The retail industry is evolving into a marketplace of extremes. Customers seek low cost for basic goods at the low end of the competitive spectrum, yet at the high end pay premium prices for goods that offer high personal value. Undifferentiated competitors in the middle are fading away.

Retailers are meeting these and other challenges by striving to differentiate brand propositions, fashion distinctive shopping experiences, and optimize business processes throughout every element of their value chain. Retailers are achieving these goals with the help of IBM retail solutions and IBM infrastructure to run them on.

Using examples based on real customer experiences, this Redpaper describes IBM retail solutions available to help retailers shape operations to meet the challenges and opportunities emerging in the industry landscape. Customer examples also illustrate how infrastructure from IBM can help retailers maximize the value of their business solutions.

This Redpaper is intended for CIOs and others that are responsible for evaluating retail business solutions, and for IBM teams who sell, implement, and support them.

Chapter 1. Retail industry landscape

Chapter 2. Technology innovation that matters: IBM retail solutions

Chapter 3. Technology enablers for retail solutions