2013 Hot Topic Survey

Transcription

1 2013 Hot Topic Survey Executive Summary This analysis of the survey is primarily based on the 19 retailers who attended the conference and answered the survey. The results are heavily skewed toward grocery IT people and this is too small a sample to be of more use than just giving us more ideas to appeal to IT technology attendees. These respondents are clearly focused on what they are up against right now which are mobile and payments. They have a preference for technology and not for business issues or the consumer. The top reasons to love IRUG are networking, keeping up with what s happening and hearing where things are going. The technicians did not care for consumer related topics or the motivational speaker. The top topics as a reason to attend are mobile, mobile payments, technology futures and strategy. There was no clear consensus on the location of the 2014 conference with Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta and Orlando coming out on top. Of the 23 solution vendors, five had listed themselves as a retailer also. Of these 23, 13 attended the conference. The differences in the responses from the Associates were as expected. They were most interested in Networking and latest technology trends. They also listed Mobile as the biggest technology topic their company will be embracing. I included their location preferences in the data below. The most important topics for the people who did not attend were; the future of Consumer technologies, How to Make Social Media Marketing Increase Profits, CRM, Store technology, emerging trends in retail, Couponing, and of course mobility. These people tended to be more management/executive. The did not attend group consisted of 16 retailers and 10 Associates. It appeared that about 10% of respondents did not correctly read the question before answering. These were not the IT folks. Who answered the Survey 55 people answered the survey. Of these 35 listed themselves as retailers. Of those who said they were retailers, 16 said they did not attend the conference. 19 answered about attending the conference. Type of the 35 Retailers responding Grocery 18 Apparel 5 Specialty 4 Sporting Goods 3 Hospitality 2 Chain Drug 1 Big Box 1 Depart Store 1

2 Two grocery and two apparel retailers listed themselves as retailers and also listed themselves as Associates. I did not analyze the IP addresses to see if they were retailers who said they wer also vendors or the other way around. They did: 2 marks for POS Software Associates 2 marks for POS Sft/Hdw Solutions 1 mark for Multiple Categories 2 marks for Analyst 2 marks for Not Specified Of the 19 retail respondents who attended the may 2012 Conference: Grocery 12 Apparel 1 Specialty 1 Sporting Goods 1 Hospitality 1 Chain Drug 1 Big Box 1 Depart Store 1 One also marked Multiple Categories One also marked Educational 3. Title IT Associate Level 7 Manager Level Executive 5 VP Level Executive 4 Other Associate Level 2 Director Level Executive 1 C level Executive 0 4. What is your functional area of your retail operation? Information Technology 16 Store Operations 3 Corporate Executive 1 Sales and Marketing 0 Merchandising 0 Financial 0 How they answered 5. The reasons we attend the IRUG annual conference. Reason Positive Neutral Negative The latest trends in retail technology Networking opportunities Retail education, best practices, and sharing The latest hardware developments and futures Hands on, informative, and non-sales Exhibit Hall Customer and shopping trends and directions Conference venue and location One skipped the question

3 6. Tell us what you liked MOST about the 2012 conference in Las Vegas Networking with retail peers, solution developers & vendors 9 Emerging trends & directions in retail technology 9 Hands on, informative, non-sales Exhibit Hall 9 Elective sessions 8 Retail education, best practices, and sharing experiences 6 Super sessions 5 Latest hardware & software developments and futures 5 Motivational speaker 4 Conference venue and location 3 Customer and shopping trends and directions 2 Main tent sessions 2 Two did not respond to this question 7. Tell us what you liked the LEAST about the 2012 conference or where it didn't meet expectations. Customer and shopping trends and directions 40.0% 6 Motivational speaker 20.0% 3 Conference venue and location 13.3% 2 Networking with retail peers, solution developers & vendors 6.7% 1 Elective sessions 6.7% 1 Super sessions 6.7% 1 Hands on, informative, non-sales Exhibit Hall 6.7% 1 Latest hardware & software developments and futures 6.7% 1 Emerging trends & directions in retail technology 0.0% 0 Retail education, best practices, and sharing experiences 0.0% 0 Main tent sessions 0.0% 0 Four did not respond to this question 8. If you did not attend the 2012 conference in Las Vegas, please tell us why Gather information for planning for my company N/A 9. Besides EMV, what is the biggest technology topic that your company will be embracing over the next 12 to 24 months that IRUG should use as our focus for our next conference? payments and mobile application development Payments Shopping solutions; New trends in payments not specifically EMV; Updates on ewic., mobile payments e-wallet, paypal, click to card, wic ebt status The front end of our stores is the most expensive department to run both from a personnel and hardware/software perspective. How do you radically change your front end so that you can reduce your expenses? Multi channel integration POS Application

4 10. In what city/state would you like to see an upcoming IRUG conference held? City Retailer Associate Non-attendees Total Chicago Atlanta New Orleans 2 2 Atlantic city 1 1 Denver Hawaii 1 1 Minneapolis New York City Orlando FL San Antonio San Diego 1 1 San Francisco St Louis 1 1 East Coast 1 1 A beach in Florida 1 1 Charlotte 1 1 Raleigh 1 1 Las Vegas Charleston, SC 1 1 Pinehurst, NC 1 1 Birmingham 1 1 Memphis 1 1 Miami 1 1 Nashville 1 1 Philadelphia 1 1 Scottdale, AZ 1 1 The Villages, FL 1 1 Washington DC, 1 1 The Topic Portion of the Survey 11. The Re-emerging Customer Software to improve customer satisfaction 7 Coupon processing & fraud prevention 7 Emerging trends in Consumer technology 7 Traceability, GS1 Stacked barcode 7 Future of Consumer Technologies 7 Promotion tracking and connection to CRM 4 Trends in customer service 3 Consumer behavior trends 2 Five did not answer the question 12. The Changing Customer Interface Mobile point of sale / line busting 10 Point of Sale from the customer POV 7 Self checkout from the customer POV 6 Kiosks from the customer POV 4 Six did not answer the question

5 13. Social Networking / the Connected Customer How to Make Social Media Marketing Increase Profits. 6 Social networking integration 4 Getting the most out of social Networking 4 Why Social Networking 2 Ten did not answer 14. Mobility Mobile payments 13 Mobile technology trends & directions 10 How will Consumer mobility reshape the retail industry 9 Multichannel IT Integration 9 The shift to the mobile mindset 8 Mobility, The Benefits and Pitfalls 8 Smartphones, the link to the customer 7 BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) 7 Creating retail apps for smartphones 3 Four did not answer 15. Infrastructure / Innovation in Technology Reducing technology costs within the enterprise 7 Cloud computing services 6 Multichannel software tools 6 Virtualization 5 Operating environments for stores, pros and cons 4 SaaS (software as a service) 3 Cyber Security 3 Managing vendor maintenance 2 Six did not answer 16. Applications Predictive modeling to get the most ROI 7 Advanced analytics, understanding the business 5 Customer relationship management 4 Loss prevention 3 Fresh automation 3 RFID item level tracking 3 Intelligent safe integration and money management 2 Food safety and recall management 2 Supplier relationship management 1 Four did not answer 17. Retail Hardware / Environment / Infrastructure Toshiba retail strategy 10 Store technology 10 Emerging trends in retail technology 9 Tokenization 6 Unified communications 3 Store Architecture for the Small Store 3 Reduced Space Symbology (RSS) 3

6 18. Business Issues Retail Trends and Directions: a 5 Year Outlook. 7 Building strategies for the future 7 IT Governance, best practices 6 Couponing 6 Making the most of your IRUG membership 5 Government Relations / governance 5 Making the most of Industry Association memberships 4 Managing ROI 4 WIC EBT compliance 4 Retail economy vs. the real economy 4 Customer data privacy and security 4 Cross Channel 4 Big Box competition 2 Future of CRM technologies 2 Managing risk 1 Having the right fit and color at the right time. 1 Product country of origin management 1 Filling the whitespace between apps 1 Counterfeiting 1 Marketing to a depressed Consumer 0 Enterprise Dealing with the recession and recovery 0 Economic forecast 0 Body scanning 0 Digital textile printing 0 5 did not answer 19. Payments Mobile Wallet Payments 14 Mobile security 13 Chip and Pin Technology - EMV 13 Contactless payments 13 End to End Encryption 9 PCI compliance 8 Internet payments 7 Payment companies - terms and conditions 4 Four did not answer 20. What three topics would you add to the survey? Open Source in Retail 1) Any regulatory or best practices besides EMV that retails will have to address in the next 3 to 5 years. 2) There are a lot of articles regarding self checkout recently. Many retailers are removing them, Walmart is adding them back. Provide an objective assessment and education of the current condition and why retailers should or should not be embrasing them. 3) How does one earn the title of CTO - Chief Tweeter Officer? Best way to report up to vp management. Health status reporting. Trending summaries. Interaction between POS and the rest of the company infrastructure

7 21. Pick three topics you would suggest for Super Sessions at the 2013 IRUG conference. Payment systems POS to Mobile Wallet and everything between 14 Mobile retailing, marketing, the mobile customer, payments, promotions 10 Developing mobile apps for your stores 6 Supporting the mobile, highly technical customer of the 21Centery 5 How Tokenization eases PCI DSS compliance and increases security 5 Specialty Stores the mobile customer, technology trends and directions and architectures 4 Fresh automation, food safety and recall management, and GS1 2