Thought Leader Blogs
Read new thoughts from RedPrairie's Retail and Supply Chain experts
No matter the economic climate, the retail and supply chain industries are constantly changing. New ideas come to fruition, and old ones become obsolete, but leaders are always on top of the latest trends and best practices. Each week, RedPrairie's staff of experts in the field share their thoughts in two different blogs, highlighting the most current Retail and Inventory topics. Check back frequently and join in the conversation.
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Dec 13, 2012
Noel Goggin, Noel.Goggin@redprairie.com
In the NFL, there is no question the guys who get all of the attention are the skill positions – quarterbacks, wide receivers, cornerbacks. But any coach will tell you it's the blocking and tackling at the 'grunt' positions that determines the outcome of games. It's the same thing in retail. While online, mobile and social commerce get all of the ink, retailers know the basic blocking and tackling of getting the right amount of the right merchandise into stores and consumers' hands is where the retail game is won or lost. You might say the more the game changes, the more it stays the same. More
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Dec 6, 2012
Noel Goggin, Noel.Goggin@redprairie.com
Black Friday just isn't the same anymore, and not just because it now starts on Thursday evening. While there are still huge crowds and long lines in stores, more and more shoppers are choosing to skip the crowds to shop online. According to comScore, more than $1 billion worth of Black Friday shopping was done online, and USA Today reported another $1.5 billion in purchases on Cyber Monday. More
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Nov 26, 2012
Noel Goggin, Noel.Goggin@redprairie.com
We've all had these experiences when shopping at brick-and-mortar stores. You can't find what you want and there is nobody around to help you. You ask a store associate for information and they don't know the answer. You finally select a product and the check-out queue looks like the waiting line for the latest Harry Potter movie. More
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Nov 20, 2012
Noel Goggin, Noel.Goggin@redprairie.com
Remember the good old days when retail success meant location, location, location? It still does, but besides Park Avenue or Main Street, it now includes everything from Yelp and Pinterest to Facebook and Twitter. Armed with her laptop, smartphone and iPad, the hyper-connected shopper is dramatically reshaping the concept of retail location this holiday season. More
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December 13, 2012
Tom Kozenski Tom.Kozenski@RedPrairie.com
We've all had the same experience. We're at the supermarket, trying to stick to our shopping list, when we see that the store is having a 2-for-1 sale on canned vegetables. So what do we do? We stock up of course, even if we don't need it right away. Yes, we've saved money on each can, but now we've packed our pantries with this excess inventory—safety stock—and don't have room for our everyday food items. More
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December 6, 2012
Jim Le Tart Jim.LeTart@RedPrairie.com
During her welcome remarks at the 2012 CSCMP annual conference in Atlanta, Nancy Nix, chair of the CSCMP board of directors, said supply chains' value going forward should be judged by their resilience, agility, efficiency and innovation. This is a far cry from the traditional view of supply chains as a trade-off between costs and customer service. More
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November 26, 2012
Prashant Bhatia Prashant.Bhatia@RedPrairie.com
If your company has implemented an enterprise resource planning solution, chances are you have been (or soon will be) involved in an intense internal debate: "Should we expand our ERP capability to include supply chain execution, or grow with a best-of-breed provider of supply chain solutions?" More
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November 15, 2012
Jim Le Tart Jim.LeTart@RedPrairie.com
The fact is there are no companies anywhere that run only one platform. Despite multi-billion dollar R&D budgets, no ERP behemoth can be all things to all people. More
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