Retail Technology
| Log in | Subscribe



Subscribe | Log in
Retail Technology
Subscribe

Like many, retail technologists may be sitting down to Christmas dinner today, but it is likely they will also be keeping half an eye on system performance levels

Christmas shopping graphicLike many, retail technologists may be sitting down to Christmas dinner today, but it is likely they will also be keeping half an eye on system performance levels

 

While the rest of the world celebrates Christmas Day, those charged with ensuring retail operations run smoothly, 24 hours a day and 365 days a year, will have to keep an eye things further afield than the family dinner table.

 

Although shops may be closed, back-end transactional and supply chains systems must continue to run – if only to manage any e-commerce channels. And mission-critical IT system performance levels and alerts must continue to be monitored.

 

Tech makes Xmas shopping tick

 

Here’s a round up of the festive stories featured here in the past few weeks and months, which demonstrate just how central IT has become to every retailer’s trading proposition at the busiest shopping season of the year:

 

Christmas shopping has been in full swing since October, according to e-commerce industry body IMRG (19 November 2010)

 

Although the festive preparations were well underway, retailers risked putting consumers off by coming on too strong before December, according to Mood Media (19 November 2010)

 

How many of the recommendations made by Mark Bower, managing director of digital agency Coolpink, did retailers implement in time for this Christmas? (26 November 2010)

 

Retailers were pessimistic about festive sales, according to research by Cybertill, which found only 15% of retailers were anticipating that they would have a better Christmas in 2010 compared to 2009 (21 December 2010)

 

Heavy snow gave e-commerce companies an unexpected boost in the run up to the final Christmas shopping period this year, with clothing doing particularly well, according to IMRG (22 December)

 

Research by Aldata found even the most bargain-hungry shoppers are wary of offers at Christmas, while difficult checkout processes were on the biggest cause of Christmas ‘retail rage’ (23 December 2010)

 

More consumers have gone online than ever to bag bargains during this festive season according to research commissioned by EPiServer (23 December 2010)

 

Strategies to pressure wholesale/distribution partners to bridge potential issues during crucial Christmas shopping period mean retailers are more at risk of out-of-stocks, research commissioned by NetSuite found (23 December 2010)

 

So, while only time will tell if Santa has been able to deliver seasonal profits from retail IT investments, here at RetailTechnology.co.uk, we wanted to make sure these IT stalwarts of the retail industry get their due recognition either way.

 

A very merry Christmas to one and all!