As the cogs of 2015 start turning, specific technology projects start rising in importance. To help shed light on where things are headed, retailers Jenny Bullard of Flash Foods, Waycross, Ga., and Scott Hartman of Rutter’s Farm Stores, York, Pa., offered up their lists of top tech themes.
1. Mobile Payment.
This is a potential game changer. The field is littered with providers and types of solutions, including radio-frequency identification (RFID), near-field communications (NFC) and Quick Response (QR) codes. Apple Pay, Google Wallet, Softcard and MCX’s CurrentC are emerging. What retailers prefer vs. what customers prefer will be a big issue. There will certainly be winners and losers all over the field.
2. Mobile Strategy.
Keeping up with the explosion of mobile opportunities—beacon technology, talking cars, mobile apps, social media—will be a retailer’s treadmill, with the pace only getting faster.
3. Data Security.
Payment card industry (PCI) and Europay MasterCard Visa (EMV) compliance just gets more and more complicated, especially with EMV deadlines looming for in-store point-of-sale (POS) this October and changes to PCI standards adding 100 more controls. With breaches being announced seemingly on a daily basis, the rules and regulations meant to help retailers stay secure become more in-depth and costly.
4. Market-Basket Analysis.
Retailers today have a slew of data regarding customer activities in their stores, and the amount is growing at a rapid rate. The retailer challenge is how to understand the data and ultimately make more money because of it. In the past, the supplier community was ill-equipped to support data mining. Today, the smarter consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies have finally formed internal groups to work directly with retailers to help them understand the customer data.
5. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity.
These days, stores rely heavily on technology to transact business. Redundancy is a must for all hardware, software and communication connections to business partners that process credit, ATM transactions, loyalty and digital exchanges. Staying on top of disaster recovery and making sure it meets store needs is an ongoing process.
6. Rewards Programs.
While a double-edged sword for retailers, rewards programs continue to pop up as customers seek value during their store visit. With technology-based rewards programs, retailers can tailor incentives to select customer groups.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.