Retail Information System Essay

1. What are the benefits of 7-Eleven’s Retail Information System? 1) Increase sales opportunities and gain profits i) Retail Information System can amass information about customer demand, pricing, and interest in new products, such as Diet Pepsi, Zero Coke, Slurpee. Analysis of the data shows which items are selling well in which stores, which items customers are most interested in, seasonal demand for items and which items are most profitable to sell in the first place. Then, 7-Eleven can depend on the above data to order the exact quantities of products & get the maximum of profit. ii) Insights gleaned from the data also help 7-Eleven develop new products such as its fresh-food offerings that attract new customers and increase transaction size. For examples, now some 7-Eleven have the fast food counter to sell the fast food like fish ball, dumplings. It is very popular and meets the needs of the market. 2) Reduce excess inventory Through the Retail Information System, management uses this information to identify sales trend, improve product assortment, eliminate slow-moving products from inventory, and increase same-store sales by stocking products that are high in demand. It can avoid the excess inventory and save the inventory cost includes the expensive rental expenses. 3) Easy to control the inventory Retail Information System provides store managers with information on daily, weekly, and monthly sales of each item to help them determine which items to order the exact quantities they need for their stores. Managers use this information plus their on-the-spot knowledge of the neighborhood to make final order decision. Further, 7-Eleven’s orders for fresh food items are aggregated at 7-Eleven headquarters and transmitted to fresh food suppliers and bakeries for preparation and delivery the next day. It reduces the product spoilage and save the unnecessary costs. 4) Increase the competitiveness of the market 7-Eleven uses the information that they can get the respond to the needs of the customers. By tracking and analyzing its data, it knows its customers as intimately as it did when store owners talked to each customer face-to-face. Understand the customers’ need then increase the sales thus increase the competitiveness of the market. 2. Which of the strategies does the Retail Information System support? Retail Information System supports the strategies of Strengthening customer and supplier intimacy. 7-Eleven through the system to analyze the data shows which items are selling well in which stores, which items customers are most interested in, seasonal demand for items and which items are most profitable to sell in the first place. These information can give it to suppliers then they can determine to import which products from the wholesale, which season import which items, which items would import more to get most profitable. Further, these data can also give it to supplier to develop new products such as its fresh-food offerings that attract new customers. Moreover, the system consolidates these orders and transmits them to suppliers for preparation and delivery the next day of food & drink. It can reduce the transportation costs. Through making transactions in general easier and more user friendly for both customers and suppliers, the intimacy of the firm and customer/supplier will increase. This offers great incentive for both customer and supplier to continue doing business with 7-Eleven. Use information systems to develop strong ties and loyalty with customers and suppliers. It also discovers unsuspected problems, detect unrealized potential, and create a dynamic synergy with customers. They often merge their operations with those of their customers. In the integration of their operations, suppliers become more than merely useful. To tighten long-term relationship and create brand loyalty with customers and suppliers, including increasing switching costs. In conclusion, Strengthening customer and supplier intimacy lead to win-win situation.