04
EDITOR’SCOMMENT
RETAILTECHNOLOGY
A new era in retailing?
Editor
Miya Knights
e: miya@retailevents.co.uk
t: 07810 648 706
Publisher
Simon Turton
B
y strange coincidence, I don’t think retailers that continue to use technology to
Retail Technology could have chosen offer customers new services and products,
a more opportune time to refresh without compromising brand consistency
e: simon@retailevents.co.uk its reader proposition. who will hopefully prove me right when
t: 01895 454 603
It would be all too easy to jump on the the trading results start coming in. It may
Consultant Editor
Chris Field
portentous bandwagon that has gathered not even necessarily be anything that new
e: c� eld@retailtechnology.co.uk pace throughout the past few months. has customers coming back for more, but
t: 01435 873 377
Indeed, it can’t be denied that, as we head just doing things differently won’t make
Advertising
Simon Turton
into the key trading season, retailers face a any difference – the expectation is that
e: simon@retailevents.co.uk tough time from both a sales and margins technology should help get the job done
t: 01895 454 603
perspective, with recession looming large in better.
Managing Director
Paul Bessant
everyone’s minds. Although we’re only into our second
e: paul@retailevents.co.uk But, like the Capgemini report � ndings month of the new-look Retail Technology,
Design
covered in our ‘Innovations’ section (page the feedback we’ve had reassures me
Impress Repro
e: smaloney@impressgroup.co.uk
38) this month, the decision to reinvigorate we’re thinking along the right lines. And
t: 01733 397 350 our own brand is in line with the strategies this month’s hospitality feature has come
Circulation & Subscriptions
of those retailers who hope to do more up trumps in proving that sitting still today
e: circ@wdis.co.uk
t: 0208 606 7300
than just break even this Christmas: standing will hasten the demise of any business
Subscriptions
still in this tough trading climate is just akin tomorrow. I’d pay to go a hotel that offers
Subscription prices for one year are:
to sinking, whereas those that manage to TV in the bath (page 24)! Likewise, the
£75 (UK), £85 (Europe),
£110 (Overseas)
innovate are more likely to stay a� oat. ‘Intelligent Retailer’ feature is packed full of
Retail Technology
That’s where technology comes in. Lucky examples of where technology has enabled
3rd Floor, Armstrong House,
for the IT vendors, you many say. But they retailers to think ‘out of the box,’ as they say.
38 Market Square, Uxbridge,
Middlesex, UB8 1LH, UK
are going to have to work equally as hard It would be nice to think such retailers
t: 01895 454411 and, if not harder, to loosen a retailer’s are not the exception, but the rule, helping
f: 01895 454413
purse strings. Many are reporting slowing to usher in a new era in retailing.
www.retailtechnology.co.uk
revenues as their enterprise customers
Reasonable care is taken to
struggle for liquidity and defer potential
Miya Knights
avoid errors in this magazine
but no liability is accepted for investment as a result.
Editor
any errors which may occur.
In turn, I predict it will be those IT
miya@retailevents.co.uk
No material in this publication
may be reproduced in anyway
vendors that work within the constraints
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of a retailer’s existing systems that will
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demonstrate where today’s consumer and
©Retail Events Ltd
retailer agree: they want choice, � exibility
and value.
That’s why I think we are on the
threshold of a new era in retailing. It used
to be that technology was a luxury that,
by very virtue of its presence, could give a
Member of the Audit Bureau of
retailer the competitive advantage. Now, I
Circulations 7014 Jan07 – Dec 07
contend it would not be possible for any
ISSN No 1359-0146
retailer to survive without it. So it will be
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