Bernadine Wu

Joe is Vice President of Product Solutions at Software Paradigms International (SPI), an award-winning provider of technology solutions, including merchandise planning applications, mobile applications, eCommerce development and hosting and integration services, to retailers for more than 20 years.

Joe is a 34-year veteran of the retail industry with hands-on experience in marketing, merchandising, inventory management and business development at multichannel retail companies including Lands’ End, LifeSketch.com, Nordstrom.com and Duluth Trading Company. At SPI, Joe uses his experience to help customers and prospects understand how to improve sales and profits through applying industry best practices in merchandise planning and inventory management systems and processes.

Increasing investment in back-end systems is a natural and predictable trend for the maturing internet retail industry. That investment will help push internet sales higher while simultaneously increasing operations and inventory efficiencies, resulting in higher profits. 

While direct marketers and their suppliers have been preaching multichannel retailing for years, there's been a singular lack of attention given to back-end operations designed to support this new and more complex retailing environment.

A workshop session I co-led at the recent Annual Conference for Catalog & Multichannel Merchants in New Orleans provided specific and actionable advice on the full gamut of technology investment decisions — from knowing when it’s time for a change, to making the best decision, to ensuring a successful implementation.

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