The software market is a lucrative one – just ask HP, which recently bought the UK’s biggest software company, Autonomy, and announced its withdrawal from the lower-margin hardware market. It might not sound very relevant to retailers, but it could be, as there’s every chance they could follow in the tech giant’s footsteps and sell software.
Retailers need clever, low cost software which is sometimes developed in-house, and for some it may make sense to make some money by becoming a part-time supplier. It won’t work for all but some have already started – Amazon maybe the best known retailer-supplier hybrid but it’s not the only one.
Etailer Pixmania, for instance, already provides Dixons with an ecommerce platform. This is to be expected – Pixmania is owned by Dixons – but last month it signed a deal with French grocery giant Carrefour to provide its non-food etail platform in Europe.
Pixmania’s executive director Ulric Jerome says the company’s retail expertise helped it win the contract. “They liked the fact that we are traders,” he says. “We understand what they’re going through and we speak the same language.”
And last year, the Co-operative developed an online training and communication portal, which helps staff keep track of training courses they’ve attended, hours they’ve worked, paperwork that needs to be filled in and inductions that need to be done. Store operations and procedural manuals are being uploaded to the system as well. The Co-operative developed the system with the help of BT Learn Diverse, and the retailer is planning to sell the system – through BT – to other retailers who want a clearer view of staff training, hours and paperwork.
In-house development is expensive, and making some money back on the software you create can be a good idea. There are obvious limits when it comes to software that gives a retailer a competitive advantage, but if it’s sold to retailers in other sectors and done cleverly, unique software could provide useful cash during tough trading conditions.
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