With profits warnings and news of high street chains sliding into administration dominating the retail headlines, it is surprising to discover some IT vendors reporting booming sales and increased interest in their products.

A common factor among many of these must-have applications is that they are aimed at cutting costs, improving efficiency and increasing customer service levels. Most are low-risk, niche products likely to deliver a return on investment within six months, and very many are directly related to the supply chain.

At RedPrairie, for example, workforce management is suddenly on a great many more shopping lists: "There is a lot of interest in integrating newer workforce management tools with warehouse management systems," says executive director Andrew Kirkwood.

While improved warehouse staff scheduling can cut costs, RedPrairie is seeing the same tactics applied in store with retailers far keener than they were a year or two back to match their staffing levels to customer traffic patterns to ensure that assistants really are on hand when needed to complete those vital sales.

For consultants Kurt Salmon Associates, RFID is surprisingly back on the agenda as well. "RFID has been very quiet over the past few years," says vice president Richard Traish, "but we're now involved in a number of pilots mainly in the fashion sector. The technology is now robust and RFID can significantly improve the accuracy of stock takes and that means better on-shelf availability and increased sales."

While most retailers like to claim stock availability figures of around 92 per cent, in reality it can be much lower - more like 75- 80 per cent for many products. A problem is that no-one can ever be sure precisely where the products are; they may have been delivered to the store, but did they make it onto a shelf or garment rail? Or perhaps they stayed on the van by mistake and are heading back to the RDC? Or that vital size might still be on the fitting room rail waiting to be put back?

RFID - as various experimental projects over the years have demonstrated - can keep track of the merchandise and significantly improve on-shelf availability. In the boom times, perhaps, the lost sales due to out-of-stocks didn't cause too much concern as the money still flowed in. Today it is different and KSA suggests that retailers could be losing as much as 30 per cent of their potential sales due to missing lines - that adds up to significant turnover when times are tough.