2015 Retail TouchPointsf9e7d91e313f8622e557-24a29c251add4cb0f3d45e39c18c202f.r83.cf1.rackcdn.c…2015: The Year Of Business Intelligence To remain competitive and relevant to today’s

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2015Retail TouchPoints

TECHNOLOGYPREVIEW

Exclusive Predictions From 27 Retail Executives

Retail TouchPoints 2015 Technology Preview • 2

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Category27For the third year, Retail TouchPoints has asked a number of key executives from leading solution provider companies to share their insights on what to expect with new technologies and technology trends in the coming year. This year we have collected input from 27 executives who possess many years of experience in business and retail specifically.

Each executive was asked to answer the following question:

Which technology trend will impact the retail industry most significantly in 2015 (and why)?

For the 2015 report, we have split the predictions into 8 different categories. Columns are listed alphabetically by company name within each category.

Let us know if you agree with these executives. Happy Reading!

Debbie Hauss Alicia Fiorletta

Editor-in-Chief Senior Editor

Retail Executives Share Technology Predictions

2015For


Big Data/Analytics Epicor Retail, Noel Goggin, EVP and General Manager

JDA Software, Anand Medepalli, VP of Product Strategy, Retail Planning, Store Operations and Pricing

Predictix, Ron Menich, Ph.D., EVP and Chief Scientist

SAS, Alan Lipson, Global Retail Industry Strategist

Teradata, Michael Day, Retail Global Program Director Industry Marketing & Solutions

Customer ExperienceOracle Retail, David Dorf, Sr. Director of Technology Strategy

SAP, Lori Mitchell Keller, Sr. Vice President and Head of Global Retail Industry

Inventory ManagementiQmetrix, Christopher Krywulak, President and CEO

Tyco Retail Solutions, Nancy Chisholm, President

Mobile & Social Bronto Software, Jim Davidson, Director of Research

MicroStrategy, Hugh Owen, VP of Product Marketing, Mobile Products and Industry Solutions

ShopperTrak, Chetan Ghai, Chief Product Officer

Swirl Networks, Hilmi Ozguc, Founder and CEO

Omnichannel 360pi, Jenn Markey, VP of Marketing

Demandware, Rob Garf, VP of Industry Strategy and Insights

Manthan Americas, Kevin J. Walker, SVP and GM

Payment/POS/SecurityACI Worldwide, Mark Ranta, Senior Solutions Consultant, Digital Channels

Heartland Payment Systems, Bob Carr, Chairman and CEO

Junction Solutions, Brion Reusche, Industry Principal

Lightspeed, Dax Dasilva, CEO

Verifone, Robert McMillon, VP of Product Security

Personalization Adobe, Kevin Lindsay, Director of Optimization and Personalization Solutions

Merkle, Mike Mojica, EVP and GM, Retail and Consumer Goods Practice

NetSuite, Branden Jenkins, GM of Retail

OrderDynamics, Kevin Sterneckert, CMO

Zebra Technologies, Nick D’Alessio, Global Practice Leader, Retail

Workforce ManagementEmpower Software, Joe Olson, EVP and General Manager of Workforce Management

Table of ContentsRetail TouchPoints 2015 Technology Preview


2015: The Year Of Business Intelligence To remain competitive and relevant to today’s shoppers, retailers must have a strong grasp of the trends impacting their business, such as customer-driven demands for end-to-end omnichannel, rich engagement, and enterprise-wide ordering. Equally important, they must be able to leverage those trends and capabilities by extracting meaningful and actionable insights from increasingly vast amounts of transactions and customer data.

Business intelligence and analytics solutions have evolved to address this need; however, most retailers have struggled to apply those solutions effectively. Moving from concept to successful execution has been a persistent challenge. But this situation is set to change for the better. At least four developments are enabling retailers to get the time-to-value and ROI they seek from BI and analytics investments.

Elevating BI With The Cloud

One of these is the availability of packaged, cloud-based BI and analytics offerings. Yesterday, most BI and analytics deployments of were custom-built by consultants in multi-year deployment efforts; today, we now have retailers seeing time to value of just 60 to 90 days.

A majority of retailers are looking to leverage cloud capabilities across as much of their technology footprint as possible. Cloud implementations remove IT complexity, shorten time-to-value, simplify the process of getting needed information into the hands of business users, and minimize

the need for on-site resources, to improve overall project success rates. All of these advantages apply to BI and analytics, to optimize the balance between sophisticated capabilities and usable results.

Deep Insights That Are Easy To Apply

A second development driving the use of analytics is the advent of more sophisticated tools that are able to mine and analyze data at a deep, granular level, yet present the results in forms that are easy to comprehend and apply as tangible, actionable insights that deliver real and immediate value to the business. Rather than just consolidating data and highlighting trends, today’s leading solutions are able to quickly reveal meaningful opportunities across key business processes and equip business users to seize them without delay.

Thirdly, retailers are discovering that well-designed analytics tools can actually extend the value and life of their legacy systems. For example, older systems function largely as transaction repositories. Using analytics transforms that stored data into highly usable and meaningful information. This allows the retailer to migrate to a new solution when it best suits the business, instead of being forced to migrate by the technical limitations of their existing systems.

One View Of The Customer

Finally, integrating and analyzing data from across the business permits one view of the customer across all channels. Equally important, customer analytics can be used to inform key enterprise processes such

as planning and merchandising with rich insights into who is actually buying what, where, and how, and their real value to the business — and to continually refine those processes to drive the top and bottom lines.

There is no question that, increasingly, retail leaders will leverage advanced analytics to gain all of these important business benefits. Retail laggards, on the other hand, will be under tremendous pressure to keep up. Given the profound capabilities of today’s top analytics solutions in harnessing the fast-moving, data-driven world of retail, the competitive advantages attained by those who use them will soon be very difficult if not impossible to overcome by those who do not.

Moving from concept to successful execution

of BI and analytics has been a persistent challenge for retailers.

- Noel Goggin, Epicor Retail

@Epicor_Retail

EVP and General Manager, Epicor Retail

Noel GogginBig Data/Analytics

http://ctt.ec/wqfPv


Data Science And Segments Of One We are in the midst of a major reset period for retail. Constant connectivity and ubiquitous customer data are making shotgun promotions and blanket loyalty programs quickly go the way of the flip phone.

Customers now expect interactions, assortments and offers to be extremely relevant to them. They expect retailers to present offers that reflect what they really want to buy, rather than what companies think others in their socioeconomic group might want. New, advanced data science technologies are making this possible. Micro-segmentation strategies driven by this new data science will empower retailers to develop so-called “segments of one” for their most important customers and align their entire organization around delivering offers and fulfillment options to those micro-segments.

The micro-segmentation that will be the competitive differentiator in 2015 isn’t possible with traditional retail forecasting and planning models that rely on socioeconomic and location data to segment and assort by store or cluster. With an ever-expanding set of omnichannel shopping options, consumers are defining their own paths to purchase irrespective of traditional segmentation strategies.

Only the new, advanced data science technologies can wade through the ocean of newly available data to zero in on what each shopper really wants to buy. Data science backed micro-segmentation, assortment and targeted offers create a bond with today’s consumer that goes far beyond what customer loyalty programs ever delivered.

To support this game-changing dynamic, JDA is launching a new service that applies advanced data science technology to interrogate and evaluate a wide assortment of customer data to define highly targeted customer segments based on customer affinities, purchase patterns, fulfillment preferences and geographic correlation. The service uses highly nuanced data science techniques to assess and score existing customer assortments based on how well they match the newly defined micro-segments in order to identify channel, product and localization opportunities that maximize market appeal, market share and profitability.

Omnichannel shopping driven by the hyper-connected consumer and technology-driven shopping channels and social networks have replaced traditional shopping patterns and retail assortment practices. To survive, retailers must transform their operations to provide superior, personalized shopping experiences across channels.

Understanding what each customer wants and being able to provide it profitably are the new keys to success.

Furthermore, given the plethora of data available to retailers in making decisions, traditional approaches to visualize information no longer work. Redefining the user experience to meet the challenges of the new reality is equally critical to success. Together, advanced data analytics and next generation user experiences will separate the retail winners and laggards in 2015.

VP of Product Strategy, Retail Planning, Store Operations and Pricing, JDA Software

Big Data/Analytics

Anand Medepalli

Micro-segmentation strategies driven by

new data science will empower retailers to develop “segments

of one.”- Anand Medepalli,

JDA Software @JDASoftware

http://ctt.ec/8RYcd


Machine Learning Creates More Granular Forecasts Advanced machine learning is generating a lot of popular press for its myriad applications such as self-driving cars and instant medical diagnoses. With all the buzz around these futuristic scenarios, however, few people have noticed that it has real-world applications in retail, today.

Machine learning — in which self-learning algorithms tease out patterns from unlimited amounts of data, without human intervention and enabled by the computing power of the cloud — are enabling radical new possibilities in retail that go far beyond traditional approaches. Machine learning unlocks a deep and rich understanding of consumer demand at very granular levels, and as a result, retailers spend less time on manual data mining and more time deriving meaning and value to improve the bottom line.

Traditional forecasting employs very few data attributes and a small amount of computing power, resulting in coarse time series models and crude outputs. Companies must rely on their demand planners and analysts to digest that crude output, and mysteriously divine how to inject their experience and market knowledge to improve these forecasts. Predictably, many retailers struggle to understand their local markets and accurately forecast some of the most critical parts of their business: New products, new locations, seasonal items, promotional sales and markdowns.

With machine learning, there are no such restrictions on data attributes or methods. Instead, retailers can tap into tens of

thousands of data attributes, many of them publicly available and external to the retailer, then deploy advanced forecasting science and the unlimited computing power of the cloud to bring unprecedented insights into consumer demand.

The benefits can be enormous for retailers: 25% to 50% more accurate forecasts, with the most challenging forecasts seeing the greatest improvements. This means that retailers who are either still relying on old systems, and even those already experiencing tens of millions of dollars in inventory reductions and additional sales with current cloud-based forecasting systems, can see further improvements that boost the bottom line.

The advent of machine learning will completely disrupt traditional forecasting science. Yet its value extends much further. The deep and rich understanding of what drives consumer demand, at a very granular (read, local) level, enables retailers to deliver a new level of customer intimacy. It’s the neighborhood retailer with intimate knowledge of customers, but at the scale of the largest retail chains. The rich insights provided by machine learning not only enhance the retailer’s understanding; they also allow retailers to better shape demand through their merchandising decisions, such as how they assort, price and promote.

Machine learning is the future of retail forecasting and retailers that embrace it will be light-years ahead of their competition.

Ph.D., EVP and Chief Scientist, Predictix

Ron MenichBig Data/Analytics

Machine learning unlocks a deep and

rich understanding of consumer demand at

very granular levels.- Ron Menich, Ph.D.,

Predictix @Predictix

http://ctt.ec/06U64


Data: It’s Big, It’s Fast And There’s Lots Of ItAs we look to the New Year and beyond, there is no shortage of new technologies to be implemented and evaluated. The common denominator among all these technologies, though, is data. To paraphrase the cook talking about his chuck wagon food in the movie City Slickers, “It’s big, it’s fast and there’s lots of it.” That’s true of data, too. It’s coming at you faster and in more formats than ever, and the questions your lines of business ask continue to grow. So, what do you do with Big Data?

In truth, it’s more a question of what can’t you do with Big Data? It’s a case of data v. insight. You’re not looking to gather the most data, you want to identify the insights that will help you make better, faster, more accurate decisions. Data is your friend whether you want to learn about customer preferences, forecast merchandising plans,

improve your supply chain, determine new products to carry, or where to open new stores. You need data to provide the raw material to analyze in order to develop critical operational insights.

So, in light of this background, the question still remains: “Where should I start?”

Don’t make a move before you ask yourself some additional questions:

Does my company have a data-driven, analytical culture? If yes, you’re many steps ahead of most companies.

What data do we have already in our priority areas? Focus on one high-impact area, and decide if the data you have is the data you need to make changes that affect performance. In other words, is your data relevant?

What is the competition doing? Benchmark friends and frienemies who have successfully created a data-driven decision culture.

What are you doing? There are lots of ways to go about using your data, and lots of vendors who can help. But, only a few of those options will fit your organization. Be thorough. When you make final decisions about roll-out plans, communicate the plan throughout your organization so everybody’s on the same page.

Is it normal to feel paralyzed? Don’t worry if you don’t have all the answers at first. The ability to fail-faster is also a critical step. It allows you to learn what does and doesn’t work, and allows you to make improvements to your processes and keep moving forward.

It’s important to note that you also should play follow the leader rigorously. It’s important for the company’s senior leaders to model their commitment to a data-driven culture by making sure they are schooled in current techniques and technologies and display those ideals in meetings, through presentations, and in casual conversations with staff at all levels. Expanding data-driven decision making throughout an organization will become easier the more you insist on it at all levels over time.

Global Retail Industry Strategist, SAS

Big Data/Analytics

Alan Lipson

Data: it’s big, it’s fast, and there’s lots of it.

- Alan Lipson, SAS @SASRetail

http://ctt.ec/UTaW0


Becoming Data-Driven: The Key To Retail Success As consumers continue to get even more technologically savvy, they often expect retailers to really know them, regardless of which channel they are using to shop. Delivering this desired relevancy can directly impact a retailer’s ability to provide value to their customers. And if that value isn’t delivered, it could potentially result in a loss of traffic, lower sales and increases in customer attrition.

In most cases, the key to relevancy is data. Every good merchant knows that retail is detail. And data is, by its nature, detail… so it logically follows that retail is data. The more and better customer, product and operational data a retailer has, the more likely it will succeed.

Unfortunately, the ability to analyze and take action upon vast streams of operational and Big Data in real time and at the right time and place is limited. Most retailers have an incomplete view of customer behavior, product velocity and program success. Too many retailers believe that because they are leveraging their customer data, they are delivering a positive customer experience. However, using all the data together is what drives a great customer experience.

Many retailers are addressing this challenge by re-engineering the enterprise around the customer experience. This includes integrating data, updating processes and enhancing collaboration across the business. In order for these efforts to be successful, the CIO role must evolve quickly to ensure that he/she is in-sync with the CMO, and the IT team must be integrally involved in strategy and tactics with the

business teams. Essentially, success will come from tearing down the marketing silos in a company and putting the data and the customer at the center of all it does.

So what do marketers need to know when it comes to aligning strategically with IT? Well, the omnichannel data-driven retailer’s information architecture should have three main capabilities: data warehousing, data discovery and data staging.

Data warehousing brings an integrated and shared data environment to the table, allowing retailers to manage the business and deliver strategic and operational analytics to the extended organization. Secondly, discovery analytics can rapidly unlock insights from Big Data through rapid exploration using a variety of analytic techniques that are accessible by mainstream business analysts. Finally, data staging means loading, storing and refining data in preparation for analytics. This helps retailers identify traffic drivers, affinities and behavioral customer segments for assortment, space and promotional opportunities.

By implementing these technologies and a data-driven approach, retailers are already seeing a wide array of benefits starting with increased sales, transaction size, profitability and customer retention. Other key returns on investment include:

• Unifying the online and in-store offerings to create an integrated sales experience that melds the advantages of physical stores with the information rich experience of online shopping.

• Enhancing the in-store experience to create the right shopping experience and localized “store of the community” product mix.

• Providing store associates with a 360-degree view of customers and enabling a single view of inventory across all customer touch-points

• Sending customers highly personalized and lifestyle-relevant deals and offers in the format they want.

• Identifying traffic drivers, merchandise affinities and behavioral customer segmentation to drive incremental customer spend and improve/ grow margin.

These examples are just the beginning, and shed light on the reality that retail companies will succeed or fail based on the strength of the customer experience they offer. Winners in the marketplace will deliver the ultimate optimized omnichannel customer experience, and the only way to do that is to create and execute a data-driven strategy.

Retail is data.- Michael Day, Teradata

@Teradata

Retail Global Program Director Industry Marketing & Solutions, Teradata

Michael DayBig Data/Analytics

http://ctt.ec/a7r26


2015: Retailers Regain A One-To-One Relationship With CustomersToday’s consumers carry retail stores in their back pockets and handbags. With smartphones, they can find any product or service they need, compare its price among any number of sources, visit social networks where the product is reviewed and rated by people they trust, buy online or identify a nearby store with the item in stock, and have the product either delivered to the retail store for pickup or sent directly to their homes. In short, today’s consumer expects access to commerce anywhere and is empowered to demand it.

The reality of commerce anywhere requires retailers and store associates to develop a one-to-one relationship with consumers, anticipate their needs and deliver a delightful experience regardless of where the interaction takes place. Rather than waiting for customers to reach the checkout page or counter with products in hand, retailers must be able to engage the customer at multiple points in her shopping journey, providing the targeted offers, guidance, and information she needs to build a level of trust and loyalty only formed when a consumer feels they are genuinely understood by a brand. To succeed, retailers need to be where the shopper is even before she sets foot in the store, and deliver personalized experiences throughout the fulfillment process and beyond.

Transitioning From Transactions To Shopping Concierge

Where exactly are the optimal interception points along the shopper journey? In many cases the first opportunity is online: a search engine or app, a social commerce site, or the retailer’s own website (preferably optimized for mobile). By

leveraging customer data and sophisticated algorithms, retailers can fashion offers that are highly likely to interest targeted groups of customers, based on search parameters, demographics, previous purchases, or a combination of any or all of these factors.

Sometimes the interception point is an actual physical place: the retail store. Geolocation technology allows retailers to send opted-in customers a push message when they cross a store’s geo-fenced perimeter, enticing them into the store with targeted offers or news that products from a designer they like have finally arrived.

The store is also where associates can play new and more collaborative roles in the customer-driven shopping journey. Today’s associates should serve as consultants, offering details on the product and recommending ways to accessorize items.

To execute these new responsibilities, associates must be equipped with information on a product’s specifications, styles, consumer reviews, availability in stores and online, as well as details on its manufacturer and recommendations for its use and maintenance. Within the same realm, the associate requires easy access to the customer’s previous purchase history, insight to promotions and the ability to offer incentives. In addition, the associate should not be tethered to the traditional checkout counter. Mobile-equipped associates have the freedom to interact with consumers at all points of the in-store experience from browsing aisles to managing fitting rooms — providing customers with an exceptional, personal experience that reinforces brand loyalty and ultimately increases basket size and customer lifetime value.

As the variety and velocity of data continues to expand and accelerate, accurate, real-time customer and inventory information will be a crucial element in 2015 and beyond. Associates will need to be able to say, with confidence, “The blue blouse you’re looking for is in stock in this store,” or, “It’s not in stock here but I can arrange to get it here by tomorrow.” Retailers will also want to make this data available to customers via their personal devices, instilling confidence that if they do make the journey to a brick-and-mortar store, the products they want will actually be there. Only by providing this type of reliable information will these “interceptions” result in “completions”: higher sales and satisfied shoppers.

Senior Director of Technology Strategy, Oracle Retail

Customer Experience

Targeted offers, guidance, and

information will help build trust and loyalty.

-David Dorf, Oracle Retail

@OracleRetail

David Dorf

http://ctt.ec/hya9K


Retail Now: Experiencing The Retail Of Yesterday In Today’s World And Tomorrow’sFew industries have experienced transformation to the extent that retail has in the last two decades — and within retailing, this revolutionary process has been particularly evident across all areas, from fashion to food. New technologies have inspired striking new approaches to the way retailers and brands manage their operations and address customer needs.

Although technology or innovation has come from numerous directions, e-Commerce has been a major mover and shaker in retailing. Online retail began as a wisp of a promise in the mid-’90s, but once consumers saw a glimpse of what might be possible, like Captain Picard of Star Trek, they bade the retail industry to “make it so.” From optimized procurement and inventory management to personalized digital marketing, much of the innovation in the industry has been driven by the need to make online retailing truly work while simultaneously keeping physical stores compelling. More recently, as the online and brick-and-mortar worlds converge, the pursuit of an integrated omnichannel shopping experience has become a driving motivation for retail innovation.

The drive for the integrated shopping experience is grounded on the core concept of retail loyalty: to treat each customer as if they were your only customer. This was the firm standard in

the retailing of yesteryear, when store owners knew their customers by name, remembered their favorite products and brands, and developed a relationship of mutual benefit with their patrons.

Getting To Yesterday

Going forward we are experiencing a stronger and stronger desire from shoppers to create relationships with retailers — no matter the channel. They are finding that retailing is more enjoyable when they shop for more than just low price. This desire is being seen through how shoppers or consumers promote specific brands across social networks and how they follow select retailers that serve them well.

As we move forward and refine this process of consumer relationship development and increased loyalty, another group of shoppers will enter the spotlight — the Generation Z’ers. Millennials will fade and the Gen Z group will enter. The Gen Z segment today represents 26% of our population and is made up of kids born roughly between 1990 and 2010.*

As Yahoo’s CMO Kathy Saviit notes, “What does generation Z care about? Finding and sharing the best stuff in the world. They aren’t just consumers, they are curators. They not only discover brands and products but they evaluate them with brilliant

objectivity, sift through them, and share the results.” Savitt adds, “Please a generation Z-er with your particular product or service and you’ll earn your biggest supporter.”*

So through these years of transformation retail has jumped forward via new technology, new processes, and a new focus on the shopper. The next phase of this challenge is to meet the demands of the aging millennials and the new market — the Gen Z group — and service them like your only customer. Only at that stage — treating each shopper as their only shopper - can a retailer declare victory and harness the power and support of strong customer loyalty within the new generation.

The drive for the integrated shopping

experience is grounded on the core concept of

retail loyalty.-Lori Mitchell Keller, SAP

@SAP_Retail

Senior Vice President and Head ofGlobal Retail Industry, SAP

Lori Mitchell KellerCustomer Experience

*Sparks & Honey. “Meet Generation Z.” June 17, 2014. http://www.slideshare.net/sparksandhoney/generation-z-final-june-17. **Savitt, Kathy. “3 Ways Companies Can Reach Generation Z.” Mashable, April 8, 2011. http://mashable.com/2011/04/08/marketing-generation-z/

http://ctt.ec/a51E2

http://www.slideshare.net/sparksandhoney/generation-z-final-june-17


Optimizing Inventory With Endless Aisle And Drop Ship2015 will be an exciting year for retail technology as retailers seek out ways to bring the best of online experiences in-store and work towards an omnichannel strategy. One of the most impactful innovations will come from the further development of endless aisle and drop ship concepts to optimize inventory strategies and improve customer experience.

Endless Aisle

Endless aisle is a game changer when it comes to inventory management. Retail space is finite (and pricey) but endless aisle allows retailers to be more efficient when it comes to the use of their space. With endless aisle, retailers can keep more stock in the back of the store, at their warehouse or even with a supplier if they have a virtual inventory program in place.

Stores no longer have to find shelf space for all the products they carry. With virtual merchandising, retailers have a digital extension of shelf space that offers customers a more enjoyable shopping experience with less clutter but more product choice.

If retailers partner their virtual inventory program with suppliers, the amount of risk of carrying inventory is drastically reduced. This allows a store to offer an expanded product line (i.e. unique, specialty, or higher-end items, etc.) but allows a customer to view the product and order it in, making a sale for the retailer that otherwise would have been a missed opportunity.

In addition to changing inventory practices, virtual merchandise touchscreens offer a complementary experience to online, displaying dynamic and interactive product images and videos, reviews, pricing, inventory availability and options to request customer service from an in-store sales rep. Interactive touchscreens can be strategically positioned in-store according to lifestyle features or solution types, allowing retailers to focus on solution-based selling versus simple transactions.

Much like an e-Commerce site, virtual merchandising technology tracks a vast amount of customer data across its various touch points. Retailers can use this data to improve the content, merchandising and overall shopping experience based on user tendencies. Ultimately, it helps to differentiate your brand and create memorable shopping experiences as well.

Drop Ship

Thanks to Amazon, consumers have become accustomed to fast, convenient and flexible product shipping options as part of the online shopping experience. In response, retailers are now moving to offer those same options in-store. With drop ship, consumers can choose desired items not stocked in-store to be shipped directly to their home, or to a store near them. This works hand-in-hand with endless aisle, allowing consumers to access extended stock.

According to Motorola Solutions, 39% of retailers offer consumers the option to buy on mobile and ship to home, while 59%

expect to do so by 2017. Drop ship helps retailers compete with online shopping options as well as enhance and complement their own e-Commerce offering.

Consumers now get the best of online in-store, they can visit a store to touch and try products, have access to product experts while still having the expanded product availability of e-Commerce and flexible ways to get the product.

The smartest omnichannel retailers are integrating back-end and front-end processes with centralized commerce platforms to deliver consistent information and a consistent experience. It will be very interesting to see which retailers adopt forms of endless aisle and drop ship in the year ahead.

Endless aisle is a game changer when it comes to inventory

management.- Christopher Krywulak,

iQmetrix @iQmetrix

President and CEO, iQmetrix

Christopher KrywulakInventory Management

http://ctt.ec/yJZ2q


RFID Is The New Black In the world of fashion, trends are moving at digital speed, while consumers are smarter, more demanding and discerning than ever.

To keep pace, fashion retailers are carefully evaluating their in-store environments for opportunities to improve operations and the customer experience. RFID technology is proving a valuable way for fashion retailers to accomplish these goals. With the power to maximize an apparel retailer’s store performance, RFID-enabled solutions can provide a seamless shopping event and ultimately drive profitability.

RFID is no longer just for big box stores and basic replenishable goods. RFID technology is now the “new black” for fashion retailers around the globe.

This year alone, retail style leaders such as Zara and Macy’s are advocating the value of RFID in managing quickly changing fashion inventories. In fact, Pablo Isla, President of Inditex, parent company of Zara and one of the world’s largest fashion groups, was quoted as saying, “It (RFID) gives us great visibility, knowing exactly where each garment is located…It really changes how we operate our stores.”

Macy’s was one of the first retailers to publicly recognize tangible results from deploying RFID technology to enhance the customer experience, drive sales and increase efficiencies. In recent omnichannel pilots in fashion categories, Macy’s documented RFID’s ability to significantly improve sales, gross margins and markdowns by better leveraging accurate and real-time inventory counts. Because

of these results Macy’s will expand RFID-based inventory visibility into more fashion categories in 2015.

RFID empowers fashion retailers to execute at the style, color, size and SKU level, ensuring the right items are in the right place at the right time — which is the foundation to retail excellence. With accurate color/size SKU-level visibility, merchants can now develop precise merchandise plans and tailor product assortments based on shopper demographics and store location. Results of these efforts are seen in sustained profit margins, quick merchandise sell through on fashion items that typically have a six to eight week window at full price, and limited markdowns. Retailers can make their inventory more productive, and position it where and when customers want it, engaging shoppers in a highly personal and profitable way.

In addition, given the importance of omnichannel retailing, RFID-based inventory visibility enables apparel retailers to meet their customers’ needs however they choose to shop. A retailer’s full assortment of fashion styles can now be presented online for purchase, and in-store inventory can be used to fulfill online and mobile orders, and to enable store pick-up or same-day delivery. With RFID-enabled accuracy, even the most popular, trendiest fashions can be made available for multichannel purchase with retailer confidence and no need for safety stock, driving full price sales and customer satisfaction.

Given the growing complexity of retailing, RFID has become the right fit for fashion. By offering RFID enabled accurate inventory visibility into styles, colors and sizes, RFID technology can empower fashion apparel retailers to deliver a positive shopping experience and gain continued loyalty.

Those fashion retailers not incorporating RFID inventory visibility as an integral part of their strategic store technology platform will increasingly struggle to keep up with their fast moving, on-trend customers and competitors.

RFID-enabled solutions can provide a seamless

shopping event and ultimately drive

profitability.- Nancy Chisholm, Tyco

Retail Solutions @TycoRetailNews

President, Tyco Retail Solutions

Nancy ChisholmInventory Management

http://online.wsj.com/articles/at-zara-fast-fashion-meets-smarter-inventory-1410884519

http://ctt.ec/0arnc


Marketers Must Balance Utility, Convenience For 2015’s Connected ConsumersThere was a lot of chatter in 2014 about shoppers demanding multi-channel, multi-device shopping experiences. While there’s no doubt mobile devices have become an essential part of each step in the path to purchase, the belief that consumers are just “demanding” a seamlessly connected shopping experience may leave retailers in the dust. Consumers are past the “demand” stage. They now expect the ability to shop whenever they want, wherever they are and use multiple devices during the process. Several retailers have connected enough dots to make this channel- and device-hopping experience the new norm.

In 2015, marketers will need to shift their perspective from thinking they are giving shoppers something new, to catching up with this consumer expectation. This is now simply how consumers not only shop, but also buy and monitor the status of their order post-purchase.

Retailers will need to think beyond a basic mobile-friendly experience and provide utility and relevance to the consumer regardless of location, channel or device. While this may seem like a complex task to undertake, many e-Commerce fundamentals can be expanded to keep the consumer engaged and shopping within this new dynamic.

Here are two ways to help retailers reach this connected consumer in 2015:

Location-Based Triggered Messages

Every marketer knows triggered messages can enhance the customer experience and are packed with revenue potential.

Triggered messages have been automated all along the customer lifecycle, from a welcome series for new subscribers all the way to reengagement programs. In 2015, targeting these areas will expand to include more location- and device-based events in the customer’s path to purchase. These messages could take the form of push notifications to welcome a VIP customer upon entering a store. Or show helpful information based on a shopper’s location in a store or interaction with products, like product videos or detailed specifications. Similar to product page and shopping cart reminders, emails containing relevant information and offers can also be triggered to consumers who left your store empty-handed. Even more manual tactics such as arming store employees with tablets to help shoppers locate items that may be in-stock at another store, highlight product features and upsell related items will help meet the expectation of seamless engagement with a brand.

Less Selling, More Telling

It may hurt, but many consumers are not learning about your new products directly from your brand. Facebook conversations, reviews on Twitter, show-off pins in Pinterest, and demo videos on YouTube mean product awareness, as well as initial shopping interest, may happen outside your control, often on a mobile device. The switch from the social dialogue to a hard sale like “20% off this weekend plus free shipping for VIPs” could be jarring for today’s shopper and cause a disconnect between initial interest and purchase intent. This gap can be bridged by featuring

content that tells the product story rather than selling the product. A sale for 20 different scarves that are 20% off may not resonate as much as a sale in which your buyer or top fashionista shows how one scarf can be worn 50 different ways. Whether at work on a laptop, at home on a tablet or in a store on a smartphone, consumers can explore the product in a way that is less about price point and more about usage and value.

Retailers can meet the omnichannel consumer expectation in 2015 by understanding this new, yet very firmly ingrained shopping behavior. Providing information and convenience and avoiding disruptions in the new path to purchase as shoppers move between channels and devices will be ways to keep customers happy and avoid losing sales that are just another tap away.

Channel- and device-hopping is the

new norm.- Jim Davidson,

Bronto Software @Bronto

Director of Research, Bronto Software

Jim DavidsonMobile & Social

http://ctt.ec/oS9C6


Embracing Mobile Apps To Drive Consumer And Employee EngagementIn 2015, mobile technology will continue to revolutionize the way retail store employees work and interact with customers. It’s a given: Most shoppers are now armed with a mobile device whenever they enter a retail store. They are highly informed and expect the retail employees they interact with to be at least, if not more knowledgeable about a store’s products, promotions and services.

It’s clear to retailers that mobile technology can play a major part in streamlining their store operations and in enhancing the customer experience. In today’s highly competitive environment, it’s not enough for a retailer to simply provide a personalized experience on the consumer’s web browser or mobile app. Brick-and-mortar stores are central to achieving retailers’ omnichannel strategies and to building customer loyalty. However, only 11% of retailers reported that they have widely implemented mobile technology in store operations, according to a recent EKN Mobility In Retail 2014 Report.

I believe the number of retailers rolling out mature mobile app programs to their store teams will increase dramatically this coming year. These apps will go beyond simply providing real-time visibility to a handful of the most relevant KPIs and will move towards providing more of a one-stop shop for all the information needs of store employees. Retailers deploying these types of apps will achieve significant productivity gains by providing managers with the ability to easily access and write-back to systems related to workforce management, human resources, loss prevention and training — directly from their mobile devices.

Clienteling apps that utilize advanced analytics and include things such as mobile POS, CRM data, intelligent recommendations, inventory visibility, product details, competitive pricing information and the ability to process multichannel orders will also become more prevalent. These apps will go a long way in narrowing the information and capability gaps that currently exist between store associates and customers. By also combining information related to customers’ in-store locations and shopping patterns, retailers deploying these apps will truly be able to provide personalized service that keeps consumers coming back for more.

The ultimate goal for retailers is to run their stores profitably while delivering a superior customer shopping experience. With a powerful, effective mobile app program in place, forward-thinking merchants can win the battle for shoppers’ eyes and ears — and wallets — in 2015.

With an effective mobile app program in place, forward-thinking merchants can win the

battle for shoppers’ eyes, ears and wallets

in 2015.- Hugh Owen, MicroStrategy

@MicroStrategy

VP of Product Marketing, Mobile Products and Industry Solutions, MicroStrategy

Hugh OwenMobile

http://ctt.ec/cjQJ6


Chief Product Officer, ShopperTrak

Chetan GhaiMobile

BLE Helps Retailers Make The Big Data Connection One of the areas within mobile technology that is creating a great amount of interest and traction is a protocol called Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). BLE is a radio frequency that operates similarly to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and is now prevalent in all new smartphones.

There are some key differences between BLE versus Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. BLE is a technology that enables retailers to identify users who have downloaded their application. Users are then able to share their location with these applications for the purpose of receiving relevant content in real time.

As this technology is opt-in, it will also allow the retail industry to obtain aggregate analytics on shopper movement and integrate that data into existing location analytics platforms.

This Big Data can then enable retailers to enhance customer service. The revolutionary technology gives retailers and property owners the opportunity to enhance the shopping experience and engage shoppers either individually, at a “one-to-one” level, or in an aggregate, “one to many” manner.

Retailers are looking at this technology to drive significant improvement in converting more of their browsers into buyers. Many retailers and shopping centers have begun the process of rolling out this technology and others are in the process of testing this technology.

We see many functional areas in retail deriving value from this technology, including store operations, marketing and merchandising.

BLE technology allows retailers to engage

shoppers either individually, at a “one-to-one” level, or in an

aggregate, “one to many” manner.

- Chetan Ghai, ShopperTrak

@ShopperTrak

http://ctt.ec/c8dRb


Powered By Beacons, Shopper Marketing Goes Mobile Today, advertisers spend more than $60 billion annually on in-store shopper marketing and promotions in an effort to influence consumers at the “moment of truth.”

But the continued growth in consumer time spent with mobile media means that traditional shopper marketing techniques are becoming less and less relevant. In an increasingly digital and mobile world, printed circulars and retail displays are no longer able to command the level of shopper attention and impact that they used to. With more than two thirds of consumers using their smartphones while they shop in stores, brands need to find new ways to engage with mobile-savvy shoppers in the aisle.

Proximity-based mobile marketing, powered by Bluetooth Smart Beacons, has given retailers the ability to deliver highly relevant content and offers directly to consumers’ smartphones while they shop in specific areas of the store. Opted-in shoppers can automatically receive shopping tips, deals and helpful information at the moment they are considering a purchase, making their smartphone an integral part of the in-store shopping experience. Adoption of the technology has been growing over the past year, with major retailers like Lord & Taylor, Hudson’s Bay, Urban Outfitters, Timberland and Alex & Ani rolling out beacons in stores nationwide. Results to date have been impressive, with some retailers seeing shopper engagement rates of more than 60% and purchase rates above 30%.

The next step in the evolution of beacon marketing is for brand advertisers to take an active role in the ecosystem. With capabilities that are now available, retailers can create their own private in-store digital ad exchanges, inviting brand partners to interact with shoppers at specific locations within their stores. A department store, for example, might give a cookware manufacturer the opportunity to deliver holiday recipes and a branded offer to shoppers who visit the housewares aisle during the month of December. By opening up their beacon networks to advertisers — in a carefully controlled way, of course — retailers can create valuable new shopper marketing opportunities for their brand partners, while gaining access to additional resources, content and funding from brands that can be used to create even more rewarding experiences for shoppers.

In 2015, we will see many more retailers roll out beacon marketing capabilities in their stores, and a large number of these deployments will include brand partners as integral contributors. As a result, expect to see brand advertisers shift shopper marketing budgets and resources from traditional print-based programs to more targeted and interactive in-store mobile experiences. The coming year will see a fundamental transformation of the retail shopping experience and it will be fueled by mobile-powered in-store shopper marketing programs that are created by leading brand advertisers. Watch for it at a retail store near you.

In 2015, we will see many more retailers

roll out beacon marketing capabilities

in their stores.- Hilmi Ozguc,

Swirl Networks @Swirl

Founder and CEO, Swirl Networks

Hilmi OzgucMobile

http://ctt.ec/8aZmo


Internet Disruption Will Accelerate In 2015The Internet onslaught continues with ubiquitous, always-on connectivity accelerating changes in shopping behaviors and enabling the Internet of Things (IoT).

In 2015, the Internet will accelerate its disruption and upheaval of established retail models, processes and structures that were built and optimized for the brick-and-mortar era. Retailers need to retool and rethink pricing and assortment for the omnichannel model.

Specific disruptive factors — some opportunities, others threats — attributable to this tech trend in 2015 include:

Ever-increasing e-Commerce penetration, both intra- and inter-category: Retailers need to know the acceptable price range for products or risk losing sales and/or margins. And, it’s the online reference point that counts vs. in-store, since online is where the majority of shoppers start their purchase journey.

Shoppers armed with more and more price transparency, especially at the point of purchase: Retailers know all too well that they must be right priced or they will fail to convert, and the proliferation of smartphones and tablets brings this challenge directly to the cash register. In 2015, retailers’ customer-facing sales associates need to be more prepared than ever, armed with real-time competitive pricing that includes product availability and shipping for price match claims, as well as insight into comparable product and private label options to convert price-conscious shoppers.

New opportunities to connect with customers: Omnichannel pricing success is not about offering the same price across all channels, it’s about offering the same price to the same customer across different channels. Pervasive Internet access means a direct line to shoppers. This is a real opportunity for retailers to leverage personalized online pricing to drive store traffic and purchases, and to use store loyalty to drive online traffic and purchases.

Increased channel competition including threat of brands going direct and proliferation of online marketplaces: Brands need to improve their online presence and performance across all channels. This means retailers need to optimize their own channels including pricing and assortment or face replacement. As well, marketplaces operate with a very different economic reality than store-based retailers.

Greater security threat including risk of data breaches: The IoT means everything is connected. On the positive, this means more data and more data sources from which to collect pricing and product information, along with the ability to act on the data in real time. However, the IoT also presents real security concerns and risks to shoppers and retailers alike. Retailers need to take actionable steps to guarantee infrastructure security and data privacy while communicating these measures clearly to users. Step one is ensuring vendors are security conscious and compliant.

In 2015, the Internet will accelerate

its disruption and upheaval of established

retail models, processes and structures.

- Jenn Markey, 360pi @360_pi

VP of Marketing, 360pi

Jenn MarkeyOmnichannel

http://ctt.ec/r3557


International Expansion With The Cloud Consumers are more connected than ever before, and they expect a seamless and engaging shopping experience across channels, devices and geographies. Over the past year, we saw many retailers respond to this consumer demand with omnichannel strategies supported by one platform to manage interactions and transactions throughout the buyer’s journey. In 2015, retailers will further leverage this one platform to enable international expansion.

There is significant growth opportunity for retail brands to expand into foreign markets, particularly in China, which was recently identified as the world’s largest economy by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Chinese consumers, and particularly the thriving middle class, have a strong appetite for Western brands, who are attracted to product quality and social status.

But the challenges associated with international expansion should not be taken lightly. There are myriad requirements related to technology, localization and brand.

Technology

To effectively navigate international waters, retailers are increasingly adopting cloud commerce backbones to support their expansion efforts. The cloud enables retailers to accelerate growth without the traditional cost and complexity associated with international expansion. For example, with the cloud, retailers are no longer required to stand up a stack of hardware, software and infrastructure — and hire teams to maintain it — in each new market.

A cloud solution also provides the ability to establish a centralized shared service to manage and control key aspects of the shopping experience, while at the same time giving local resources the autonomy to executive local pricing, assortment and marketing strategies.

Local Presence

Retailers must also strike a balance between scale/efficiency and localization/relevance. Though that often means badged employees, retailers should consider technology and/or business process partners that understand the local culture, retail environment and technology landscape. There are a number of mistakes that can be prevented with the right people in place, since these resources enable retailers to represent their global brand DNA in a manner that complies with local culture and market demands.

A specific example is the local presence and know-how that’s required to scale the “Great Firewall of China,” while also reducing the complexities of both the technology and the regulatory environment. Optimizing performance via a content delivery network (CDN) provider or co-location strategies can help avoid latency problems that often lead to high customer abandonment. A CDN speeds transmission of network traffic over public Internet and accelerates content delivery through the country.

Brand

Retailers can be more effective in their efforts to localize their brand by leveraging

local partners and employees. It’s often not as simple as a direct translation to make content relevant to local consumers; it requires local knowledge and expertise, combined with a true understanding of the brand, to ensure it can be positioned the right way.

These requirements for effective international expansion mean change for retailers. Key adjustments include the evolution to a global retail organization structure, inventory management (fulfillment and distribution), content syndication, and an even greater focus on delivering a seamless consumer shopping experience across all devices and touch points.

Focus on technology, localization and brand

when expanding internationally.

-Rob Garf, Demandware @Demandware

VP of Industry Strategy and Insights, Demandware

Rob GarfOmnichannel

http://ctt.ec/1lb7H


Evolving From Little Data To Big Analytics Retailers will be attempting to “connect the dots” in 2015. In the past, it’s been about “channel,” then “multichannel,” then “cross-channel,” then “omnichannel” and now, “channel agnostic.”

This evolution has led to the development of functional data siloes within the retail organization, from merchandising and marketing to e-Commerce and the stores themselves. The result of these independent operations impacts the retailer’s overall IT portfolio — there’s the POS solution, the e-Commerce solution, the merchandise solution, the loyalty solution and a smattering of optimization and analytics solutions to supercharge it all.

This diverse and complex IT portfolio leads to the proliferation of Little Data. What we mean by Little Data are details cannot provide true meaning within the overall retail context. Little Data is the result of too much Big Data combined with the lack of tools to tie the individual pieces of knowledge together. In other words, it’s tunnel vision. For instance, Customer A visits my web site and places an item in the shopping

cart. She abandons the cart. I capture this activity. What I don’t catch in this scenario is that Customer A visited the local store and purchased the same item afterwards. Since I don’t know Customer A made a purchase, is the knowledge of her shopping cart abandonment a useful data point? Perhaps. Or potentially damaging, if I use this information to provide a discounted offer for purchase completion after her in-store purchase.

But what if you were able to connect the dots to enhance the shopping experience, regardless of channel? What if the store associate was able to access information regarding Customer A’s browsing history and provide purchase recommendations? Customers are begging for channel integration. In fact, half of all shoppers in a recent Accenture survey said retailers should enhance the customer experience by integrating in-store, online and mobile channels. This is where Big Analytics steps in.

In 2015, retailers that master Big Analytics will take the lead in the race to win the

hearts and minds of the customer. Big Analytics tackles issues presented by Little Data by connecting the dots between retail’s deeply entrenched functional and channel silos.

At this year’s NRF show, you’ll hear quite a bit about retail personalization. It’s not surprising, given 80% of Americans say that their relationship with brands is much more personal than ever before. However, successful personalization is not possible without an accurate understanding of the customer and her preferences, including predictive capabilities indicating how this customer wants to interact with you in the future. This requires a single version of the truth and advanced analytics available anytime and anywhere available through Big Analytics.

In 2015, retailers that master Big Analytics will take the lead in the race

to win the hearts and minds of the customer.

- Kevin J. Walker, Manthan Americas

@Retail_Ideas

SVP and GM, Manthan Americas

Kevin J. WalkerOmnichannel

http://ctt.ec/4pm2a


Look For A Non-Magstripe World In 2015While the obvious choice is to look toward Cupertino, the roll-out of Apple Pay and the pending rollout of the Apple Watch, I think that is only a small part of the overall major technology trend that will hit the retail industry. For me, the move to “non-magstripe” payments will be THE trend this year, alongside the emergence of mobile as a payment form factor and the pending EMV liability shift. This will literally change the way individuals in the U.S. pay for their goods at the Point of Sale (POS) and hopefully make the credit card data breach headlines that have plagued the industry a distant memory.

The funny thing when talking about this trend is that neither EMV nor NFC technology is new. EMV (which stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa) will celebrate its 10th anniversary of the liability shift in the European Union on January 1st. The ‘liability shift’ is the date when merchants become liable for any fraud from POS transactions that do not meet EMV standards (e.g. the merchant doesn’t have an EMV-ready POS terminal and accepts a fraudulent mag stripe-based payment). U.S. card issuers have been slowly rolling out their EMV plans and many consumers have begun to receive their “futuristic”-looking cards with the magnetic chip in them; that will continue as the liability shift date in the U.S. is less than a year away (currently slated for October 1st, 2015).

NFC is also not new, though it only recently appeared in phones (2012 for some Android devices) and via QR codes,

popularized in recent years by merchants such as Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. So, while mobile payments are not a new phenomenon, they have finally come out of niche offerings and hit the mainstream, thanks to Apple finally releasing an NFC-enabled device. The attention placed on Apple Pay was extraordinary; after being covered by every major news outlet, which shined a bright spotlight on payments, many consumers are eager to try this “new” way of transacting. And the fact that “contactless” was a shortlist finalist for the 2014 Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year let us know that we are in an uncharted territory in terms of industry change.

When you combine these two technologies, it’s a perfect storm of change that will hit retailers harder than they think. In the U.S., consumers haven’t had a “new” payment option at their disposal in a number of years (maybe gift cards, which now seem dated). Now all of a sudden, a new (mobile) method has emerged and an existing one (cards) is going to fundamentally change this year. As for the change to cards, it’s moving from a quick swipe to a long dip. It sounds simple enough, but trust me, it will definitely be an adjustment.

For better or worse, the “front line” for fielding inquiries and helping consumers will be the responsibility of retailers’ employees, along with the card issuers’ call centers or branch personnel. Some of the figurative ‘names of the game’ here will be education, patience, understanding and acclimation — on the parts of both consumers and

retailers. It’s about being slow and steady, a la the tortoise. Or for a more appropriate holiday analogy, accepting and overcoming the bumps brought about by turbulence as you’re flying home for Thanksgiving.

Here’s to great experiences for consumers and retailers alike in 2015!

The move to non-magstripe payments will be THE trend this year.

-Mark Ranta, ACI Worldwide

@ACI_Worldwide

Senior Solutions Consultant, Digital Channels, ACI Worldwide

Mark RantaPayment/POS/Security

http://ctt.ec/UT724


Will This Be The Year Of NFC?I see two major trends impacting the retail industry in 2015 and both of them deal directly with point of sale.

With cyber-attacks affecting major retailers and mom-and-pops alike, financial security is a daily concern. EMV, along with encryption and tokenization, will make major steps in securing transactions while assuaging consumer fears. Another trend to consider is Near Field Communication (NFC), which will enable mobile commerce and contactless EMV at the point of sale.

EMV: Encryption And Tokenization

As you likely know, “EMV” refers to credit cards embedded with a microchip programmed with unique digital information.

The microprocessor embedded in the smart card helps to authenticate the cardholder and issuer, validate that the card was used at the point of sale, and certify the cardholder through unique PIN entry — making the chip-based cards much less susceptible to fraud. Contactless EMV is enabled via NFC on the card or a device like a smartphone.

An upgrade to EMV and contactless EMV is worthwhile because it helps combat counterfeit acceptance through methods that ensure the card’s rightful owner is the purchaser. Retailers who decide to upgrade their terminals will reduce their exposure to disputes for fraud while boosting consumer confidence.

Although merchant EMV compliance is not mandated, brick-and-mortar retailers who don’t upgrade by October 2015 will be liable for counterfeit, lost and stolen card fraud.

NFC And Apple Pay

Expect to see heavy competition between Apple Pay, Google Wallet and other NFC payment methods in the next year.

Many analysts expect NFC to take a few years to catch on, but, in fact, Heartland was processing Apple Pay purchases at San Francisco’s AT&T Park during the World Series. This is a trend I see continuing.

A difference between EMV contact and paying with EMV contactless via NFC is that the latter is quick and less cumbersome. EMV card readers require the user to insert the chip card into the reader, wait for approval and sometimes enter a PIN before removing the card. NFC requires a customer to tap their smartphone and that’s it.

Apple Pay — and other NFC solutions — protects card data by using a token each time a transaction is authorized. Tokenization substitutes a unique code for the payment card’s number, keeping transactional card data off of the retailer’s systems.

The benefit of tokenization is that if a merchant’s system is breached by hackers, tokens have no real value to criminals because they do not contain any card information that can be used for fraudulent transactions.

A More Secure Future For Consumers

By pushing Apple Pay, Apple is advancing the future of payments. Merchants who want to accept Apple Pay will be required to use NFC readers. Payment peripherals providers who are selling EMVco certified contact and contactless acceptance are including NFC as part of EMV contactless. If retailers decide to upgrade to NFC, it’s a good idea that

they also make the leap to EMV to meet the October 2015 liability shift deadline.

Heartland supports Apple Pay because it aligns with our mission to provide a secure method for transaction acceptance.

Retailers can use the debut of Apple Pay and impending EMV compliance shift as an opportunity to evaluate the overall security of their payment system to make sure that they are not exposing their customers’ private data.

With the number of breaches on the rise and cybercriminals getting more sophisticated, retailers need to be proactive when it comes to debit and credit card protection. EMV, NFC and Apple Pay are some of the best defenses for protecting companies from breaches, and this is a great example of what 2105 can offer for security.

Retailers can use the debut of Apple Pay

and impending EMV compliance shift as an opportunity to evaluate their payment system.

- Bob Carr, Heartland Payment Systems

@Heartlandhpy

Chairman and CEO, Heartland Payment Systems

Bob CarrPayment/POS/Security

http://ctt.ec/Wj05b


New POS Security Regulations – Your 2015 Competitive Advantage For years, retailers have underinvested in their core retail systems, both due to cost considerations, and because they needed those IT dollars invested in new technologies such as e-Commerce, mobile, and social to remain competitive. As a result, many retailers operate numerous standalone systems and disparate databases, all running on a mix of legacy platforms and applications with aging and complex architectures.

Not surprisingly, many retailers are faced with significant integration, performance and security issues. Ironically, these legacy systems end up costing more in the long run in the form of higher maintenance costs, slow performance, limited functionality, reduced data transparency and potential risk exposure to data breaches and fraud.

Recent events, however, have served as a wake-up call for retailers to change the current dynamics in their IT environments. The well-publicized data breaches at major retailers, the looming Oct. 2015 deadline to

standardize EMV and “chip and pin” in credit cards, growing consumer concerns over the privacy of customer data, and the acceleration of new NFC technologies in mobile commerce are outside forces which are pushing retailers to implement changes to their enterprise retail and POS technologies to be more nimble and secure.

Most retailers’ systems, however, need heavy customization and code rewrites to comply with the latest PCI standards and to support EMV, and new NFC technologies like Apple Pay. Alternately, new enterprise retail platforms are specifically designed to comply with the latest PCI and EMV standards, support seamless gateway integration, as well as innovative new payment technologies. This is forcing retailers in to a build versus buy decision, where the additional benefits of having a single comprehensive enterprise platform, and omnichannel engine that shares a single data model and business rules should be considered.

By using compliance as the “starting line” and understanding that much larger, more significant benefits can be reaped with a new enterprise retail platform, retailers can turn this challenge in to an opportunity to transform their business into a true omnichannel operation. A new retail enterprise platform can be the beginning of a transformation that tears down informational silos between in-store, call center, online and mobile channels. It can provide retail associates, and back office operations, the visibility necessary to provide their customers with a secure, seamless, omnichannel experience.

And finally, a single enterprise platform can provide competitive advantage by helping retailers work with less inventory, reduce overall costs, speeds up response time to demand variability or supply chain disruptions, and facilitate compliance to new and evolving legislative and trade requirements.

For those retailers who leverage POS security regulation requirements as the opportunity to update enterprise-wide technology platforms and enact more strategic change, 2015 stands to be a year of significant innovation — with retailers preparing their organizations to take the competitive advantage and meet their growth and business goals.

Most retailers’ systems, however, need heavy

customization and code rewrites to comply with

the latest PCI standards and to support EMV.

- Brion Reusche, Junction Solutions

@JunctionSol

Industry Principal, Junction Solutions

Brion ReuschePayment/POS/Security

http://ctt.ec/21DcV


Apple Pay Helps Spark EMV AdoptionApple isn’t the first company to invest in mobile payments, but it has always been first in its ability to nail the execution of consumer-facing technology and bring the fringe to the mainstream. While competing Near Field Communication (NFC) payment technologies and NFC-enabled smartphones have been on the market for years, as of the date of Apple’s announcement of Apple Pay, less than 10% of U.S. retailers had the technology deployed to be able to accept them, according to Gartner analyst Mark Hung. A few months later, merchants are scrambling to accept Apple Pay, consumers are clamoring for it and the payments industry is competing for who can be first to support it.

So, while Apple’s reinvention of NFC payments isn’t the newest thing under the sun, it’s my pick for 2015’s most significant technology trend as it aligns the interests of consumers, merchants and the payments industry in a way that will drive rapid adoption and profoundly change the way people pay.

Better For Consumers: The In-Store Payment Experience

Until recently, the online payment process was more painful than paying in-store — typing in 16 numbers on a tiny screen is time-consuming, especially compared with the simple swipe of a card. Today’s smartphone user can send money to friends or complete an e-Commerce purchase in one click and is becoming used to a “no-click” process as companies like Uber make the payment process practically disappear. Apple Pay creates the ability for in-store retailers to deliver a similarly invisible payment experience.

Consumers already voted with their dollars to indicate that this matters to them. Apple Pay was the cornerstone of the iPhone 6 release, and Apple has announced that the iPhone 6 launch was their largest one ever. The new standard for in-store retail will be a payment experience that is seamless for the consumer.

Better For Merchants: Payment Security

An unwanted storyline this year has been the rash of major credit card breaches, impacting everyone from Target to Home Depot, where criminals were able to access consumer credit card numbers stored in plain text on these stores’ point of sale systems.

Apple Pay uses industry-leading tokenization technology to reduce retailer risk in the event of systems breaches. The number that is displayed on the physical credit card is not stored on any system — instead, it appears as an encrypted string in consumers’ phones and when sent to the retailer. Even if someone could access a retailer’s systems, all they would get from the Apple Pay transaction is an indecipherable group of letters and numbers rather than a reusable card number.

Better For The Payments Industry: A Driver For Hardware Replacement

The Visa and MasterCard announcement of a mandatory shift to chip-and-pin (EMV) cards by October 2015 was met with unhappiness from merchants due to the increased cost of EMV credit card readers and the need to upgrade legacy POS systems.

However, in the wake of the Apple Pay announcement, merchants have been scrambling for ways to bring new hardware into their stores to support it, and many are finding that NFC-enabled credit card readers are often EMV-ready. Suddenly, a mandatory hardware upgrade has now becomes a way to buy into the Apple magic and impress consumers.

With the combination of benefits for consumers, merchants and the payments industry, Apple Pay is set to take off. And while some retail innovations are only within reach for the largest retailers, this one might see benefits to independent merchants first, as the nimble POS companies that these retailers use are more able to deploy new features, quickly.

In the wake of the Apple Pay announcement,

merchants have been scrambling for ways to

bring new hardware into their stores to support it.

- Dax Dasilva, Lightspeed @LightspeedPOS

CEO, Lightspeed

Dax DasilvaPayment/POS/Security

http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/small-businesses-assess-their-apple-pay-options/?_r=0



http://ctt.ec/MeadZ


Reduce Security Risks And Streamline EMV Certification With Secure Commerce Architecture PCI compliance, U.S. migration to EMV, and constant attacks against PC-based POS systems are creating a growing burden on retailers.

EMV migration in the U.S. will cause almost every participant in the payments ecosystem to have to recertify. The new complexity that EMV introduces into the certification process and the sheer number of certifications that will occur in a short time frame has the potential to create problems on a scale we have never seen. On top of that, this effort is costly for everyone involved in terms of time and resources, as traditional payment architecture requires certification of each combination of POS system, payment terminal, gateway and acquirer.

And, although it reduces counterfeit card fraud at the POS, EMV does nothing to prevent card data from being stolen through breaches or POS system malware — the sources of large-scale breaches seen in recent news headlines.

Fortunately, use of secure commerce architecture is increasing among acquirers, independent software vendors (ISVs) and large merchants in the U.S. as a way to enhance payment data security and streamline EMV certification.

What Is It?

Secure commerce architecture decouples payment data from the merchant’s POS system (e.g., cash register), and enables

encrypted delivery of data from the payment terminal directly to the merchant’s processor, thereby:

• Removing the POS system from the scope of EMV certification.

• Preventing consumer payment data from entering the POS, thereby eliminating the potential for the data to be stolen at scale.

By significantly reducing the risk of large scale payment data breaches and easing the EMV certification burden, secure commerce architecture helps protect merchants’ brands while allowing them to focus more resources on enriching the customer experience and enabling new innovation at the physical POS.

The desire to leverage the power of an integrated POS continues to move downstream to include mid-tier merchants. When it comes to the acquirers and ISVs that serve these merchants — the resulting payment complexity results in slower implementation, and stands in the way of delivering innovative new products and services. Secure commerce architecture frees up acquirers and ISVs to focus on delivering great experiences for their merchants.

“Reducing or eliminating cardholder data breaches must be a priority for any merchant. Secure commerce architecture is an elegant solution that virtually eliminates

that risk with no significant impact on either the merchant’s POS system or the customer experience,” said Thad Peterson, senior analyst for Aite Group. “Beyond that, if a merchant has yet to adopt EMV, this architecture simplifies the process and speeds implementation by shouldering the administrative burden of EMV certification.”

The secure commerce architecture offering currently available in the U.S. can be directly integrated into a limited number of acquiring hosts and certain POS systems. However, integration with additional acquiring hosts and support for additional POS systems is currently underway, and rollouts outside of the U.S. are anticipated to begin in 2015.

Secure commerce architecture can

enhance payment data security and streamline

EMV certification.- Robert McMillon,

Verifone @Verifone

VP of Product Security, Verifone

Robert McMillonPayment/POS/Security

http://ctt.ec/b8_5E


In 2015 It’s All About Hyper-RelevanceThere are so many trends already on deck and ready to change retail’s digital marketing game in 2015. But, from where I sit, all of these innovations lead back to one thing: consumers’ ever-increasing demand for hyper-relevance. Over the last 12 months there’s been a boom in everything from the proliferation of new mobile shopping apps, mobile in-store tech and cross-device targeting — even advances in Big Data activation and machine learning made the 2014 top-10 list. To sum it up: we made real progress in improving marketers’ ability to deliver cross-channel experiences. And consumers? The bar is definitely raised. They are rapidly becoming intolerant of the irrelevant experience, and in 2015 will start to expect of you more perfectly curated moments.

This demand for hyper-relevance is taking a number of forms, from more responsive sites facilitating greater mobile experiences to integrated tactics like push notifications — made even more relevant through micro-location targeting and iBeacons. All of this speaks to the notion of the “last millisecond”—the need to capture consumers’ interest with meaningful relevance, in that critical instant before they look elsewhere — meeting its in-store equivalent, “last inch” targeting, to nab them before they head to your competitor. These new technologies are all attempts to connect those all-important dots, and deliver hyper-relevance across time and space. In 2015 — and even, for some retailers, in these last few weeks of 2014 — we’ll see a lot of examples such as:

• A push notification that steers consumers towards in-stock products, gift ideas or ensembles—avoiding holiday shopping frustrations and driving brand affinity

• In-app or “pull” personalization, so beneficial to the customer that she can’t help but open the app every time she shops in-store—or window shopping from her couch

• iBeacons, integrating the in-store/online experience even more, and providing hyper-local experiences that drive purchase consideration, engagement and loyalty

• A deeper reliance on personification and contextualization, enabling brands to deliver greater relevance from “go,” — even for anonymous visitors

• And interestingly, a return to “old fashioned” and highly differentiated personalization tactics like those offered by Trunk Club (scalable? I’m not sure — but I am looking forward to working my own stylist Jenna!)

The demand for hyper-relevance will push marketers to new heights — and call for super-power abilities that don’t (and frankly, can’t) come naturally to the mere mortal marketer. Although your brand has no doubt implemented a smattering of marketer-driven personalization tactics, you know it’s near impossible to be spot-on relevant for everyone, every time. And let’s face it: sometimes merchandising agendas get in the way of delivering real relevance — consumers’ tolerance for this is waning fast.

So is sheer physical marketing capacity: you’re one person or one team, and without a machine marketing partner, there’s no way you can deliver hyper-relevance at scale. You can’t keep your eye on thousands or even millions of unique visitors, 24/7 and, simultaneously, mine through piles and piles of existing data to deliver perfect moments and meaningful touch points. You just can’t. So if you’re serious about hyper-relevance, automated personalization has to be part of the conversation.

There’s so much to be excited about in 2015, across every single channel. But when I take a step back it all seems to be feeding into hyper-relevance and the need for marketers to curate those relevant journeys every single time. While what it means and the form it takes may vary from business to business, hyper-relevance will be the ultimate and retail game-changer next year and, I believe, for years to come.

Consumers are rapidly becoming intolerant

of the irrelevant experience.

-Kevin Lindsay, Adobe @Adobe

Director of Optimization and Personalization Solutions, Adobe

Kevin LindsayPersonalization

https://www.trunkclub.com/

http://ctt.ec/oHd9k


So-Lo-Mo: Shaping The One-To-One Customer RelationshipThe explosion of consumer connectivity and engagement through social and mobile technologies has forever reshaped the face of retail.

The numbers are staggering: Over 35% of a retailer’s web traffic is driven from mobile devices. There are more than 1 billion active Facebook users and 560 million on Twitter. Over half of consumers under 50 years old are willing to share location information with a retailer. Social, location-based, and mobile (So-Lo-Mo) technologies are inherently connected and provide a powerful opportunity when leveraged together. The truth is, the vast majority of retailers are not exploiting the full opportunity of the So-Lo-Mo transformation to build high-value, one-to-one relationships with customers.

In 2015, the retail winners will be those who create the organizational and technological framework to capture consumer data across channels and turn that knowledge into actionable advantage moving from segment-based marketing to individualized marketing. Retailers who organize around the consumer and take advantage of the opportunity of So-Lo-Mo will reap the rewards.

Create A 360-Degree View Of Customers From Multiple Data Sources

To capture a complete view of customers and customer interactions, leading retailers must integrate customer data both from first-party (internal systems) and third-party (external platforms) sources. By collecting and attributing information about a customer across physical and digital touch points (i.e., beacons, mobile app, POS, web site, social), a retailer can assimilate a more comprehensive view of their customers and, in turn, better understand customer behaviors, anticipate their needs

and wants, and determine the treatment that best aligns with their expectations. With advanced analytical segmentation and lookalike modeling efforts, a retailer can create profiles of their highest valued consumers to optimize communications at scale, delivering higher returns. This strategy creates a personalized experience across channels, driven not just by intuition and brand intent, but rather informed by customer data, analytical insight and real-world validation.

Turn Insights Into Action

There is no doubt about the unprecedented amount of data being captured on consumers, and it is not slowing down. With the Internet of Things (IoT) among us, we will see over 26 billion sensors generating data by 2020, with location-based services driving more insights and opportunities to address consumers in real time. The challenge is now turning the data into actionable advantage.

The foundation of any So-Lo-Mo contact strategy is in delivering a consistent yet personalized brand message across all digital platforms, and this can best be accomplished through an effective Data Management Platform (DMP). The DMP serves as the bridge between your database and your ability to address your customers on a personal level at scale. Reaching addressability hinges on the ability to acquire, analyze and activate data about your consumers’ interactions with your brand across channels. Because the DMP feeds into decisioning and personalization engines, you’re able to have individualized conversations with both “known” and “unknown” customers. The result is more loyal and engaged customers.

Bringing It All Together: Optimize Your So-Lo-Mo Contact Strategy

It’s not enough to be “out there” with a presence across multiple touch points. Customers expect an experience that is tailored to their unique needs and is consistent across channels. In fact, customers who shop in more than one channel drive two times the revenue and loyalty of single-channel customers, so the imperative for retailers is to integrate their social, mobile, store and e-Commerce strategies with the consumer at the center.

The key to unlocking the promise of omnichannel is in exploiting the digital assets that contain the critical insights that drive a customer’s experience. This unlock requires integration, attribution, analytics and digital technologies to test, learn, refine and ultimately profit from omnichannel capabilities. Leading retailers will exploit these technologies to better engage and delight the customers they’ve chosen to serve.

Retailers who organize around the consumer

and take advantage of the opportunity

of So-Lo-Mo will reap the rewards.

- Mike Mojica, Merkle @MerkleCRM

EVP and GM, Retail and Consumer Goods Practice, Merkle

Mike MojicaPersonalization

http://ctt.ec/3dtkq


Making Personalization An In-Store Reality2015 is the year retailers need to make personalization in the store a reality in order to provide customers with the truly personalized shopping experiences that will not only meet their expectations, but surprise and delight them. Customer expectations for in-store visits have been irrevocably changed by the highly personalized and engaging shopping experiences they regularly encounter online. It’s time for retailers to respond to those expectations in an effort to boost in-store product sales and improve customer loyalty.

Personalization Based On Store Types

Let’s first look at personalization in specialty retail stores where we will see store associates equipped with tablets or other mobile devices giving them access to in-depth CRM and inventory information. The store associate will be free to roam the store, no longer tied to the sales counter enabling them to engage with customers prior to a purchase as well as during the checkout process.

As a shopper enters the store, the store associate can ask to swipe their store loyalty card to identify the individual and start accessing their profile and purchase history. With this information accessible to them in real time, the store associate will be empowered to recommend specific items and special offers and be able to confidently offer a range of alternative purchases and purchasing options if the particular item a customer requires is not available. The advent of same-day fulfillment and access to accurate delivery information will enable store associates to save a customer sale by committing to have an item available in-store

or shipped direct to customer within a matter of days or even hours.

Taking the personalization approach one step further, clothing stores like H&M have already begun trialing a mobile phone application that a customer can use to request immediate in-store help from an assistant while shopping in the store. Another approach some retailers are taking is to marry the online and offline by taking a purchase started on an e-Commerce site and concluding it in the store. For instance, a local clothing store looking for a competitive edge, could allow a customer to create a virtual dressing room online and stock it with items they are interested in. The customer could then book an appointment in the store and when they arrive for that appointment, go straight into a dressing room that would already have the items they selected online waiting for them.

In supermarkets and department stores, we will see retailers continue to work on increasing the sophistication of the pre or post-purchase product offers they provide to individual customers to improve the overall self-service aspect of shopping. Large retail chains such as CVS, Target, and Walgreens will continue to tailor product offers and recommendations to appeal to individual shoppers, but with less emphasis on encouraging them to continue to buy the same products, but more about expanding their horizons to consider other products they hadn’t previously thought of. To enable this kind of personalization, retailers will need to draw from a combination of previous purchasing history, social recommendations and wisdom of the crowd data, demographic information, and predictive analytics.

The Road To Personalization Starts With A Single, Unified Record

While challenging, retailers can make the journey towards delivering a truly personalized shopping experience across all channels much easier by having a single unified record for each individual customer containing both personal profile data and a full purchasing history drawn from multiple touch points including point-of-sale (POS) and e-Commerce.

Retailers using a single cloud solution that tightly integrates e-Commerce, CRM, order management, and inventory and warehouse management will be well placed in the coming year to provide customers with the personalized service consumers expect.

Personalization will boost in-store product

sales and improve customer loyalty.

-Branden Jenkins, NetSuite @NetSuiteRetail

GM of Global Retail, NetSuite

Branden JenkinsPersonalization

http://ctt.ec/dUYt1


Personalization In 2015: The Failure And The Hope In 2015, retailers’ top planned technology expenditure will be to support personalization — yet retailers’ current set of tools doesn’t allow them to deliver on even the basic commerce promises they are making to their customers.

Nearly one third of customers are interested in personalized experiences, according to Gartner Research. However, even with the technology, operations and data understanding now available, few retailers are able to deliver on the high expectations of seamless cross-channel personalization.

Until retailers can connect data across the enterprise, they will be unable to have “one view of the customer” and thusly lose the capacity to understand, target and win at the moment of truth — when profits can be made or lost. Connected and actionable data means joining up customer profiles and purchase history across all channels, understanding the intertwined relationship of marketing, merchandising, inventory and returns, while taking action on opportunities that will create the most profitable and positive customer experiences.

Unfortunately, even when a retailer achieves a 360-degree customer view, they fall short when they fail to understand that true success is actually measured by the customer’s “one view of the retailer;” where a mobile-to-laptop-to-store experience is viewed as one seamless shopping and buying process. Retailers must focus on intelligent commerce and create operational excellence — allowing customers to

browse, shop, buy and collect or accept delivery of their purchase exactly on their terms. The “one view” that matters is the through the eyes of the customer.

Retailers need intelligent solutions that connect inventory, merchandising, shopper demographics, purchase history and order data to facilitate that complex yet valuable level of personalization that shoppers have been waiting for, but just aren’t receiving.

So, how does the retail industry meet demand for the personal touch with interactive specificity in a way that serves the bottom line?

In 2015, the most forward-thinking retailers will use personalization to promote available inventory with the marketing and resulting demand for those specific products. Ultimately, retailers must shift their thinking to serving customer needs better than their competition can or is willing to do. Winning retailers will extend specific and tailored offers to consumers that are supported by the available inventory across all channels. The next era of personalization in 2015 and beyond will marry a shopper’s fundamental yearning for specificity in retail interactions with the retailer’s ability to market available inventory in a way that fits into each shopper’s personal set of preferences and purchase history.

The year ahead will surely show us personalization failures, mismatched offerings and more hauntings of the Ghost Economy of data and inventory distortion

that IHL estimates is costing retailers more than $800 billion worldwide. Yet, this intense focus on personalization also brings with it hope.

Hope that retailers will stop viewing their organizations and their data in siloes. Hope that the early adopters will guide the retail industry to understanding that personalization is not simply a marketing initiative, but an enterprise strategy that includes structuring your organization, your data and your company assets with a focus on living up to the customer’s expectations in all channels, at all times.

Retailers need intelligent solutions to facilitate that

complex yet valuable level of personalization

that shoppers have been waiting for.

- Kevin Sterneckert, OrderDynamics

@OrderDynamics

CMO, OrderDynamics

Kevin SterneckertPersonalization

http://ctt.ec/McaYo


Using Location Awareness To Improve Personalization Today’s retail customer is more empowered than ever. She knows what she’s looking for and she expects to find it fast. Between her phone, tablet and laptop, she can shop anywhere at any time. And yet, she still spends plenty of time in brick-and-mortar stores. According to POPAI’s 2013 Shopper Engagement Study, 76% of final purchase decisions are still made in store. It’s just that now, customers expect more from their in-store shopping experience.

Whether they’re buying online and picking up in-store, trying in-store and purchasing online, or calling customer service for help, they’re looking for a seamless experience across all retail channels. And more and more, they want their interaction with a brand to be entirely personalized. Which is why I’m so excited about 2015. In the coming year, Bluetooth low energy (BLE) beacons will gain momentum, empowering retailers to offer more engaging in-store shopping experiences.

Wi-Fi has already brought exciting advancements to the retail sector. When a smartphone app-enabled shopper connects to a store’s own wireless network, retailers can market to that customer in real-time. They can identify her as she walks through the door and deliver a special discount on the items she’s most interested in. However, with beacons — which are low-cost, low-energy, Bluetooth-enabled transmitters — we take this same concept and add to it the benefit of location awareness within one meter.

Personalization, Please

Most of today’s smartphones have BLE capabilities built right into them, so shoppers are already equipped to take advantage of beacons. As long as they have the store’s app loaded onto their phone, they can receive real-time, location-specific engagements. Consider, for example, a store whose mannequins are equipped with beacons. When a shopper comes within a certain distance of one of these mannequins, she can receive information about what the mannequin is wearing, directions on where to find those pieces in the store and even a discount on those particular items. If she’s recognized as a member of the store’s loyalty program, she can earn special rewards and receive VIP treatment from associates. Retailers can also use beacons to market to customers outside of the store. A beacon-enabled store window can even deliver special offers to a passerby, bringing him into the store.

Gaining Actionable Insight

While customers enjoy more personalization in stores, retailers benefit from a new level of customer insight by tracking behavior in stores — yielding a real return on investment (ROI), as it did for click tracking on the web. Now, stores can easily identify shoppers and link them with their digital activity. Data that previously existed in silos can come together to provide a more comprehensive view of customers. Retailers can learn where shoppers are spending most of their time in the store, and the path taken as they shopped the store — gaining

a better sense of shopping habits, on and offline, and making impactful improvements across all channels.

Beacons stand to transform the in-store shopping experience. And while placing beacons around the store is as easy as installing stick-on air fresheners, the real challenge lies in integrating them into the existing infrastructure. But 2015 will be the year that leading retailers overcome that challenge, designing a shopping experience that meets — and even exceeds — shoppers’ growing expectations.

Bluetooth low energy (BLE) beacons will

gain momentum, empowering retailers

to offer more engaging in-store shopping

experiences.-Nick D’Alessio,

Zebra Technologies @ZebraTechnology

Global Practice Leader, Retail, Zebra Technologies

Nick D’AlessioPersonalization

http://ctt.ec/4S6O1


Mobile Helps Retailers Better Connect With Millennial Associates I have the privilege of working with a diverse group of retailers, from home improvement giants to fast-growing specialty retailers, as well as some of the most successful and respected supermarket chains. And while they have vastly different stores, products and customers, they all share the common challenge of recruiting and retaining quality store associates. That’s why we hold the view that the most important technology trends will continue to be those that have a direct impact on the personnel at the stores, improving recruitment, retention, optimization and engagement levels of everyone that touches a customer.

While the growth of online retailing garners a lot of headlines, the fact remains that the vast majority of retail sales occur in a physical store environment; brick-and-mortar locations that are stocked, staffed, managed and maintained by people. Interestingly, the growth of omnichannel retailing has actually created even greater demands on store personnel, as the number of new, “non-selling” activities such as order fulfillment, are actually increasing. This, in turn, puts even more pressure on retail operations and store management as they strive to create a consistent customer experience, delivered in large part through the behavior and activities of the store associate.

As retailers increase their investment in associate engagement surveys and programs, identifying the specific causal links between associate engagement levels and store performance will become easier and more obvious. Common sense and experience tells us that having happier associates means less turnover and better customer service levels, which leads to

happier and more loyal customers. When the engagement level of your associates can help to reduce recruitment and training costs, and simultaneously drive revenue growth, it’s not surprising to see more and more retailers seeking to manage and influence employee engagement levels.

We think increasing and improving communication with store associates using mobile technology is a great place to start. Today’s retail associates use their smartphones to shop, communicate and manage their lives, so giving them the ability to check their work schedules, request time off or see their payroll information is a simple way to create a sense of connectedness, particularly for those associates who aren’t on the company email system.

One of our grocery clients shared with us that several of their younger store associates actually commented that the company became a lot “cooler” to them when the company gave associates access to their work schedules via a mobile app. Imagine that; a Millennial thinking that their employer is cool. What’s that say about the potential for influencing associate engagement?

In early 2015, we will be introducing new technology to leverage our mobile platforms for even greater levels of two-way communication, collaboration and training for store level associates, all designed to create a more consistent store experience. We believe that technology operating at the intersection of operations and human resources holds great promise for retailer success.

“Having happier associates means less

turnover and better customer service

levels, which leads to happier and more loyal

customers.”- Joe Olson,

Empower Software @Empowersoft

EVP and General Manager of Workforce Management, Empower Software

Joe OlsonWorkforce Management

http://ctt.ec/5GrKd


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2015 Retail TouchPointsf9e7d91e313f8622e557-24a29c251add4cb0f3d45e39c18c202f.r83.cf1.rackcdn.c…2015: The Year Of Business Intelligence To remain competitive and relevant to today’s