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A set of cutting-edge technology tools helps retailers optimize their site selection to improve revenue and ROI while boosting customer satisfaction and loyalty, and reducing risk and costs
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Bricks and mortar merchants know that the key to their success can hinge on one immutable factor: location, location, location. Choosing a prime site involves a complex mix of calculations, ranging from traffic patterns to neighborhood demographics to surrounding real estate mix.
Developing a coherent strategy for constructing a new store site network and optimizing the existing ones in high density areas is part of the critical strategic planning process for large retailers. Up until now, however, retailers have lacked a comprehensive set of scientific and systematic methodologies and tools to help continuously diagnose and optimize their large store site networks effectively and efficiently, especially in today's hyper-competitive market fraught with frequent merger & acquisition activities, brand repositioning, fragmented customer expectations and rapidly changing urban environments.
To assist retailers in developing a rational strategy for store deployment, IBM's China Research Lab has developed a solution that offers a quantitative analysis methodology to help optimize store site networks through store configuration that combines the right format, capacity and merchandise mix in the right location to serve the right customers. The retail optimized site solution (ROSS) utilizes IBM Research's analytics & optimization engine, which helps diagnose and optimize the retail site network strategically. Then, a generic transformation methodology analyzes that data to address the key issues during store site rationalization, such as customer demand forecasting, trade area analysis, performance gap analysis and network optimization. Finally, a Geographic Information System (GIS) toolkit helps provide strategic guidance in retail store location by processing and analyzing massive geographic, demographic and retail business data.
ROSS's retail-specific templates and GIS toolkit make it easy to tailor to specific client requirements and quick to deploy. The goal is to improve retailer performance, revenue and ROI while boosting customer satisfaction and loyalty and reducing risk and costs. IBM Research and IBM Global Business Services work with clients and industry experts to deliver this and other groundbreaking approaches and technologies. To find out more about the research and explore innovative ways to add the ROSS solution to your portfolio, contact IBM Research Services today.