Strategic View of The NRF 97th Annual Convention & Expo - Case Study Example

Case Analysis The NRF 97th Annual Convention & Expo was held between 13 January and 16 January 2008. Many speakers presented their researches and cases. Out of the many, I have selected the following two to report on. 1. Strategic View of Loss Prevention The merchandising industry suffers from numerous losses during its operations. This presentation was about identifying these factors and what could be done to eliminate/prevent them from the work environment. The hot issues in the environment discussed in the presentation are Homeland Security, Talent Management, Merchandise Shrinkage & Organized Retail Crime and the Technology factor. Homeland Security There are cases in the business environment that are out of control of individuals or a business. The dynamic business environment has become increasingly risky due to terrorism, increasing intensity of natural disasters, violence at the workplace and outbreaks of pandemics and epidemics. The presenter recommended that building of mutual aid networks, tightening the management, communicating effectively, being foresighted and taking preventing measures are the way to minimize the losses occurring from threat to homeland security. Talent Management The human resources are considered to be the most valuable assets of a company. They are also referred as the 'intellectual assets' of the company since they are knowledgeable about company's policies, processes and workings. Managing these assets properly (talent management), prevents a business from making losses. By efficiently managing these resources, the company can do more with less. The important thing is not to let employees leave their company because when an employee leaves the company, he/she takes away the knowledge with him/her. Therefore the presenter recommends that jobs should be made more interesting, working should be team based to increase motivation, the working environment should be friendly yet challenging and rewards and credits should be given to individuals for their ideas and contributions. (Huang, 1998) Merchandise Shrinkage & Organized Retail Crime Crime in the business vicinity takes a major portion in the losses incurred by the company. Shortage in the merchandise caused by employee theft and shoplifting, accounts for 78% of the losses in the merchandising business, while errors make up the rest. According to the presentation, organized retail crime is behind most of the shrinking merchandize. Their intent is to steal desirable products with the intent to resell. These sales can be made at a local pawn shop where approximately they receive 30% of the retail price. With the technological advances, they can also send these items online where no links of stolen goods can be found and get up to 70% of the value. However, return fraud is also very common where people return the stolen items back to the retailers by creating counterfeit receipts and tickets. To prevent these issues the presenter recommends the use of intelligence sharing, installing tracking equipment like GPS, data mining to analyze fraudulent trends, training and Education programs to catch there people and invigorating the legislative efforts to put stricter punishments for the offenders. Technology The presenter built upon the last topic to discuss the growing need for the involvement of technology in the merchandizing sector to prevent losses. The involvement of intelligent video recordings to identify suspicious customer behavior, recognize facial expressions, listen to voice recordings etc. will help in preventing shoplifting and fraud to some extent. However active monitoring is the key here. Another interesting bit of technology that is being used today is RFIDs (radio frequency identification). Installing RFID tags on each item will prevent anybody taking the items home without paying for them. Installing alarms for such situations is a must for organizations but before they actually do, cost-benefit analysis should be done to find if the system would provide enough value to the business. Technology is essential in preventing losses, however a business must introduce it discreetly and install such a system that adds value to the business. (Shepard, 2004) 2. State of Retailing Online Online business and e-commerce has grown tremendously over the last decade or so. After the bubble burst, the industry has picked up again and retailing is now offering e-tailing too. Since 2003 the industry is growing at a constant 25% rate. Although many think that the industry has peaked, however the presenter shows that research predicts the same 25% increasing rate in the future. (WhatIs.com, 2007) Research further shows the potential for this industry to grow further. With customers more comfortable going for physical retailers than online websites and electronic kiosks, the market is available for e-tailers to better their processes and influence more people to opt for online shopping. The presenter says that this gap in the market is because the "Online retailers still have not nailed the basics" and tells 5 reasons why. Online shopping still isn't easy Shopping online may be more convenient yet it is not so easy. Since aren't always available and their downtimes can be unreliable, customers cannot trust these sites to give them service when they need it. Also sites also have incomplete or missing information which is not easy to find. Most people find the delivery to be cumbersome in terms of either time or product. There is no standard definition of ROI For the business, profit may mean the actual profit, revenue, customer loyalty or the market share. Due to these differences, a business may find it difficult to calculate and allocate the costs for marketing and other departments. Also the online retailers focus more on acquiring new customers while little is done to retain the old customers. We watch customers instead of listening to them Many sites often have feedback tools. Analytics are run on customer clicks (click stream) and various surveys and focus groups are conducted. The aim of these tools is to find customer problems and solve and improve them. However businesses focus more on looking and heeding their competition then to their customers. Online retailers aren't managing assortments particularly well Having a virtual space on the web, retailers can sell anything and almost everything. Having a large assortment of goods for sale, the online retailers often mismanage them. The lack of human involvement, feeling and explanation put out the customer from purchasing the items online. Retailers still have not truly embraced multiple channels Retailers are focused at either selling their products through the physical stores or only through the online stores. In this time of competition, retailers must realize that both options should be used for great effect. However similar standards, service and quality must be maintained to create a customer oriented brand that is as powerful in the brick and mortar way as a click and mortar. References 1. Strategic View of Loss Prevention 2. State of Online Retailing Available at http://www.nrf.com/annual/Annual08/Handouts.asp Works Cited 1. Huang, K.-T. (1998). Capitalizing on intellectual assets. Retrieved February 7, 2008, from IBM: http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/sj/374/huang.html 2. Shepard, S. (2004). RFID, 1 edition . McGraw-Hill Professional. ISBN-10: 0071442995 3. WhatIs.com. (2007). E-tailing Definition. Retrieved February 8, 2008, from SearchCIO.com: http://searchcio.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid182_gci212079,00.html Read More