HOME DEPOT IT INVESTMENTS IN OMNI CHANNEL FOCUSES ON CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

The Home Depot discussed this week its IT investment and strategy that focuses on the customer buying experience. The company’s Common Order Management system, or COM, is the largest IT project in the history of The Home Depot.

COM is an inventory visibility platform that looks at millions of deliveries through small and large delivery trucks, direct fulfillment to DCs and in-store pick up transactions. COM will help identify the best fulfillment option for a customer, while allowing Home Depot to leverage its omni-channel options.

The focus on this area is based on the fact that 1) the retailer’s fastest growing ecommerce channel is buy-online, pick up in sore, 2) the average ticket for ecommerce transactions are considerably higher than physical in store transactions and 3) ecommerce chat and email are growing  in product information exchange.

“The IT investments we are making are really to optimize the whole supply chain offering,” said Home Depot Senior VP and President-online, Kevin Hofmann.

Source: Chain Store Age

JCP Bets Big on IT

JCP is boosting IT spending again this year, even as it cuts back on other capital spending.  JCP spent $139 million on technology last year (23% of cap ex).  The focus will be on supply chain improvements and growth in eCommerce.  JCP expects the Internet to deliver $1 billion in sales over the next five years.  I've heard CIO's comment before that CEO's don't 'get it' when it comes to technology, but this one certainly seems to get it... "This is the next generation of how to make things better and how to be a better competitor," says Chief Executive Myron E. Ullman III. "People who are going to survive are working on this."

Technology certainly can be a way to reduce expenses through greater efficiency, but is technology a viable business growth strategy?

Nordstrom to Spend $45 Million on Tech Upgrades in 2010

Nordstrom recently announced its plans to invest approximately $40 to $45 million in technology upgrades next year, maintaining its level of IT spend year-over-year.

Over the past year, the luxury department store has been heavily focused on evolving its multi-channel business.  This focus has clearly paid off, since the luxury department store most recently reported in its latest quarter that sales for its online Nordstrom Direct business increased 16.4 percent.

The department store also has recently updated its inventory platform, so online orders could be fulfilled from the stores or any Nordstrom location.|

According to Blake Nordstrom, President and Director, Nordstrom, "This continues our ongoing effort to improve our customers' experience by providing them with greater access to more of our inventory whenever and however they want to shop."

Nordstrom continues, "For the customer to go online and be able to leverage the entire inventory throughout the company represents tremendous opportunities. There's significant learnings that are coming from this about our allocation of inventory and, again, our supply chain, but we view it as a real positive and view it as another confirmation on behalf of the customer in the feedback that they're giving us that this multi-channel strategy is super important to our future growth."