JDA acquires  i2: Creation of a global leader in  supply chain planning and optimization market:

        JDA Software Group Inc. a leading provider of supply chain planning and execution optimization solution  and i2 Technologies, Inc. the supply chain results company, yesterday announced the signing of a definitive merger agreement for JDA Software to acquire i2 Technologies, Inc., a leading global provider of supply chain solutions, for an enterprise value of approximately $346 million in cash. The acquisition of i2 by JDA has created a global leader in the supply chain planning and optimization market.

       By combining JDA and i2, the resulting company will have significantly improved operating leverage and a strong financial position. The near-term cost synergies identified in operations, general, administrative and infrastructure resulting from this combination are expected to produce annual cost savings of approximately $20 million. As a result of the pending Merger, i2 is withdrawing its previously provided outlook for third quarter 2008.

       This acquisition will strengthened JDA’s Market Position in Retail Software Solution Space.

- Rajeev Damani

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“A man is a social animal” so is a woman so as per the saying man always wanted to be connected and wants comments from his circle on anything he/she do. And if we talk about shopping, everybody demands some comments on their newly bought item, ladies adjust their jewellery again and again intentionally to get appreciation and gentlemen check time again and again in their imported watch to get something  out of the mouth of a friend. Ooh man this seems too awkward to do this, and apart from this we get some unwanted responses like dekho toh apni nayi watch kaise baar baar dekha raha hai. So why don’ttake a help of technology, it always come to save the day . Use “interactive mirror” outside fitting rooms that will stream high-definition video of shoppers modeling clothes to their friends’ computers or mobile devices. It also allows the friends to comment on the outfits and to select other designs in the collection for the shopper to try. See how simple it is, but now if we put our feet in retailers shoes we found it to be quite difficult, but but ” customer is a king” and retailers have to take this pain to make their customer satisfied. With the help of lots of technology inventions like RFID, GPRS, WIFI, Plasma TV, Touch Screen interaction, Motion Sensor, Face recognition, Smart Card, HD data etc. retailers are all set to provide a “Social Retailing” experience to the customers.

- Prateek Katiyar

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Social Retailing!!!

Social Retailing is the buzz word in the Retail Industry. It’s an opportunity for Retailers to reach, attract and retain younger audience i.e. 17 to 25 year old customers who seeks community attention. It aims at providing social tools and platform around product and services to create better informed and better organized buying behavior. It’s an attempt to link social networking and shopping. Social networking is popular on the Web. So is shopping. Imagine, then, the potential of Net shops that combine the two into a package called “social shopping.”

The concept of Social Retailing was first unveiled at National Retail Federation’s (NRF) BIG show in 2007 when IconNicholson launched Interactive Mirror. The interactive mirror provides on the spot feedback and ambient aura animation while beaming the customers’ in-store experience across the Web via live video feed. Friends on the Web can send messages and clothing suggestion to the customers. Customers can also try on outfits virtually using the mirror that shows how fab they might look – or not.

Simply speaking, when a customer stands in front of the mirror, a camera relays live video image of him/her to an Internet site where online participants could view his/her outfit. When Web viewers respond by sending him/her comments, their instant messages popped up on the left side of the mirror for the customer to read. They also select items for him/her to try on, causing virtual images of the clothing to appear before him/her in the middle of the mirror.

So, you could be in a department store and have your friends online at the same time helping you shop.

Another instance of Social Retailing is what online sites like kaboodle.com are doing. They are trying to promoting the idea of shopping online with your friends. They give you feeds related to you and your friend’s activities like:

• Adding items to the cart.
• Commenting on items.
• Creating polls.
• Updating your user profile.
• Starting a group.
• Adding new friends.
• Rating items.

Their main idea is to facilitate the following among their customers:

• Discover new things from people with similar taste and style
• Recommend and discuss your favorite products and stores
• Simplify your life with wish lists and shopping lists

Gartner’s View:

Traditionally e-commerce sites have concentrated on catering to individual shoppers- what the research firm Gartner calls the “solo hunter.” Today’s shopper according to Gartner is a “social gatherer”. They are looking for more interaction with people when they shop.

I want to know about more existing and innovative social retailing tools.

- Rajeev Damani 

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Online Purchase - Global avg.

As the oil prices soaring to heights, people are looking for an alternative of driving all the way to outskirts of town and buy  a piece of garment. And the alternative is to just sit in your relaxing chair do some clicks and get your favorite or latest fashion garment on your doorstep, let the retailers do all the oil burning and in turn money burning thing. And that’s why consumers across the globe are increasingly swapping crowded stores for one-click convenience, as online shopping becomes a safe and popular option. According to a recent global survey conducted by The Nielsen Company, over 85 percent of the world’s online population has used the Internet to make a purchase, up 40 percent from two years ago, and more than half of Internet users are regular online shoppers, making online purchases at least once a month .

-Prateek Katiyar

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In our effort to make “Retail Dude” a complete retail blog, We are looking forward for blog posts from people outside the bimtech fraternity as well. If you are interested in writing for the “Retail Industry” and if the author hidden inside you is waiting to be unleashed , Please drop a line to sarthak@bimtech-retail.com

Cheers!

- Sarthak

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Lets start with the retailing giant - Walmart. Indeed Wal-Mart is the retailing giant, but what about their sustainability initiatives? Wal-Mart CEO, Lee Scott, committed that Wal-Mart will invest $500 million in sustainability projects and will become the leader in green retailing. they already started selling green products to the masses. Wal-Mart is already the leader in organic milk sales and is the largest buyer of organic cotton. But selling green & organic products is not the only way to become green and eco-friendly. The initiative also involves waste management, energy conservation, lowering the carbon footprint. These are the things on which the giant is working on and soon be trying be be a leader in that area also. Walmart is addicted to be a leader in whatever thing it involves in. But what we have to thing is, it is only the store that should be a green one, what about the supply chain. Retailer strive to convert the supply chain into a value chain but when they will make it a “Green Value Chain”.

- Prateek Katiyar

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The business climate is changing and the so called globalization had already put lot of stress on the retailers. Time to time retailers came up with different and innovating ideas, some of them failed, some became their daily dose of business and some are still in infant stage. But all the previous implementaions showed that you have to ride the wave of change or else you will find yourself beneath it. So what is the current wave retailers are trying to exploit, its the GREEN retailing. To create a sustainable environment for their people and their planet, retailers must take responsibility for being green while staying in the black. The amount of awareness and lots of green initiatives already opening their wings wide open, retailer have lots of stress to go green. So what all retailers are doing to go green …………. See this space for more greener newz

- Prateek Katiyar

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Source: flickr.com

This image came across during one of my regular creative exploitations at “flickr”. Looks like the so called Indian Unorganized market is fast adopting the combat techniques used by the tech world, The image is an apt example for that The retailer seems to have realised his potential of being the neighbourhood retailer, Where in he can throw in the extra Frills (Linux V/S Windows) to attract the prospective customers, the practise has existed for long now, its just the re-branding phase now

Behold Open Source Retailing My Fellow Men…

- Sarthak

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