Fail Fast, Fail Cheap

By Erin Harris, editor-in-chief, Innovative Retail Technologies

There are three indisputable facts about the Retail industry:

• The retail industry has changed more in the past 5 years than it has in the history of retailing.
• Retailers are awash in data. The typical retailer captures product, profitability, store, and transaction data in addition to customer data and operating data. And all this data is delivered non-stop by in-store devices.  
• Omni-channel retailing (i.e. a seamless integration between online and offline channels) and the customer experience shape the way retailers do business.

As a result of the three facts about the industry, retailers are shifting from business-as-usual (from the daily and common and keeping the lights on) to embracing new technologies and philosophies to help attract and retain loyal customers. To remain ahead of the curve or to simply keep pace with the competition, retailers need to constantly enhance the way they run their business.

Technology has played and will continue to play a vital role in how retailers meet customer expectations. But innovative technologies and processes are what drive the retailer to move ahead of the competition.  They also level the playing field between SMRs and large retailers in certain areas and can create competitive advantages for smaller retailers when done right.  Walk the show floors at any retail trade show, and most solutions providers are demonstrating their innovative technologies that promise to propel the retailers’ business forward.

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