RSR Research's latest report, "The 21st Century Store: The Search for Relevance" finds that as stores fight to become more than just a showroom for online merchants, retailers are responding by stabilizing in-store payroll, adding technology touch points for employees and adding mobile technology touch points to empower store managers.
Unfortunately, their progress is moving quite slowly. These findings are based on a survey of 86 qualified retailers in the spring of 2011. The report is sponsored by HP, Intel and NCR, with supporting sponsorship from Red Prairie and Salesforce.com.
"Retailers' perceived value of in-store technologies have shifted significantly in the past year," said Paula Rosenblum, managing partner at RSR Research and co-author of the report. "While 'bread and butter' applications like modern POS hardware and software, in-store rewards and coupons remain important, new trends have emerged. Retailers now see a lot of potential value in cross-channel initiatives that support the store, and also in delivering information to both company- and customer-owned phones and PDAs."
The report contains analysis of the business drivers, opportunities and organizational constraints surrounding store initiatives, as well as recommendations for creating a more relevant and interesting in-store shopping experience.
