IDC Retail Insights: Worldwide Retail Merchandising, Marketing, Media and Analytics

IDC Retail Insights: Worldwide Retail Merchandising, Marketing, Media and Analytics advisory service examines best practices, trends, market conditions, retailers' concerns, and vendors' offerings to provide authoritative advice on investment, life-cycle management, and the use of analytics in core retail processes including merchandising, marketing, customer management, retail media, and analytics technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI). It examines early-stage technologies such as machine learning (ML) and other AI technologies to guide early adopters as well as later-stage technologies to support application portfolio rationalization. Our efforts focus on helping retailers spot and prioritize opportunities, save time, minimize cost, and mitigate risk. We apply specific attention to the drivers, benefits, processes, uses cases, and best practices related to omni-experience customer engagement, retail planning optimization, including retail price optimization, replenishment, allocation, merchandise financial planning, sales and operational planning, assortment planning, space planning, and capacity planning, and inventory management optimization. This service also overlaps with digital supply chain optimization and curated merchandise life-cycle management. We also examine retail media as a key part of this program.

IDC Retail Insights: Worldwide Retail Merchandising, Marketing, Media and Analytics global analyst team keeps in constant touch with retail CIOs, CMOs, chief merchandising officers, and chief digital officers and their staff, line-of-business executives, and product strategy executives of leading technology vendors, as well as retailers and tech buyers consuming technology services and products. We develop deep and comprehensive perspectives to provide actionable recommendations. Our methods include in-depth interviews, quantitative and qualitative market research, and secondary research from conferences, publications, blogs, online communities, and traditional news sources.

Throughout the year, this service will address the following topics:

• The role of merchandising, marketing, and analytics in experiential retail
• Price optimization, including how retail B2C pricing is most effective, market forecasts, and comparative views of industry providers
• Assortment optimization — localized endless aisle ranges priced for revenue, margin, and turn goals
• Merchandise operations management and integration across planning functions that enable efficient operations
• Customer journeys from identification and activation through augmented social marketing and associate engagement
• Contextualized marketing, augmented promotion, and advertising optimization, including retail media initiatives and delivery
• Application of AI in the context of retail operations, retail planning, retail merchandising, and retail marketing, including the development of generative AI and use cases
• Review and analysis of advanced analytics, intelligence, metrics, and associated companies, technologies, best practices, and applications in the retail industry
• Planning tools, planning optimization, and strategic retail planning, including financial, sales, operational, merchandising, and marketing initiatives

Our research addresses the following issues that are critical to your success:

1. How should I approach improving my company's analytics competencies?
2. What are some of the best approaches to customer-centric omni-channel assortment planning?
3. How will the convergence of personal technologies and retailers' systems of engagement change retail?
4. What is ahead for planning for retail in terms of finance, assortment, buying, space, pricing, and promotions?
5. How can analytics help us better understand our customers?
6. Where does AI/ML play a part in retail planning and merchandising?
7. Who are the startling start-ups that might challenge complacent incumbents?
8. How will analytics change how retailers facilitate each consumer's path to purchase?
9. What capabilities are emerging to orchestrate localized and omni-channel assortment strategies?
10. How can retailers best take advantage of new marketing technologies and related services?

IDC Retail Insights: Worldwide Retail Merchandising, Marketing, Media and Analytics research advisory service is geared toward helping retail merchants, planners, brand and digital marketers, pricing analysts, and other roles dependent on bringing predictive analytical insights into their decision management frameworks. In equal measure, our research helps IT executives align their application portfolio priorities to their business partners' needs, reduce the cost and risks in managing these portfolios, and develop mid-term and longer-term business-led IT strategies. Our research addresses the different needs of general merchandise, apparel, footwear, food, drug, and other hardl-ine and soft-line specialty retailers.