Retailing is one notable area
of commerce that has taken an entirely new dimension with the introduction and
development of various IT apparatus. Buying and selling have never been this
flexible at any point in the history of commerce.This flexibility has had a
number of effects on the relationship between retailers and their customers.
Retailers are able to gather information about their target customers easily and
are thus able to target them with ads and other relevant sales messages
relating to products and services which they are likely to be interested in.
The internet has expanded the
market for retailing outlets, and the ease and flexibility afforded by retail IT solutions have enabled many big retailing outlets to veer from sales into
production. Self service is the new retailing trend, and it is not uncommon to
find customers shopping across continents. The new self service trend supports
virtual retailers like Amazon, who may not have any physical outlet. Many brick
and mortar retail outlets have also created virtual outlets where customers can
buy products.
The retailing industry is in
one of its healthiest state for many years.This can be seen in the rate of
expansion of the world’s major retailing outlets. Generally, IT improvements
have had three effects on the retailing industry.
1. Reduced
Costs: Administrative and inventory costs are lower thanks to various IT tools
that make the gathering, sorting and processing of information simple.
2. Speed
of service: IT has helped increase the speed of the delivery of information and
products at various channels in a retailer’s network.
3. Better
Service: As a result of these improvements, retailers are able to offer better
service to their customers. Using
various tools, retailers are able to gather information on the unique
preferences of each buyer and supply him/her the right products to suit his/her
needs.
Software-as-product for the
retail industry is one of the most impressive business intelligence services.
Among other things, these platforms generate and store copies of receipts and
invoices, warehousing and pricing information etc.Many experts have predicted
with much excitement and apprehension that ‘e-tailing’ (electronic retailing)
will grow to become one of the principal ways of commerce in the near future. Whether
this virtual migration will be more successful, is yet to be seen. However, at
the rate which e-business intelligence services are being developed, there may
be no issues left to fix in the future.
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