Is Technology Just Ahead--Or Is Retailing Behind?

Is Technology Just Ahead--Or Is Retailing Behind?
Tags: 3D Digital Signage, Connectivity, Customer Experience, Digital Signage, Digital Signage Audience Measurement, Display Technology, Online Retailing, POS, Self-Checkout, Signage, Survey Kiosks, Technology
March 1, 2010

Many of the solutions I saw offer exceptional functionality across silos and departments—exactly the location where improvements can be made. The problem may be that the retail organizations lack the infrastructure, governance, or interest in working across their own internal borders. It’s time for retail business design to catch up with technology. Let me know if you’re interested in hearing more on becoming more adaptive. I think it’s time to shake things up.

I went to NRF last month. The quantity and quality of new technologies and ideas was stunning. I asked dozens of sales directors, marketing leaders, and retailers roaming the aisles at the Javitz Center why these obviously helpful and practical solutions weren’t flying off the shelves. The answers I got back most frequently were that “Retailers are very conservative about investing right now,” or “If retailers don’t get exactly what they want, they don’t move [into a new way of doing things],” and “ It [selling to them] just takes a long time.”
Many of the solutions I saw offer exceptional functionality across silos and departments—exactly the location where improvements can be made. The problem may be that the retail organizations lack the infrastructure, governance, or interest in working across their own internal borders. It’s time for retail business design to catch up with technology. Let me know if you’re interested in hearing more on becoming more adaptive. I think it’s time to shake things up.

Reader Comments

Ed Personius

about 26 months ago

Right on! Retailers must become much more assertive and aggressive about strategic changes in their merchandising. My company specializes in Window Video Systems, which allow for video and moving graphics to be displayed directly onto storefront windows, in much large size. Larger, than lcd screens for example. This allows for more messaging and display; so much, that a retailer could conceivably display every item in their inventory. Along with price or promotional message or incentives. There is far more technology available than strategic thinking to put it to use. Retailers seem to be stuck in a rut and very defensive. They must go on the offensive and incorporate newer methods of display, messaging and transacting. The answers are there, but they have to be looking, and they have to have the innovation to use the powerful tools available to them.