Blue Christmas Maybe, But
Future Looks Merry
Holidays are bound to be more somber this year, for obvious
reasons. That mood has been laying heavy on the economy for months, even before
the September 11 terrorist attacks. Consumers aren’t expected to be in a
buying frenzy this holiday season, and retailers are preparing for a slump.
That’s a drastic change from seasons past, when retailers were known to
indulge in their own year-end buying binges, stocking up on inventories to meet
unforeseen Christmas demand, both in-person and on-line.
2001 won’t be one of those years. In fact, retailers
will be downright prudish this year in their avoidance of sinful holiday
excess. The Wall Street
Journal reported as early as this summer
that “by cutting inventories in advance, retailers hope to avoid a repeat
of last year, when the economy went south abruptly before the holidays, leaving
them with mountains of unsold goods.”
Humbug! What a dreary story. But hidden behind this mountain
of manure was the pony I was hoping for. Apparel giant VF Corporation was
reported to be “keeping inventories very lean by using technology to
micro-manage what merchandise goes to each store.”
It’s good to see retailers starting to put their faith
in the technology MHM has been writing
about for many Christmases past. We’ve interviewed technology pioneers
willing to expose their backs to slings and arrows to amass outrageous fortune.
They knew they were taking a risk because everyone else was waiting for
“critical mass” to kick in — that magic number of users in
the supply chain who will have done the trial and error necessary to remove the
bugs and make it possible for their partners to take the leap of faith —
while above a safety net.
Well, apparently some big companies are using this year’s
economic downturn to train for that leap. According to an Accenture survey of
150 business executives, 31 percent of those heading large companies plan to
use this year’s economic slowdown to focus on cost reduction and gain
more sector prominence as the marketplace shakedown eliminates competitors.
“By maximizing their investments in key technologies,
businesses can survive a period of anemic economic growth and prepare
themselves to thrive once the economy emerges from a slow period,” says
William C. Copacino, Accenture’s global managing partner for its supply
chain management service line.
The Accenture survey says executives believe supply chain
management technologies represent the most beneficial investments, followed by
customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning technologies.
And what of e-tailers, whose hopes for on-line technology
soared a couple Christmases ago, only to be dashed by lackluster consumer
confidence? Well, if anything good has come out of this country’s recent
trauma, it’s a focus on security — both personal and informational.
Timothy Muris, chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, was in Cleveland
recently to discuss the FTC’s aggressive, pro-consumer privacy agenda.
There was good news for businesses, too, if they pay more attention to data
security.
“Laws against fraud and breach of contract increase
confidence in the market and protect legitimate businesses,” Muris told MHM during a press conference. “We will be paying
a lot of attention to emerging technologies like wireless, and we’ll
probably have workshops on those.”
This year the
supply chain has extra government and consumer attention. It’s up to you
to make that good news.
Tom Andel
chief editor
tandel@penton.com
