Tesco’s CEO Identifies Key Retail Trends at WRC
零售业七大趋势对供应链管理提出挑战

在2007年3月28日至30日西班牙巴塞罗那举办的世界零售大会上，TESCO集团首席执行官Terry Leahy指出七大趋势——消费简约化、消费敏捷化、全球化、产品信息透明化等，将迅速给未来零售业带来引人注目的变化。他认为这些趋势主要源于消费端，但企业如果能将这些趋势贯穿于供应链管理，将获得极大的市场优势。

Speaking at the World Retail Congress in Barcelona, Leahy identified these seven key trends:

Consumer desire for simplicity: Companies that manufacture or sell products and/or services that make the lives of consumers easier will be richly rewarded.

Consumer desire to save time: “People are working later so they want to be able to pick up something on the way home. That's why we came up with our Express convenience stores - they are now our most popular format, and provided the inspiration for our expansion into the United States."

The “Immortality” factor: Consumers looking for healthy foods, and beauty and other products to reduce aging. Leahy cited the fantastic growth of organic foods.

Globalization: Impacts product sourcing, market expansion opportunities, and sourcing of services. Leahy said almost all of Tesco’s IT resources are now in India.

Consumer access to information: Not only can consumers compare prices with a click of a mouse, they “can look at a retailer's ethical or environmental policies and find out what is being said about them anywhere in the world."

Importance of trust: Leahy said this is increasingly important to consumers, takes years to build, but can be heavy damaged in an instant.

“Green” consumerism: "All our research shows that consumers are more and more aware of their carbon footprint, and that they want us to help them tackle climate change,” according to Leahy.

The trends are primarily from a consumer point of view, but those companies that can best align their supply chains with these trends and opportunities will gain market advantage.

While these are all pretty well-known trends, it is a pretty good summary of what is driving many retailers today. The two questions that occur to us are: (1) How can retailers exploit these well-known trends in a way that provides differentiation? and  (2) How can the supply chain best support those strategies?