Insights

Nach dem Wirtschaftswachstum der vergangenen Jahre kühlt sich die Konjunktur ab. Der Abschwung ist laut Expertenmeinung eine bevorstehende Realität, aus der Handel und Hersteller jedoch gestärkt hervorgehen können. Unternehmen müssen jetzt vorausdenken und mögliche Risiken in Chancen umwandeln. Das "Handelsspektrum" gibt dazu zahlreiche Ideen und Anregungen.

Professionalisierung im Handel muss weitergehen

Nach wie vor ist der Handel ein Markt mit erheblichen strukturellen Problemen wie Standortüberhang, sinkender Flächenproduktivität, unzureichender Sortimentsdifferenzierung und mangelhafter Kundenorientierung. Zudem sind die steigenden Rohstoffpreise eine Bedrohung. Deshalb muss die Professionalisierung im Handel weitergehen. Innovative Methoden und Tools gibt es dafür genug. Die Branche muss sie nur konsequent nutzen.

Eric Nelsen

Business Week (22 November 2006) quoted Eric Nelsen in a story about the increasing importance of retail customer service. Noting that Wal-Mart has traditionally been widely admired for its focus on operations, i.e., squeezing all waste from its supply and distribution networks, Eric says: “Logistics improvements need heavy investments, and customer service fell by the wayside.”

Bob Orr, Eric Nelsen, and Robin Sahota
Improving store-level operations rarely is top of mind for senior executives in retailing. But it can yield a high return on investment, especially when it serves to deliver the same customer experience at each site. An effective site operations program creates hard-to-copy differentiation and more productive employees for retailers of all sizes and formats.

Prices for many products and services are set in ad hoc ways, creating wide price bands in both B2B and B2C markets. A sharp focus on customers' perspectives through fact-based econometric modeling can bring about dramatic improvement in five areas of pricing strategy: price cuts, product portfolios, new products, market segmentation, and the pricing of packages or bundles.

Improving store-level operations, while often not top of mind for senior executives in retailing, yields a very high return on investment—especially in the service of delivering the same customer experience at each site. An effective site operations program creates hard-to-copy differentiation and more productive employees for retailers of all sizes and formats.

Frank Doring and Alexander Neuhaus
Europe remains the largest tourism market in the world, with Europeans spending about $980 billion on personal travel in 2005. Three of the five top nations in terms of international travel spending are European: Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. But these statistics conceal a troubling fact - in real terms, the European travel market has actually shrunk slightly in recent years. In particular, the outlook for Europe’s traditional tour operators is not a rosy one: the 15 largest European tour operators saw sales drop by 3.7 percent from 2001 to 2004, with EBITA margins averaging a paltry 1.1 percent.

Andrew Pierce, Adrian Slywotzky
Brands have become increasingly fragile and difficult to sustain. While each troubled brand has its unique story, the common theme that unites them is misinvestment - the failure to invest wisely for a short-term price or volume premium and long-term growth of brand equity.

Martin Kon, Catherine Kunkemueller, and Tom Russell
Attracting and retaining customers is a continual battle for subscription businesses, and there are dozens of possible tactics to try. How does one know which actions will actually shift customer behavior and do so cost-effectively? Leading companies use an approach that we call customer experience management to raise the payoff of their chosen investments.

Ana Dutra, James Frary, and Rick Wise
In a world of product and brand proliferation, consumer companies face bleak prospects for sustained revenue growth. But a few firms such as Kraft, Procter & Gamble, and Netflix are creating new growth by using their product position as a starting point from which to create solutions that address the issues and hassles that surround the product.

Krishnakumar (KK) Davey, Paul Markowitz, and Nagi Jonnalagadda
Pricing may well be the weakest link in the value chain. It has such potential to accelerate revenue and profit growth, yet it is so clearly under-managed at consumer and business-to-business companies alike. There are opportunities for improvement in five areas of pricing strategy.

Adrian Slywotzky and Rick Wise
In a world of product and brand proliferation, consumer companies face bleak prospects for sustained revenue growth. But growth can still be achieved by addressing customers' higher-order needs - needs such as peace of mind, self-definition, and reduced hassle.

John Hanson, Mike Sargent, and Peter Frend
For companies facing relentless pricing pressure and stagnant revenues, traditional market research has limited value for identifying and exploiting new growth opportunities. A unique approach called Customer Value EngineeringTM integrates the insights and microeconomics of both customer demand and company costs, enabling fully informed decision-making and rapid implementation.

Jacques César, Stephen Brien, David Trounce, and James Bacos
The rise of discounters has pinched margins and threatened the business model of many traditional retailers. There are ways to fight back, however, ranging from improving consumers’ perception of a store's value to optimizing prices on the products that really matter.

Tony Siesfeld and John-Paul Pape
Data, data everywhere, but does it help you think? Or make better decisions? Swamped by information, managers often can't spot the most useful sets of data or connect them in a way that improves financial and operating performance. So they wind up spending their energy tracking and doing the wrong things. By contrast, companies that establish clear lines of sight to the metrics that matter and then employ an effective performance management system can drive enormous value growth.

Jamie Bonomo and Andy Pasternak
Whether through acquisitions, customer and channel proliferation, or tailoring of products for powerful customers, many large companies find themselves thrashing about in a sea of complexity. Not only does the enterprise become difficult to manage, but some high-maintenance customers also become hugely unprofitable. This situation is especially a problem for consumable and durable consumer product sectors.

Kevin Mundt, Eric Almquist, and Jacques César
U.S. retailing today is plagued by too many stores and a glut of products. But retailers who take a rigorous, analytical approach to crafting their prices, merchandise mix, and brand will find that there's still money to be made.

Jacques César, Stephen Brien, David Trounce, and James Bacos
The rise of discounters has pinched margins and threatened the business model of many traditional retailers. Consumers perceive that discount retailers provide better value through the everyday low pricing strategy.