In this tough economic environment, retailers need all the help that they can get. So, an excellent article from Wilson Perumal & Company on “Complexity in Retail: Why Companies Must Adapt in Order to Survive” is particularly timely.

According to Wilson Perumal: “We’re living in a time of incredible business complexity. Retail was perhaps the industry most affected by growing complexity in recent years – retailers that learned to master good complexity and limit the impact of bad complexity, gained a competitive advantage and beat their competitors. In the past, retailing was a relatively simple business:   You selected the right product range, bought the selected products at the lowest possible price and at the right quantities, merchandized the products in your stores, managed stock availability with supply chain efficiency and marketing efforts, and at the end of the retail cycle you exited old lines with minimal cannibalization. Simple. This simplicity allowed companies…