RSR: Retailers Like Private Label

April 21, 2010  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Business Strategy on April 22, 2010

Private label goods helped retailers' gross margins even during the economic downturn, according to a new report from Miami, Fla.-based RSR Research.

The findings of the report, "Getting it Right the First Time: Designing and Delivering Merchandise that Sells," are based on a survey of 79 retailers in January and February 2010. The research was supported by Tradestone Software and Dassault Systemes. The report contains analysis of the business drivers, opportunities, and organizational constraints surrounding product lifecycle management and private label management, as well as recommendations for creating successful processes and controls.

"We were really surprised to find so much immature technology supporting a mature and significant part of the retail merchandise portfolio," said Paula Rosenblum, managing partner at RSR Research and co-author of the report. "Retailers still worry over inconsistent product quality and finding dependable partners, but less than half conduct post-production merchandise audits prior to release from the factory or measure those partners in any kind of consistent way."

"In the two years since we published our last PLM benchmark report, larger retailers in particular have ramped up collaboration with trading partners to bring new products to market," adds Brian Kilcourse, also a managing partner at RSR Research and co-author of the report. "Still, they have a long way to go in scaling their technologies and processes at the same rate they are growing their business. It's time for a holistic view supported by holistic systems."

The report, part of RSR Research's ongoing efforts to provide market intelligence on retail technology trends, can be downloaded here.