PLM is Spreading to Retail

January 18, 2012

Product lifecycle management (PLM) is no longer just for manufacturers. It is spreading to other industries including retail. Even though “PLM: Retail Adoption Slows,” merchandisers are realizing that “PLM can integrate and optimize the activities of merchants, product designers, technical designers, sourcing and suppliers.”

Retail could certainly benefit from specifically targeted PLM software. Those benefits would include:

Improve product development

Reduce product cycle times, costs and defects

Merge product development and product sourcing to shrink the time to go from product concept to product delivery

Improve coordination between merchants and suppliers

“Analysts were predicting a 30-40 percent annual growth rate of Retail PLM through 2014;” however, the recession hit and the growth is “closer now to a 20 percent annual growth rate through 2014.” Expansion in China and India is more significant than in the U.S. and European markets.

We are curious to see how technology companies like Inforbix curtail their software to the retail industry. We are sure it is just a matter of time. Inforbix revolutionized the way manufacturers search and share product data and we bet they will revolutionize retail in the future as well.

Jennifer Wensink, January 18, 2012

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Enterprise, News, Search, Technology

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.