Key Trends in Retail IT, 2017-Driving Customer Experience and Operational Efficiency through Innovative Technologies
January 2017
23
About the Report
About the Report
Key Trends in Retail IT, 2017-Driving Customer Experience and Operational Efficiency through Innovative Technologies
Summary
"Key Trends in Retail IT, 2017", report summarizes the key trends affecting digital technologies in retail in 2017, and discusses the drivers that influence their adoption. Retailers are exploring innovative ways to differentiate and create value-adding in-store experiences while also looking to collect and analyze more data. Digital technologies play a key role in driving retailers' business transformation efforts, including various Internet of Things based devices, cloud services and mobile apps. In addition, advice is provided for IT vendors and retailers.
The retail sector is undergoing a major transformation as a result of changing market conditions that threaten the ongoing success of established players that have dominated their market segments for decades. New competition is emerging from online retailers that require fewer overheads and can offer more favorable prices and larger product portfolios than bricks and mortar stores. As margins are increasingly squeezed, retailers are looking at more innovative ways to differentiate and add value for their demanding customers by creating in-store experiences that also need to integrate seamlessly with digital channels including mobile platforms.
Scope
Retailers increasingly compete on customer experience through mobile solutions and augmented reality in stores, while also improving efficiency by reducing any friction such as queuing at checkouts or waiting for shop assistants to look up items
The shift from data center hardware to software-defined and cloud-based solutions will continue in 2017; however the focus is on hybrid solutions with efficient workload management, virtualization and multi-cloud environments to avoid vendor lock-ins
Retailers look to upgrade their supply chain management systems and introduce real-time asset visibility to achieve cost savings by eliminating any unnecessary steps in distribution and keeping lower inventory levels
Reasons to buy
Get an understanding of the key trends in retail in order to better target retailers and tailor marketing and business strategies. This report also provides an insight into retailers' strategic priorities and how these link to specific technologies.
Products
Products
Retail, trends, digital, transformation, omnichannel, supply chain, robotics, social media, augmented reality, smart lighting, Li-Fi, Internet of Things, systems integrator, telco, Big Data, device, datacenter, cloud, hybrid
Companies
Target
Philips
Genercal Electric
Acuity Brands
Wipro
Cognizant
Capgemini
Accenture
IBM
Cisco
HPE
BT
Orange
Telefonica
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
1. Introduction 3
2. Summary & Key Findings 4
3. Market Drivers 5
3.1. Advance of online and mobile platforms 6
3.2. Customer expectations 6
3.3. Eroding margins 6
3.4. Hunger for data insight 7
3.5. Diminishing loyalty 7
3.6. Expansion into new services 8
3.7. Control over supply chains 8
3.8. Security challenges 8
3.9. IT investment focus 9
4. Key Technology Trends 10
4.1. Retailers' competitive advantage and market value will be linked to Big Data and real-time analytics capabilities 10
4.2. Major retailers will roll out Internet of Things (IoT) projects for greater operational efficiency and customer interaction, including beacons and sensors 11
4.3. Social media insight and communication will provide greater competitive advantage for innovative retailers 12
4.4. Self-service stores with in-store terminals and connections to interactive mobile apps will emerge 13
4.5. Robotics with machine learning functionality will be trialed for diverse functions from warehousing and delivery to smart shop assistants 13
4.6. Smart lighting is starting to be rolled out across stores for guiding customers to products and creating specific experiences 14
4.7. Systems integrators and telcos will battle major hardware and software vendors for leadership in driving smart retail concepts 14
4.8. Virtual and augmented reality will revolutionize customer experience and improve warehousing efficiency 15
4.9. Multi-purpose smart devices such as tablets will increasingly replace dedicated hardware 16
4.10. The ongoing shift from data center hardware to software-defined and cloud-based solutions willaccelerate as retailers go hybrid 16
5. Recommendations 18
5.1. Recommendations for vendors 18
5.2. Recommendations for retailers 19
6. Appendix 20
6.1. Definitions 20
6.2. Further reading 21
6.3. Contact the author 22
6.4 Contact Us 22
List of Figure
List of Figures
Figure 1: Market drivers and key technology investment trends 5
Figure 2: Retailers' IT investment focus over the next 2 years 9
Figure 3: Retailers will ramp up investments in business intelligence solutions 11
Figure 4: Retailers expect IoT to drive operational efficiency and create additional revenue 12
Figure 5: Retailers prefer leading vendors with retail-specific expertise 15
Figure 6: Cloud services spending grows stronger than hardware and software for retailers Global retail IT spending in US $millions 17
Why Buy From US?
What makes us stand out is that our consultants follows Robust, Refine and Result (RRR) methodology. i.e. Robust for clear definitions, approaches and sanity checking, Refine for differentiating respondents facts and opinions and Result for presenting data with story
We have set a benchmark in the industry by offering our clients with syndicated and customized market research reports featuring coverage of entire market as well as meticulous research and analyst insights.
While we don't replace traditional research, we flip the method upside down. Our dual approach of Top Bottom & Bottom Top ensures quality deliverable by not just verifying company fundamentals but also looking at the sector and macroeconomic factors.
With one step in the future, our research team constantly tries to show you the bigger picture. We help with some of the tough questions you may encounter along the way: How is the industry positioned? Best marketing channel? KPI's of competitors? By aligning every element, we help maximize success.
Our report gives you instant access to the answers and sources that other companies might choose to hide. We elaborate each steps of research methodology we have used and showcase you the sample size to earn your trust.
If you need any support, we are here! We pride ourselves on universe strength, data quality, and quick, friendly, and professional service.