special offers.
The automated system is now in a beta stage in eight of Camelot’s 400 stores and customer acceptance is good, reports Roberts. He says the company has seen increased activity from its reward mailings, including an increase in the number of visits and in spending per visit for frequent purchasers.
??Delivey System Management.
Sears, Roebuck and Co. has captured national attention-not to mention the 1997 Retail Information Technology Award-for its unique application of information systems in developing its Enhanced Home Delivery System. Implemented in early 1997, the system of complex mathematical algorithms is designed to find the set of minimumcost vehicle routes for home delivery to the store’s four million annual
major appliance customers, all within the four-hour delivery window it promises (two hours in some markets.) The system is self-educating, “learning” or evaluating as it goes to improve both timing and cost savings on deliveries in areas ranging from the most rural outposts to the most densely populated cities in the country. It is integrated with a call center, where customers can call in and verify their delivery date and time with voice-recognition units that lighten the load on the call center’s work force.
The home delivery system has proved to be a strategic advantage for Sears, and is part of the company’s core competency of
consumer-driven service initiated by CEO Arthur Martinez. Many gains are associated with the new system. It previously took one or more individuals up to three hours to locate street addresses for the next day’s deliveries and assign them to specific trucks.
Now the address location and truck assignment takes about 20 minutes, and the hit rate on address matching has improved from 55 percent to 90 percent. In addition, Sears has managed to decrease miles per stop and added more stops for each truck. The company has
improved its four-hour delivery promise from 78 percent to better than 90 percent, and managers are setting their sights on narrowing the delivery window promise even further, thanks to the capabilities of the technology. ??Virtual Reality and Market
Research. Many of the traditional market research tools used to develop and test new ideas-whether new products, packages, prices,
promotions, or distribution plans-are often too expensive, vulnerable to observation and manipu- Exec dive Iiriefing lation by competitors,
contrived and unrealistic, or simply incapable of providing the information managers really need. Raymond Burke, E.W. Kelley Chair of Business Administration at Indiana University, is applying technological advances in virtual reality to make simulated test marketing practical for a broad range of companies and applications. Using the latest in hardware, computer graphics, and three-dimensional modeling, Burke?s Consumer Interface Lab is able to recreate-quickly and inexpensively-the atmosphere of an actual retail store on a computer screen or in a virtual reality environment. A consumer can view shelves stocked with any kind of product, “pick up” a package from the shelf and examine it from all sides, and “purchase” products by adding them to a shopping cart.
During the shopping process, the computer unobtrusively records the amount of time the consumer spends shopping in each product category, the time spent examining each side of a package, the quantity of a product
purchased, and the order in which items are examined and purchased. Burke contends that computersimulated environments like this one offer a number of advantages over older research methods, including eliminating the distracting clutter of an actual market while still providing a realistic level of complexity and variety. The tests can be set up and altered very quickly, and data
collection is fast and error-free. Once the hardware and software are in place, the cost of a test is largely a function of the cost and number of respondents. Research on virtual shopping can help retail managers with a variety of
tactical decisions, says Burke. These may include reorganizing stores to make it easier for consumers to shop for the products and brands they want, designing retail space to entertain and persuade, testing the effects of
advertising on consumer price sensitivity and loyalty, and managing product assortments and shelf space to maximize profitability and store performance. F Emerging Technology
for In-Store Customization
Retailers are recognizing the potential threat of electronic commerce. Some suggest that the most appropriate defense against this competition may be to improve the in-store shopping experience. Technology is enabling creative conventional retailers to use the growing wealth of individual
consumer information to customize the in-store shopping experience, improve shopping convenience, provide knowledgeable and personalized service, and enhance the entertainment value and ambiance of their stores. Infrared and
video tracking systems are now being used to monitor shoppers? traffic patterns and reset store layouts and displays to maximize impact,
Electronic shelf labeling systems are being developed that allow retailers to change pricing and merchandising to manage demand. Kiosk technology is being developed to offer customized product and service information to
individual consumers while in the store. Technological developments are also helping speed the customer?s way through the store to improve convenience. ?Check-in” programs are being tested in which customers insert an ID card as they enter the store and receive technological shopping aids, such as “palm pilots.” These could provide customized shopping lists complete with coupons, recipes, and suggestions for replenishment requirements, or even maps
highlighting product locations within the store. At the checkout lane, retailers are experimenting with
faster scanners that may eliminate lines entirely. One of these is the “supertag” system developed by ICL Retail Systems, which instantly scans tagged items in a shopping basket and totals them as the consumer walks through the lane. Customization is also critical. Manufacturers such as Levi Strauss and Corn pany are working with technological development companies like TC? to test “body scanning” equipment to provide custom manufacturing of clothing from an individual computer disk. Researchers are developing applications of
virtual reality to provide a customized retail “entertainment” experience at the point of purchase.
The IU Center for Education and Research in Retailing recently
addressed many of these emerging technology applications designed to tailor the instore shopping experience to individual customers. In a spring
conference for senior retailing executives, cosponsored with charter member KPMG Peat Marwick Consumer Markets Group, presentations and
demonstrations gave participating retailers a look at the latest technological innovations, while discussions focused around the strategic applications of these innovations to in-store customization. 0
This article, sponsored by the Center for Education and Research in Retailing at Indiana University?s Kelley School of Business, was prepared by Cheryl Burke Jarvis, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Marketing. of doing business on the Internet and the World Wide Web.
附录2
零售业促销管理
1.市场营销与零售
技术的革命性变革正在改变着零售商们管理商业的各个层面的方法。零售业的领导者们就怎样在电子商务和场外购物的发展中适应和生存展开了激烈的角逐。今天，零售经理们已经创造出新的技术性的解决办法，对传统零售提出了挑战。这些方法包括：雇员培训，存货管理，交货体系，市场调研和发展顾客关系。科技创新对零售业各个领域的潜在影响以及创新过程中所遇到的挑战决定了零售业者和学者之间的对话。这也就难怪科技像一条贯穿的线连接了教育项目，政策会议和去年一月在纽约举行的第87届全国零售联合大会。会议的主题是:在工业杂志封面及其学术圈中吸引更多的注意力。位于IU?s Kelley商业学校的零售教育研究中心认为科技是关键性的主动行为。他将资源用于一个艺术级的科技教室，支持“虚拟”商店的尖端市场研究和策划科技在零售战略和管理上应用的教育项目。 目前正在行业和研究中实施的零售问题的科技申请的数量和种类都很惊人。虽然研究人员开始更加关注电子商务及互联网，但是它们只是整体的一部分。 2.电子商务和互联网
店外购无疑是现在零售行业最热门的问题。全国零售联合会(NRF)报告指出，它每周都收到大量的电话反映互联网的影响。一个由全国零售联合会主办并在其1998年年会上发表的网上购物调查显示美国7%的家庭主妇在互联网上购物或接受服务。而且，现在有一半拥有个人电脑的人在上网。这意味着美国20%的家庭接触到互联网。NRF研究报告公布的其他研究结果显示：网上购物者中，40%已经购买了计算机相关产品，20%购买了书籍，另有16%预订了旅行。另外，网络改变了消费者的日常活动方式。例如，35%的网上消费者经常利用它办理银行业务，43% 利用互联网获取新闻；29%的人在网页上调查产品和服务。这些网上购物者是什么样的人呢？总的来说，研究表明他们是高学历高薪酬的中年男性。零售商们将不得不意识到这一点并使他们的网络产品符合这些潜在消费者得需要。Ernst and Young也对零售商进行了调查，发现他们中的34%在网上
销售或打算销售产品，相反有47%的人认为他们的产品不适合网络销售。电子跟踪组的Lauren Freedman指出在2000年以后将有超过5000万的家庭通过个人计算机，电视或电话上网，超过4600万的美国人将在网上购物，平均每人每月消费350美元，总计超过160亿美元。她给出以下的网上销售“最佳做法”：
建设系统搜索功能，这是快速、有效率,并导致购买行为的; 用刺激性产品提升购买经验； 提供特价商品清仓；
传递一种信息吸引浏览者和购买者； 偶尔向顾客询问，更多地了解他们的需要。
Freedman说在使在线服务得以成功的增值服务中关键是登记（包括婴儿玩具、 与鲜花）；礼品提示程序；地址簿；起智能代理的作用的“个人购物”和礼品赠送服务。
零售商对电子商务提出许多问题，只有一部分答案被接受。他们希望去了解消费者，在线销售和分销，安全问题以及在网页上赚钱的潜力。虽然当谈到实行电子商务时零售商们的态度都很谨慎，但是NRF会议上节目的热烈反应证明他们已经看到了电子商务的潜力。 3.零售管理的科技应用
由于零售消耗小而批发使价格降低，零售商面对着存货失败的问题，包括脱销，存货过时，周转不灵或低利润。零售顾问Kurt Salmon联合会的Steven J. Nevill和David Rush描述了许多利用科技来促进销售业绩，提高存货周转速度的实例。他们引用的一个例子是将一层电子库存体系应用于传统的周转慢的J滑雪密集型企业——鞋类零售商。该系统使管理通道延伸到后方库存。与制造商的联系使货物在第二天就可以到达顾客手中或商场。这一系统使存货降至最低，基本消除脱销（因为存货可以来自商店或制造商），是零售商不想保存的可以提供给消费者的货物销售额提高20%。Nevill and Rush要求零售商们检验虚拟存货的概念，即从不同地点将存货提供给消费者的能力。 雇员培训和周转
经过多年的雇员周转资源枯竭和培训成本提高，J.C. Penney的培训部门运用科技使它的哲学理论和方法发生了巨大变化。1996年零售商执行了一项多媒体培训战略，用人造卫星为基础的交互作用，计算机协调讨论会