1. Past investments in digital strategies are poised to pay
big dividends in the coming year
RETAIL
TECHNOLOGY
2016’s
TOP 5
trends
Retailers have spent the better part of the last
decade on their heels, reacting to profound
changes throughout all sectors of the industry.
Rapidly advancing technology has reshaped
consumer behavior and expectations, providing an
opening for fast-moving, innovative competitors to
enter the market.
2016 marks a turning point for retailers that have
made consistent investments in digital strategies
for marketing, operations, supply chain and other
critical business areas. These investments, coupled
with the continuing evolution of technology, will
allow retailers to make important strides toward
supply chain transformation, more data-driven
decision making and the ultimate goal of an
omnichannel consumer experience.

2. 2PLATFORM STRATEGY ACHIEVES
CROSS-CHANNEL INTEGRATION
In 2015, retailers were focused on either defining or evolving
their digital strategy. For many, the focus was on digital branding
through traditional IT solutions such as email engagement, web
content promotions, social media sites and the development or
enhancement of their mobile applications.
This has yielded many benefits and established a core
capability to drive a digital strategy and consumer adoption.
Still, this approach results in the need to take different
approaches to audience targeting based on the consumer
end-point and technology delivery channel, resulting in isolated
experiences and more effort.
In 2016, efforts will focus on merging these experiences into a
single digital channel where the consumer will experience the
brand instead of a brand within a channel. This will help retailers
reach critical mass through digital to achieve cross-channel
integration, coming many steps closer to meeting the promise of
omnichannel engagement.
This is a retail revolution
in the making and it
is enabled by a digital
platform strategy that
allows retailers to co-create
value across channels,
partners and potentially
other industries or even
competitors. 30 of the top
global brands are platform
driven enterprises, yet
many of them started as
platform companies with
a head start on digital
engagement channels.
BOTTOM LINE:
Fueled by secure networks,
cloud enablement, agile
development, social
engagement and mobile
empowerment, many
retailers will be looking to
merge their business and
digital strategies with a
platform strategy to build an
ecosystem of value for their
brand through real-time
engagement with buyers,
sellers and a multitude of
third party players.
1
ANALYTICS YIELD MORE
ACTIONABLE BUSINESS
INTELLIGENCE
In 2015, retail digital marketing was focused on CRM analytics
to drive segmentation learning of consumer behavior, offering
decisions and promotional value to enable personalization across
business channels.
The digital marketing team’s skill set has grown from this
experience, expanding into what were formerly considered IT
functions including data driven analysis. However, the team will
still look to IT for enabling technology to optimize and enhance
the outcomes.
In 2016, more investment will be made to transform analytical
correlation into human actionable intelligence to provide
improved and agile business decision information.
Retail businesses will be able to gather an ever increasing and
diverse amount of data relevant to their business, thanks to an
explosion of readily available infrastructure for data capture
and analytics. The solutions that take advantage of this new
opportunity, delivered as
a Service through secure
cloud platforms, will come
with a lower cost of entry
yet offer higher availability
and greater flexibility
of storage, network and
platform options.
BOTTOM LINE:
Analytics platforms can be
made readily available in
minutes instead of hours,
days or even weeks in
some cases. Retailers who
embrace this new model
will be the most likely
to capture the interest
of data analytics and
engineering professionals
and graduates required to
transform the business into
data driven powerhouse
capable of value-based
decisions and automation.
(See IoT Automation
below)
3MOBILE CONSUMERS REORDER
DIGITAL INVESTMENT PRIORITIES
In 2015, retailers invested in traditional digital content delivery for
desktop and laptop users, as well as building functionality for mobile and
tablet form factors to facilitate their omnichannel engagement strategy.
This brought choice to the consumer and assurance to the brand that
any touch-point would be a channel for their consumer base. While
this is an inclusive strategy, digital investment is hindered by the
cost to maintain and engage across so many devices and arrests the
ability to transform the way in which the brand is experienced.
In 2016, retailers will focus on mobile first. The exponential explosion in
ownership and use of mobile devices is creating a constantly connected
and informed consumer. Meeting their needs will require a change in
digital investment distribution to mobile capabilities and engagement.
This year, over 30% of all commerce will be conducted on mobile
devices and over 80% of consumers will use some form of mobile
device and/or mobile application to enhance their experience
and drive purchasing decisions. Retailers will increase their focus
on mobile phone, tablets and other devices such as wearables to
capture and retain brand loyalty.
BOTTOM LINE
This means investments in the planning and designing for mobile
form factors to create a unique brand experience purpose-built for
mobile, as opposed to websites optimized for viewing on a mobile
device. The main goal of the mobile first approach is to deliver
convenience, product/service visibility and a seamless experience
to the consumer, including relevant third party integration, social
integration and most importantly personalization.

3. 4
SUPPLY CHAIN
BECOMES
CONSUMER-DRIVEN
In 2015, supply chain was critical to the
omnichannel strategy, to give retailers
flexibility in order management and
fulfillment to minimize the time and cost of
product delivery.
While the strategy, development and
implementation of these efficiencies are
still under way, the continuing evolution of
consumer demand and market disruption
will require retailers to push forward faster.
In 2016, the major drivers are transforming
the supply chain into a cohesive consumer
driven model focusing on flexibility,
visibility and choice of fulfillment options
regardless of touch point. In essence,
the consumer becomes a brand unto
themselves, combining their distinctive
preferences to form a personal relationship
between their brand and that of the
retailer. This requires a new level of
engagement with the consumer to
create value for them not only within the
commerce transaction but also within the
supply chain.
BOTTOM LINE:
The benefits to the consumer are obvious.
They are able to see what, where, how and
why the product/service is obtained and
delivered and able to establish preferences
for each step in the process. The value
to the retailer is in the segmentation
by consumer to improve brand loyalty
through optimized assortment, direct
marketing and stock availability while
engaging in a flexible fulfillment model
that reduces their costs of delivery,
overstock and waste.
5
IOT AUTOMATION INFILTRATES RETAIL
In 2015, IoT was the new buzzword (or, more accurately, “buzz-acronym”) in retail yet
many were still struggling with how to best invest and use this emerging concept driven
out of the projection of over 9 billion connected devices by the end of 2018.
Connecting smart devices to networks, including the internet, is turning device-centric
computing into an ecosystem of interconnected, decision-making engines that can
improve the efficiency of automation and spur the advancement of self-healing systems.
In retail, the possibilities are endless. However, a lack of industry standards has made
it difficult to determine where to start and what technology stack to select for future
growth. To date, this has resulted in limited use of IoT capability across retail.
In 2016, the rapid inclusion of IoT capabilities in consumer technologies such as kitchen
appliances, automobiles, lighting, home security and home media devices will push
retailers and influence consumer behaviors and expectations by overcoming present
barriers and questions surrounding IoT technologies. The consumerization of IoT will
drive new demands for connected devices in retail that will engage the consumer in new
and more intimate ways. This, in turn, will drive greater volumes of data which willimprove
the precision and value of analytical decision making.
BOTTOM LINE
Retailers will be able to use IoT to more accurately collect, analyze and measure success
but most importantly automate many functions that will allow the business to focus on
planning, marketing and targeting consumers with richer experiences and disruptive
loyalty models.
Some key IoT technologies in play today for retail to consider are wearables, connected
automobiles, augmented reality and beacons. In the end, the goal is connected
everything but most important is using IoT to connect the brand with the consumer.
ACHIEVING THE UPPER HAND
Challenges remain for retailers in key areas of the business, and the threat of new
competitors and disruptive forces remains. However, it’s clear that many retailers
have responded effectively to these challenges and are benefitting from the
strategies and investments they’ve made and the new skills they’ve developed over
the last few years.
Looking ahead, the continuing maturation of foundational technologies, the
expansion of contextual data and the growing savviness in the use of retail
analytics will allow these companies to make rapid and major strides toward their
most important digital objectives and transformation goals this year.
2016, it seems, is likely to be the year retailers become the disruptors instead of
the disruptees.
CONTACT US
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globe adapt to the changing market or talk about your business
optimization strategy.
Learn more at: CSC.com/retail