Information Systems in Retailing

Mahesh PIPE, Hyderabad

Introduction

• Information is communication i.e. verified to be accurate, timely and organized.

• Relevant data could be put together to generated information of interest.

• Where as data could be correct or incorrect, may not be organized and irrelevant.

In Retail Environment…

• A retailer of moderate size will be handling 20,000 sku’s in its different outlets spread over in vide geography.

• It becomes very critical for retailer to move right product to right store at right time and right price.

• As well, retailer will be having huge inflow and outflow of data from various points.

Proper Information system leads

• No excess inventory causing capital block, nor stock out leads to business loss.

• Right use of promotional strategy on right set of people.

• Purchase of goods from right vendor. • These are some of the critical tasks to be

performed by retailer.

Need of Technology in Retail

• Retailer growing global.• Operating various formats.• Frill less business models.• High customer expectation.• High pressure on margins.• High pressure on employee productivity.• Innovative and effective promotions.• Efficient store operations.

Importance of IT in retail

• Information is power, it enable us to take right decision.

• Areas of usage….1) Efficient stocking of Merchandise.2) Collection of Data3) Efficiency of operations4) Helps communication

Factors Affecting the Use of Technology

• The Scale and Scope of Operations.• The financial resources available.• The nature of the business.• Human resources available.

Applications of Technology

• Electronic Data Interchange is the exchange of business information through standard interfaces (secured, reliable, tamper free) by using communication devises.

• EDI is the core of over all growth of e-commerce.• The advantages of EDI includes1) Fast and works on real time basis.2) Error free.3) Reduces costs involved in paper handling, filing, storing

etc.4) Strengthens relationship between partners.

Database management, Data warehousing & Data Mining

CRM

Inventory

Payroll

Production

Sales

General ledger

Data processing

Extraction, Transformation,

Loading

Meta Data

Summary data

Raw Data

Analysis

Reporting

Data Mining

Radio Frequency Identification

• Invented in the year 1948 by Harry Stockman.• Due to various implementation constrains it was quiet

till late 1990’s.• Unlike bar codes RFID tags are readable, writable,

transfer data, store data.• The goods could be tracked easily in the entire supply

chain.• Some of the advantages if RFID include, Inventory

saving, Reduced theft, Reduced labor cost, Reduced stock out & easy readable.

• Thank you