The Retail Buzz

An article by Scott Kreisberg takes a look at factors that weigh in for improving the bottom line for a retail store.

There has been a tremendous amount of discussion by economists and government experts in regard to the type of recession we are in, as well as the possible ways we could come out of it.

The good news is that it seems to be a fairly unanimous sentiment that we are at or very near the bottom. Plus there are other positive signs such as retail sector sales picking up slightly (with autos excluded) in both August and September. However, there are varied opinions and speculation as to where things go from here.

This is pretty clearly demonstrated in the different models, or 'shapes', that the recovery might take, which have come to be characterized by various letters of the alphabet.

It is likely that many of you have seen these so I will only briefly touch on what they are. We have the classic 'V' shape recession, which is a clear downturn and bottom followed by clear and sustained recovery, the 'U' which is a longer time spent at the bottom and in recovery, and the 'W' or double-dip.

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One Step Retail Solutions, a leading reseller and service provider of retail point of sale software systems, recently launched a Retail Executive Advisory Panel (REAP) to conduct routine retail industry studies among retail leaders.

Retail executives participating in REAP will take advantage of being part of a panel of their peers to gain and share knowledge of retailing, including approaches to new and innovative retail strategies. Members of the Panel who participate in the studies then receive an Executive Summary of the study’s research findings, which provides them access to information from other top retail executives.

One Step’s objective is to bring top level retail executives together in a forum for pursuing excellence in their own retail business. Believing that these executive’s opinion measures heavily on the retail landscape, One Step plans to make strides in gaining more insight into what current challenges retailers face and what they are doing or not doing to boost their bottom line.

A new monthly newsletter publication, The Retail Executive, will get mailed out primarily to REAP members, providing another form of sharing articles and knowledge from top retail experts and REAP members about the retail business. The publication will also distributed to retail CEO’s, CFO’s, CIO’s and other top level executives in the industry who are not a member of REAP but wish to subscribe to the newsletter.

Information about joining REAP and subscribing to the newsletter is at the One Step website: http://onestepretail.com/OSD/REAP/