Kevin Wen's notbook

Retailers are increasingly mining vast troves of digital information to improve the decisions they make about pricing, shelf-stocking and product offerings. “This huge and growing ecosystem of data is an asset that some retailers are really beginning to exploit for competitive advantage,” said Thomas H. Davenport, a professor of information technology and management at Babson College. “It brings more science into the business. Relying on gut feel is yesterday’s strategy in retailing.”

Mountains of data and whiz-bang technology are no cure for tight-fisted shoppers, of course. And this was a challenging holiday season for most retailers. Even computing enthusiasts acknowledge that the technology is far better at fine-tuning decisions on pricing, product assortments and shipments than the basic merchandising judgments about what goods to make and buy from suppliers.

Online ecommerce的竞争一定是在分析能力和计算能力上的竞争，无论是Online user experience，到Fulfillment及Workflow环节中的优化。这种End to End的用户体验的本质并不是去取代传统零售所带给顾客购物或逛街的感受，而是创造一种选择性体验。