducted to identify the organisations competitive advantage. The retail industry is constantly changing as it needs to be able to adapt to the wants and needs of society at hand, where technology has become a significant impact on shopping and completing everyday tasks.

Using existing organizational systems often means completely missing the boat on the real customer and his real needs. This is the customer who values the products as a breakthrough. Products are frequently under-appreciated by firms when the new product is based on an existing platform. This leads to a wait and see attitude and the product is not given adequate support and often under-priced.

Self checkout registers are present in all Super Wal-Mart(s). Kiosk machines for cash, plane tickets, movie tickets, hotel reservations, bill pay, and self service gas stations are some of the more popular accesaries available through inporved technology. Not all of the technological invention eliminated great paying jobs, nevertheless the technology eliminated jobs all the same. The inventions made it possible for faster service, more efficiency, fewer mistakes, and more profit. With technology, a person or a corporation pay for a technician to periodically service the machines, but people need the benefits, days off, the run late, get sick, all of the things that go along with having a full staff working for you. The upside of technology

Macy's can get examples on how leaders in industries have used information systems to obtain a completive advantage, such as Walmart or Zara. If they analyze the case of some pre-established and best-selling companies in the locality, then the study will obviously be fruitful to a great extent. Nevertheless, this should only be done as a reference, since Macy’s has its own limits. An example of this can be seen in the value chain. If Macy’s wants to coordinate its distribution of its products with the rest of its subsidiaries, then they must have an effective Supply chain management system. Walmart’s’ retail link is a perfect example of this. The value chain must be driven by accurate and

Walmart’s approach means frequent, informal cooperation among stores, distribution centres and suppliers and less centralized control. The company’s supply chain allowed consumers to effectively pull merchandise to stores rather than having the company push goods onto shelves by tracking customer purchases and demand. Through the use of universal product codes, implementation of Retail links at the store, use of RFIDs and smart tags, suppliers and manufacturers within the supply chain synchronize their demand forecaste under a collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment scheme, and every link in the chain was connected through technology that includes a central database, store-level point-of-sale systems, and a satellite network. As per report, there was a 16% reduction in out-of-stocks with the use of RFIDs and pointed out that the products using an electronic product code were replenished three times as fast as items that only used bar code technology. These strategies have made Walmart to be the dominant force over other competitors with information and technology helping its supply chain strategy attain greater

Best Buy Co., Inc. is currently the world’s largest retailer for consumer electronics. The company has 1,400 brick and mortar stores and is a popular online retailer as well. The stores serve as display room for various online retailers. Best Buy consumers can purchase electronic products such as mobile, corded and cordless phones, televisions, cameras, personal computers, laptops, appliances and more (David & F.R., 2015). Today’s society relies on convenience and technology, forcing companies to implement new ideas and projects in an effort to maintain their ability to compete with other companies. For continued success the company must look at the internal and external issues the company may face as well as their competitors and their best practices that are contributing to their success.

Zara’s IT was positioned in the support mode quadrant on the IT strategic impact grid. This demonstrates that Zara's leadership team understood that their corporate strategy focused on the expansion of the number of stores selling of high fashion, short life span clothing to young fashion conscious, city dwellers. There was a relatively low need for reliability and strategic IT, it simply existed to support employees activities (Nolan and McFarlan, 2005). By implementing a new POS system Zara could potentially have come up against the following key risks:

Zara, the largest retailer within the Inditex portfolio, has been able to maintain a competitive advantage over its competitors by offering up-to-the-minute fashions in its stores throughout Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas. Zara is the result of a clothing factory integrating forward to take advantage of linkages between manufacturing and retailing. These linkages are facilitated by information technology and Zara has developed a highly automated production and distribution system to service its stores. The information systems within Zara stores are easy to use and stable, but much discussion is taking place regarding whether or not to upgrade them to take advantage of new technologies which could better

Hence, technology is bettering reliability and speed with which information is divulged (Porter, 1980). Hand-held computers or PDA’s are utilized by Zara to collect information on consumer needs between retail stores and the factory in La Coruna. This along with regular telephone conversations between store managers and marketing specialists are one of the reasons that Zara’s information network is so effective. The utilization of PDA’s can be done by any company; it is Zara’s determination not to allow important information to fall by the wayside that assists with its success. PDAs are connected to the store 's point-of-sale (POS) system, enabling managers to see how garments rank by sales. In as little as an hour, managers can send information that combine the hard data captured at the POS intermixed with acumen on what customers would like to see. All of this data allows Zara to design and produce styles and orders based on feedback rather than guesswork. Hence, Zara avoids costly overproduction and the consequent sales and mark-downs that are so widespread in the fast fashion industry (Rohwedder and Johnson, 2008).

Zara, the largest retailer within the Inditex portfolio, has been able to maintain a competitive advantage over its competitors by offering up-to-the-minute fashions in its stores throughout Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas. Zara is the result of a clothing factory integrating forward to take advantage of linkages between manufacturing and retailing. These linkages are facilitated by information technology and Zara has developed a highly automated production and distribution system to service its stores. The information systems within Zara stores are easy to use and stable, but much discussion is taking place regarding whether or not to upgrade them to take advantage of new technologies which could better

Supply chain management can be defined as a configuration of strategic modules across a firms or companies. SCM has benefited from a wide variety of innovations. Without a doubt, technology has had the effect of increasing profitability and efficiency for most parties in a supply chain. In the recent years, the focus has shifted from being profit oriented to being customer oriented and building up more responsive supply chains. With rapidly changing market conditions in form of multiple, competing sales channels, need for smarter supply chains, diverse geographical conditions and limited consumer loyalty, innovation in the space between the brand owner and the store is generally overlooked, but of increasing importance (Tambo,2014) .Therefore With a change in priorities, the impacts that technologies have had