The Technological Demands of Modern Multi-channel Retailing (Technology Focus)

Developing a seamless multi-channel experience requires a fully integrated infrastructure and SOA provides a flexible and cost-effective solution compared to traditional approaches. While SOA uptake has been slow in the retail sector, growth is set to rise, and retail SMBs could represent a sizeable portion of the SOA market size if vendors can adapt their go-to-market strategies accordingly.

Report Highlights


Legacy integration infrastructure, such as point-to-point and enterprise application integration (EAI) will struggle to cope with the demands of multi-channel retailing. By contrast, SOA offers essential flexibility and cost-savings. The deployment of SOA among retailers is still relatively low, compared to other industries. However, the growth of multi-channel retailing will help incidence levels rise. The role of SMBs is important as they hold significant power in the retail market. If growth in SOA is to continue in the medium-term then vendors will have to refine their go-to-market strategies. More effectively catering to the SMB market is essential, and there is a need for more non-IT related material to help overcome barriers to adoption.
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DATAMONITOR VIEW 1
CATALYST 1
SUMMARY 1
METHODOLOGY 1
ANALYSIS 2
Legacy integration infrastructure will struggle to deliver an efficient multi-channel offering 2
Traditional integration methods result in complexity, lack of scalability or expensive integration 2
Point-to-point integration creates costly complexity with multiple applications 2
Hub and spoke integration is more manageable but suffers from bottlenecks and a lack of scalability 3
Message bus architecture allows a scalable solution but proprietary requirements make it expensive 4
SOA using an ESB reduces complexity and provides a more flexible and cost-efficient approach 5
SOA in the multi-channel retailing industry 6
Case Study: Harrods, UK 6
SOA offerings for SMBs represent an important opportunity for vendors 8
Current adoption levels suggest the retail sector has some way to go in implementing SOA 8
Regional variations 9
Growth of SOA in the retail sector is forecast to be impressive 10
Growth in the retail SOA market is dependent upon an uptake in the SMB retail market 11
Vendors' go-to-market strategies need to be refined for a more widespread uptake of SOA 13
Vendors need to develop more non-IT material for demonstrating the benefits of SOA 13
Lower pitched marketing material will help business management understand SOA 13
Parallel systems that help demonstrate ROI will be useful for IT management 14
Vendors can help the SMB market move to SOA by focusing on the flexibility and scalability it offers 15
SOA approaches customized to the vertical market will help retailers differentiate between vendors 15
APPENDIX 17
Definitions 17
Further reading 17
Ask the analyst 18

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Table 1: Number of retail establishments, 2006, by region 13
Table 2: Return on Investment (ROI) calculation for measuring SOA benefits 14


Figure 1: The transition from Point-to-Point to a Hub-and-Spoke architecture 3
Figure 2: Messaging bus architecture allows scalability but can suffer from high costs 4
Figure 3: An ESB uses open standards to integrate applications on different platforms 5
Figure 4: Case Study: Harrods - SOA provides clarity of across multiple channels 7
Figure 5: Adoption levels of SOA by vertical industry 8
Figure 6: Deployment of SOA among large retailers (250 employees+) in 2006, by country 9
Figure 7: Market size for SOA products and services in retail sector, 2006-2012, by region 10
Figure 8: Penetration of SOA products and services in retail sector, 2006-2012, by size of retailer 11
Figure 9: Market size for SOA products and services in retail sector, 2006-2012, by size of retailer 12

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