Andrew Fowkes is retail solutions director within Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for the Global Retail Practice (GRP) of SAS Institute Inc. (SAS), an international leader in business intelligence software. He represents over 16 years of experience in the retail industry, and leverages his merchant experience in guiding retailers as they blend the art of retailing with the science of SAS technology. Fowkes regularly meets with senior management in leading retail organizations introducing them to the Power of SAS for Retail and raising the awareness of the strategic benefits of retail planning software. His responsibilities include designing strategic solutions that support the customers’ business requirements along with an appropriate implementation roadmap driving associated business results.
Success in the retail space boils down to one simple function: the conversion of sales. However, retailers can only do this if they have stock readily available. Missing a sales opportunity due to poor stock management just won’t cut it in today’s marketplace. How can we resolve this basic problem
With today’s customers able to access rich sources of product and service information – especially pricing data – when they are mobile, retailers are being forced to innovate in the way they capture consumers’ attention. Unfortunately, attention spans are rapidly decreasing to just the few seconds that a user spends
Preparing for Christmas now may seem extreme to the everyday shopper – but that’s exactly what retailers are doing. Getting a head start will take the pain out of the busiest retail period of the year and deliver a degree of predictability in an otherwise unpredictable year. In the heat
While 2015 was an unpredictable and often difficult year for many UK retailers, their customers have certainly prospered. The Christmas season, in particular, saw increased discounts for the fifth year in a row. This followed a period when changing weather patterns and price deflation had already offset predicted sales, both in-store and
