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During the past three months we have engaged with several food and non-food retailers about their usage of BI and analytic tools. An initial finding from these conversations is that the debate around BI flexibility, ROI, TCO and performance is far from over.

The profile of the modern consumer is rapidly evolving and eCommerce sales continue to grow in double digits. It is increasingly on social networks that consumers build their preferences of a given product or service; it is on social networks that consumers gather the necessary information to make purchasing decisions; and it is on social networks that brand awareness is established and brand image is ultimately built.

One of the most popular inquiries we have been receiving has been around the use of web analytics and how to justify new investment. The interest has been driven by three factors – the acquisition of market leader Omniture by Adobe, the emergence of Google Analytics, and a renewed desire to reach consumers who have become increasingly comfortable in making buying decisions on the web.

Whether a formal strategy is in place or not, we find universal consensus by US and EU-based retailers around the opportunity to drive mobile consumer interaction.
Five major areas of focus are emerging:

As with most parts of the country, the weekend newspaper brings with it a voluminous number of weekly specials at the major retail chains. One of the most important read for me, is the Best Buy circular. It forms the basis of a non-scientific, but nonetheless important metric by which I observe the retail technology market - Ben's Best Buy Index.

Despite some fundamental changes in shopping patterns, our industry in the US always seems to hold its collective breath around the level of shopper activity the day after Thanksgiving (the media over hyped Black Friday) as a harbinger of the health of the holiday season. For obvious reason, this year's Black Friday took on even more urgency and, despite schizophrenic consumer confidence numbers and high unemployment, the early reporting is encouraging. Don't believe for a minute, however, that this is a return to business as usual.

The prospects for US Retailers to grow revenue by traditional means remains dim. Even high end shopping malls have record vacancies and are accepting tattoo parlors and non-profits as tenants. The days of growing through store expansion are on an extended holiday. As such, retailers are not only looking to improve same store sales, but to increase traffic and sales conversions on their commerce sites. European retailers aren't nearly as overbuilt as their US counterparts, but are similarly looking to web channels for growth. And emerging and established Asian retailers with global ambitions see the web as an efficient means to establish their brand in mature markets.

Advocating Immersive Shopping Experience (ISE) capabilities represent now a fundamental industry milestone for those retailers that want to differentiate the customer experience. Which technologies can enable consumers with an immersive shopping experience that can build loyalty and valuable, more profitable consumer relationships?

I thought I'd outline some of the takeaways from this year's Shop.org Conference in Las Vegas. Please read the newsletter piece for a more complete roundup of the show. I am also attaching a Retail E-Commerce Maturity figure that I'd love to have critiqued. I welcome comments.

The implementation of self-scanning technologies by leading retailers continues to grow - especially in the food segment. We have seen many PRs and announcements; we have had discussions with some of the major self-scanning systems vendors; we have assessed retailers' investments plans on self-service technologies through demand-side research and in-depth conversations with merchants. Our biggest question at this stage was: how are consumers reacting to self-scanning?

HP announced on August 24th the release of GS1 Canada Product Recall service.
Initially focused on enabling faster, more efficient and less costly product recalls for all supply chain partners in the Canadian food industry - and I truly mean ALL parties from retailers to their suppliers - the initiative compliant with GS1 supply chain standards aims at improving the consumer experience in an economically sustainable fashion.

The retail sector in MEA is projected to keep growing in the short-term at much faster rates compared to Russia, Central & Eastern EU, and - of course - Western Europe. New store openings and a strong IT investment dynamism characterize the current retail landscape in MEA. What are the resulting IT implications for regional and international retailers?

While GDP expectations continue to deteriorate for all of the major European countries, retail confidence levels are picking up during the second quarter of 2009 - with the exclusion of Germany. Italian retailers and consumers in particular have the most optimist outlook.
Retail volume trends are negative for all countries with the exception of the U.K.. The aggregate sentiment is negative for Germany and France, and positive for the UK and Italy.

IDC Retail Insights finds that the overwhelming need for customer-centric abilities is driving several actions centered on real-time business decision support and sales channels performance improvement. Our 2009 survey findings suggest that European retailers reckon the necessity – and opportunity - of continued investments in technology-enabled innovation. Up to 30% of organizations are in fact unveiling investment plans in areas other than simple maintenance.

The global retail industry is now moving towards the attainment of immersive shopping experience (ISE) abilities, leveraging on advanced CRM software suites based upon a common enterprise information model. Tight connections with merchandising and store execution systems will represent the key technological enablers to achieve strategic business objectives.