Software company sees 2010 as banner year for RP retailers

MANILA, Philippines - JDA Software Group Inc., a global provider of innovative supply chain management, merchandising and pricing excellence solutions worldwide, recently shared its optimism over the projected strong performance of the Philippine retail industry for the rest of 2010 and for the next two to three years.

Cherokee Chamorro, JDA Software country manager, said in a recent interview, “In 2009, many local retailers still showed growth in spite of challenges in the global economy affecting some of our key industries like semiconductor/electronics and BPO, in addition to the slowing down of OFW remittances.”

“This year, with the marked improvement in our exports and jump in OFW remittances and BPO growth, there is a strong sense of confidence that strong growth across all retail formats can be achieved by yearend,” he said.

“In addition, the relatively peaceful elections have provided the country a sense of anticipation and stability for the next several years. This, in turn, have spurred a lot of retailers to further expand their chains and invest in strategic systems that would allow them to take advantage of this impending uptick in business,” he added.

Chamorro said the big national retailers are now focused on building up more advanced planning and category management solutions to build on the retail foundation they invested in several years ago.

Provincial retail leaders, however, are putting in merchandise management systems that allow them to remain strong and competitive in their regions while expanding to other areas.

“The key common strategy for both national and provincial retailers is they all choose to leverage retail-specific systems as opposed to manufacturing-based ERP systems, which have shown to have major gaps in addressing the unique and complex requirements of a retailer,” Chamorro said.

“They also choose an end-to-end system that covers not only POS but also inventory management, pricing, promotions, cost management, warehouse, financials, consignors and concessionaires,” he added.

Chamorro said retailers “want proven, tested and trusted solutions that can support their retail strategies over the long term.”

JDA Software is a leading software provider of retail merchandise management and category management solutions in the country.

Its clients include Shoemart, Robinsons, Puregold, 7-11, Duty Free Philippines, Abensons/Waltermart, Rustans/Shopwise, NCCC and many other leading national and provincial retailers.