Retailing Amidst Information Technology
Keywords:
Retail industry, Market knowledge, Technology’s role, IT managementAbstract
With the increasing globalization of retailing, both in terms of their points-of-sale and their points-of-supply; the information technology (IT) spend in the retail sector has increased significantly. IT plays an increasingly important role in the management of complex retail operations. Market knowledge, as well as control of data and information, is key to obtaining a competitive advantage in the retail sector. Markets are continuing to grow and become more complex; the simple process of retailing has started to deploy more advanced retail information systems to cope with all the transactions involved. Today, retailers need to transform their IT capabilities for multiple reasons, including: • To increase the company’s ability to respond to the evolving marketplace through enhanced speed and flexibility. • To collect and analyze customer data while enhancing differentiation. • To work effectively; retailers need one system working across stores (or even across national borders) to make sure the most effective use of stock and improve business processes. Retailers are beginning to notice that technology’s role is one of an enabler. Essentially, information technology can speed up processes and deliver cost saving benefits to the company.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
User Rights
Under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC-BY-NC), the author (s) and users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit the contribution).
Rights of Authors
Authors retain the following rights:
1. Copyright and other proprietary rights relating to the article, such as patent rights,
2. the right to use the substance of the article in future works, including lectures and books,
3. the right to reproduce the article for own purposes, provided the copies are not offered for sale,
4. the right to self-archive the article.