80% of Retailers think IoT will "drastically" change their business
A recent survey by Retail Systems Research has found that 80% of retailers surveyed said the IoT would drastically change the way they do business and have a dramatic impact on consumer products. However, 34% of retailers said they had no idea how the IoT would impact their operations.
by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, August 20, 2015

Many retailers see the promise of the Internet of Things as learning more about shopping behaviors and quickly meeting consumer demand.

The least of the problems it would solve are dealing with equipment outages and inventory visibility, based on a new study.

The study, the Internet of Things in Retail: Great Expectations by Retail Systems Research (RSR), comprised a survey of 138 retailers, 47% with revenue in excess of $1 billion.

Most (80%) say the Internet of Things will drastically change the way companies do business in the next three years and 80% say it will have a dramatic impact on consumer products.

On the other side, about a third (34%) of retailers say their company has no idea how the IoT will impact their own operations.

Retailers see a host of opportunities in the Internet of Things, ranging from increasing the accuracy of inventory to better understanding how their internal processes work. Here are the top opportunities retailers see for IoT:

49% -- Maintaining inventory accuracy in stores

43% -- Closer engagement with consumers through their internet-connected devices (watches, phones, etc.)

40% -- Maintaining system-wide inventory visibility

40% -- New services offered to consumers through monitoring their internet-connected devices

31% -- Gain a deeper understand of how internal processes are actually performed

28% -- Monitoring and predictive maintenance of equipment and property

20% -- Gaining more granular and real-time insight into state of business

17% -- Automating responses to real-time events

Retailers also see the value in the speed of responding to IoT data to improve customer engagement, with almost half (47%) recognizing high value in real-time alerts to changing conditions

One of the more interesting insights in the study is in where retailers see the most benefits from IoT by department. Here are the departments that retailers say can benefit most from IoT:

55% -- Customer service and support

45% -- Inventory management

41% -- Customer engagement in their home

41% -- Store operations

36% -- Customer engagement in stores

30% -- Customer acquisition

30% -- Marketing communication

16% -- Transportation and logistics

12% -- Maintenance and repair operations

For operational challenges that retailers see IoT as solving, visibility into customer shopping behavior and inventory accuracy top the list. Here are the challenges retailers see IoT solving:

48% -- Visibility into customers’ physical shopping behaviors

48% -- Inventory accuracy

44% -- Speed of fulfilment to meet consumer demand

41% -- Connecting consumers’ online and offline activities

39% -- Visibility into customers’ digital shopping behaviors

34% -- Inventory availability for omni-channel demand

29% -- Inventory visibility

16% -- Equipment outages and repair

At least many retailers appear to see the potential of the IoT as relating to customer-facing issues. And that could be a very good thing for customers.