Aug31
If you’re like me, you travel a lot — and sometimes you get so caught up in everyday life that you don’t think that much about what you’ve learned. But I keep thinking about my experience at the Summer NAMM event in Nashville, just after the flood waters receded. Let me tell you what I learned [...]
Aug27
I don’t think any casual observer would mistake NRF for being a big fan of the new health care law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, or PPACA. Yes, we are hard at work, trying to help make the best out of this bad law through the regulatory process. Our first priority [...]
Aug23
We all know that 2009 and 2010 have been challenging times for retailers and their supply chain partners. While there have been many lessons learned over the past year through the recession and recovery, retailers are still facing challenges with the movement of their goods through the supply chain. The biggest challenge is and remains [...]
Aug20
On Thursday afternoon, retailers in Los Angeles received some welcome news. The Los Angeles Police Department brought down a notorious ORC ring known as the Hernandez Operation. The group is responsible for stealing at least $6 million worth of baby formula, diapers, health and beauty products and over-the-counter medications. The LAPD Major Crimes Division personnel obtained [...]
Aug17
Cabela’s CIO Charles Carstens spoke this morning about a seven-year transformation the company went through to break down the barriers between its catalog, stores and website in order to grow the business and connect with customers in a more meaningful way. The company began as a catalog retailer of outdoor gear, Carstens said, and in [...]
Aug17
I’d love to share with you what Timothy Kasbe, CIO of Sears Holdings Corporation, talked about during his keynote about measuring IT value with sustainability, but I can’t. He asked all NRFtech attendees to turn off their phones, laptops and other devices in order to think big-picture about environmental and sustainability issues both globally and [...]
Aug16
During a session this afternoon on IT governance moderated by Retail Systems Research’s Brian Kilcourse, Rue La La COO Jeff Marshall and PETCO CIO Herman Nell outlined ways retail CIOs could become more effective in running their own departments – and selling their strengths throughout the organization. Below, some of their suggestions: Embark on an [...]
Aug16
Retail service providers listening to Walgreens’ SVP and CIO Tim Theriault speak during a session on IT innovation learned a valuable lesson in how not to sell their products. “We’re not here to chase technology because it’s cool,” he said. In fact, Theriault says he ignores “the herd mentality” – the concept pushed by some [...]
Aug16
In the first CIO keynote from NRFtech, Joshua Jewett, SVP and CIO of Family Dollar Stores, outlined why the company chose to use a software-as-a-service (SaaS) approach for an inventory management project, instead of either trying to accomplish its goals internally or outsourcing the project completely. When evaluating a new project, Jewett said, most retail [...]