Symphony Retail Solutions (Symphony GOLD), Atlanta, and EIQ, Boston, Mass., announced the results of their category management survey of U.S. retailers.

Results from the study, “Competing in the Age of Amazon,” aggregate the views of 52 retailer respondents (grocery, do-it-yourself and consumer electronics) in the United States, and identify current market trends.

“These statistics tell a compelling and rather urgent story,” says Sahir Anand, managing vice president, research and strategy, EKN Research, Deerfield, Ill. “For example, 54% of retailers in our survey stated that they have inconsistent or incomplete data, and 52% said they lack sufficient talent to analyze the data and make better category management decisions. There is a clear need for retailers to enlist solutions with easy access to accurate and timely data without the need for massive analytic teams, and that enable executable insights to meet customer needs.”

Other key findings include:             

• 73% of retailers customize processes at a local or store level, which has increased customer satisfaction.
• 70% of retailers struggle to collaborate with CPG partners in a meaningful way.
• 60% of retailers plan to use cloud- or SaaS-based models for merchandising and category management within the next 12-24 months.             

“Like so many areas of grocery currently, the world of category management is experiencing tremendous disruption,” says Matt Robinson, solution marketing director, Symphony GOLD. “The responses from the research are a clear indication of intent from retailers that represents a validation of our journey into a hosted cloud platform offering, our next-gen capabilities and holistic approach to category management.”