Holiday rush pushes retailers to spend - Network World

Skip Links

DNSstuff.com
Get information about your IP
IP Information
50+ On-demand DNS and network tools

Software

Videos

rssRss Feed
Get instant email notification when white papers, webcasts, executive guides are added to our library.  Stay informed and up-to-date with the latest on IT Technologies with Network World's Resource Alerts.
Audio

Flash vs Silverlight for king of Web multimedia. Listen now!

Network World Panorama

Tech vendors are like high school. Listen now!

Network World's Twisted Pair

Additional Resources

RSS

FEATURED REPORTS

Executive Guide: Storage Heats Up HP

Get the latest on storage technologies that allow IT professionals to better cope with new IT demands. Learn how storage technologies can help you successfully tackle e-Discover, regulatory compliance, green data center initiatives and the data explosion. Get all the details now.

RSS

FEATURED WEBCASTS

HP Live Webcast: Create a more efficient NOC HP

HP's Network Lifestyle Management can help you automate network processes and improve NOC efficiency. This webinar is part three of a four part series on Business Services Management (BSM) evolution to help you better align IT with business objectives. Register for this event scheduled for Wednesday, January 30, 2008 at 11:00 a.m. PDT/2:00 p.m. EDT to learn more. Register for this live webcast now.

IT Buyer's Guides

View All Buyer's Guides

Free Newsletters

Sign up and receive the latest news, reviews and trends on your favorite technology topics

Save The Date!
What They Are Saying

Where did it go? Was it fed to fishes- Anonymous

Join the Discussion

Partner Content
CA logo

CA Network & Voice Resource Center

Comprehensive Network & Voice Management Visit CA Network & Voice Management Resource Center and get insights into industry best practices, information that helps you to address your challenges.

CA Network & Voice Management Resource Center

whitepaper

Managing Voice Over IP for Successful Convergence

Voice over IP (VoIP) has much to offer in cost savings but some customers have concerns about VoIP call quality compared to the quality of traditional voice services. This white paper will help you learn how to take the right steps so that voice quality is assured.

Managing VoIP for Successful Convergence

whitepaper

The Changing Face of Network Management

Managing your network is serious business. This paper discusses the benefits of integrating configuration change-awareness into your network fault management solution

Download Whitepaper

Holiday rush pushes retailers to spend

National Retail Federation to showcase aisles of wares to improve operations.
By Ann Bednarz , Network World , 01/12/2004
  • Social Web 
  • Email 
  • Feedback 
  • Close

Flush from a strong holiday shopping season, retailers are gathering this week in New York to hear about a slew of technologies aimed at helping them improve in-store and online operations.

The National Retail Federation's (NRF) annual conference and exposition will feature about 350 exhibitors and dozens of educational sessions focused on retaining customers, improving supply chains and increasing margins. NRF expects 12,000 attendees.

Analysts expect retailers to be in buying mode this year, even though their IT budgets are expected to remain relatively flat. Budgets are predicted to grow modestly from an average of 2.75% last year to 2.88% this year, according to AMR Research. However, pent-up demand for IT upgrades - to newer point-of-sale systems, for example - might accelerate some spending.

"With last year's economy not as good as everyone had hoped, some technology decisions were delayed," says Sunita Gupta, a vice president at retail management consulting firm LakeWest Group. "But there comes a time when retailers have to move forward, especially the ones that have software and hardware that is eight or nine years old."

In addition, healthy holiday sales may kick-start spending.

Holiday online shopping tallies surged to $12.5 billion during the period from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31 - a 30% increase over last year, according to Internet tracking firm comScore Networks.

Click to see:

In-store sales, too, were upbeat at some big retailers. Best Buy last week announced a 9.3% increase in December store sales over last year, and Wal-Mart and Target reported store sales up 4.3% and 4.1%, respectively, for that period.

At the NRF show, Gupta predicts retailers will be on the lookout for POS products, radio frequency identification (RFID ) technology, and a variety of specialty software products for tasks such as merchandise planning, forecasting and replenishment.

"POS continues to be on CIOs' minds," Gupta says. In LakeWest's annual POS benchmarking survey released last week, 37% of respondents said they plan to replace their POS hardware, and 38% plan to replace their POS software, within the next two years. "That means they're going to be out there looking," Gupta says.

1 | 2 |  Next >
Comment
Login
Forgot your account info?
Add comment
Anonymous comments subject to moderator approval. Register here for member benefits.
Have a NetworkWorld account? Log in here. Register now for a free account.
First Name
Last Name
E-mail
Zip Code