China Retail Industry IT Applications User Research Report 2006

Key Findings
According to this survey, among various retailing types of operation, chain supermarket and department store have high informationism degree.

Presently, information-based construction of retail enterprises generally has three deficiency: Enterprises with low degree of informationism have not established POS-ERP management system of basic shop business based on intranet; Enterprises with medium degree of informationism have improved basic IT system construction and still need to build SCM data exchange management system based on Internet; Large chain enterprises need further setting up of headquarters, shop, smart BI/CRM management system.

Solution providers for retail business should make efforts to improve the following functions and application performances of their products: in-depth analysis of data, fault tolerance function of the software, real-time data synchronization of the shops and headquarters, bank card swiping cards issue and remote connection, synchronization of information and accounts, office automation and efficiency and stability of supply chain and information system, convenience and easiness of OS, utility and accuracy of management software, rapid classification and summary of information, etc.

Integration and upgrade of information system, including cross-region system integration and unification, information system adapts to new business and data integration among different systems, new module online, integration of several systems, data digging, service and upgrade of software and hardware, system integration of distribution supply chain, uniform system platform with suppliers.

During the process of logistics delivery, the smaller the enterprise, the bigger proportion to deliver goods directly to brand store; the larger the scale, the bigger proportion to use distribution center.

Investment of information system is closely related to logistics delivery system, so related to enterprise scale. With the increase of the scale of retail enterprises, they have more modules of information system, and the higher proportion for purchase function module of information system.