Nikki Baird

Nikki Baird is Managing Partner at Retail Systems Research, an industry market intelligence firm specializing in the impact of technology on the extended retail industry. She focuses on trends impacting the consumer-retailer relationship, along with their supply chain and marketing implications. She has written research and articles on topics ranging from omni-channel strategies, in-store marketing and technology, store performance management, supply chain and multi-channel fulfillment, retailer-manufacturer collaboration, merchandising, and loyalty and promotions management.  She has been quoted as a subject matter expert in The Economist, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and National Public Radio.

Nikki brings perspective from all sides of the retail technology equation: she served in technology roles at both a large and a small retailer, and she has provided advisory and consulting services for Fortune 500 retailers, distributors, and manufacturers.  Prior to co-founding RSR, Nikki was an analyst at both Forrester Research and Retail Systems Alert Group, where she covered extended retail industry topics like supply chain, RFID, retail operations, POS, and in-store management. Prior to that, she was director of marketing for StorePerform, a store execution management software provider, now RedPrairie, and director of product marketing for Viewlocity, a supply chain software provider focusing on adaptive supply chain execution and exception management. Nikki came to Viewlocity from PwC Consulting, now IBM Global Services, where as a senior manager she led IT strategy consulting engagements for retail and CPG clients.

Nikki has an M.B.A. from the University of Texas, Austin, focusing on operations and IT. She also holds a bachelor of arts in political science and Russian, with a minor in physics, from the University of Colorado, Boulder.