Gartner Expert

Robert Hetu

VP Analyst

Robert Hetu is a VP Analyst and KI Leader with the Gartner Retail Industry Services team. His responsibilities involve tracking the technology markets and trends impacting the broad-based retail merchandising and planning areas. Mr. Hetu is an expert in the areas of brand, vendor and assortment management, merchandise planning, allocation, and replenishment.

Previous experience

Prior to joining Gartner, Mr. Hetu's industry experience spans 28 years with leading retailers and manufacturers such as Macy's, VF Corp. and Kmart, as well as retail dot-com organizations in senior merchandising positions. As VP of Vendor Collaboration for Macy's, he was directly responsible for building stronger business relationships with key brands through use of technology and business process improvement focused on the areas of assortment management, replenishment, business intelligence and vendor performance scorecards. Previous experience includes extensive replenishment, planning and store management positions within Macy's and Kmart; general merchandise director for a dot-com company; as well as retail support and vendor-managed inventory with two major manufacturers.

Professional background

Macy's Merchandising Group

VP - Vendor Collaboration, Replenishment & Size Analysis

Pillowtex Corp.

VP - Performance Improvement

VF Corp.

Retail Floor Space Management Team

Areas of coverage

Unified Retail Commerce for Digital Business Execution

Education

B.S., Business Administration and Finance, Jacksonville State University

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Top Issues That I Help Clients Address

1Retail merchandise management and optimization applications including price, promotion, markdown, assortment, size & pack, space, replenishment & allocation

2Retail business and technology trends

3Deep learning, machine learning, artificial intelligence for retail.

4Retail behavioral segmentation

5Retail digital business strategy