Something we try to do here at PRWD is to keep on top of the developments that might affect us and our clients. One of these ideas is ‘Vendor Relationship Management‘, or VRM. This is a proposed business model that would enable retailers to access far more detailed information about their prospective customers than at present, but only with the explicit consent of those customers, leaving both parties in the arrangement better off. This idea has the potential to undermine the competitive advantage that the largest retailers have in their elaborate data-gathering and data-mining operations, making similar (and even better) data available to even the smallest retailer. It also has the potential to enhance customer security and privacy, which is still a key concern for many shoppers.

At present, it’s still a long way off widespread use. But keeping on top of these ideas is something that we’re committed to doing, so that when the technology shift occurs, we’re able to take advantage of it and share that expertise with our clients.

I was recently interviewed for the O’Reilly GMT blog on the subject of VRM, and you can see the resulting video here: