Where Coach Cal and SMRs Get It Wrong - A Balance Is Needed (
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In theory, this viewpoint makes perfect sense. Surely a retail professional
raised in a retail family, who works in a hands-on, entrepreneurial
environment, can figure out something as basic as when to mark down a price. As
if he wouldn’t know when something wasn’t selling at a certain price. In a
previous column, I even exhorted retailers to not rely too much on
merchandising systems, but to let common sense and human knowledge prevail.
I still stand by that column, and also understand why this particular
gentleman, and so many other executives at SMRs, feels that investing in
advanced merchandising systems is unnecessary. But like so many other things in
life, effective merchandising requires a balance.
Granted, no machine can replace human instinct and wisdom, but a machine can
supplement human instinct and wisdom, and enhance the performance results of
that instinct and wisdom. An experienced retail executive has a good sense of
when a particular product isn’t selling, and can probably figure out why.
However, with a sophisticated merchandising system, that executive can gain
visibility into likely sales problems well before they happen. They can make a
better pricing decision, or shelving decision, or any other merchandising
decision you want to name, the first time out, and thus avoid having to use
their instincts to figure out why a certain item isn’t moving.
Like free lunches, free throws aren’t really free. Proper execution of free
throws requires a great deal of investment, not in money for college hoops players,
but in time and effort spent practicing. And at crunch time, free throws can
make or break a championship. Just ask Coach Cal.
Dan Berthiaume covers the retail space for eWEEK. For more industry news,
check out eWEEK.com’s Retail Site.
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