Top Retail Tech Trends to Watch in 2019

Many retail companies are now looking for IoT Development Company as alongwith AI, AR-VR, Blockchain, Big Data Analytics - IoT has become a major tech trend for retail sector in 2019. 2018 was an exciting year for retail sector as the demand in the market was strong, more jobs were created and no major store closings as was happening few years ago. Traditional malls also worked well while new live-play-work-shop experimental shopping concept also took off and also online shopping becoming even bigger. Also the distribution channels for products and marketing channels for brand messaging and product information are converging very fast. Retailers are using new and innovative ways to expand sales across all channels. Cyber security and privacy becoming more significant and it is for all sectors, not just retail. As Data breaches are happening more hence the customer are demanding more security from retailers while expecting more transparency and honesty from the brands. Businesses now finding it difficult to win the customer loyalty. Retails giants like Amazon and Walmart are using supply chain to optimize customer experience and provide shopping alongwith entertainment to attract more customers. This is prompting other retailers to go for new strategies to win more customers. rnThe is also the good time for data and analytics and we are going through the era of artificial intelligence, machine learning and many companies are giving priority to intelligent automation to use data to drive decisions and make processes more efficient. Retailers are also using automation to improve business functions like customer service, inventory management and delivery. It looks like 2019 will be an eventful year and the below major trends will be in focus in this year. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Do you want to know why Artificial Intelligence Companies are in great demand? It is because more retailers are now embracing AI and changing their business methods. Retailers have now access to new sources of data and are looking for more cutting edge technologies and embedded applications. But for implementing AI in their organization, retailers have to overcome many challenges. AI is defined as smart machines that extend human capabilities by sensing, understanding, learning and predicting, allowing organizations to achieve much more than they are doing right now. Customers are also now regularly using AI driven technology features like digital voice assistants. There are many benefits in interacting with AI based computer application rather than with human advisors. They are available all the time, have no bias, faster to engage and provide amazing service without tiring and any wait time and also they communicate more politely. rnAI is now becoming central to understand the needs and desires of different type of customers, personalizing services and driving more demand. From a retail customer perspective, AI enables a curated shopping experience. AI can use the data of customers and their preferences and behavior to provide highly personalized shopping experience to the visitors of an e-commerce website. Hence data and analytics alongwith AI are becoming an investment priority for the retailers. Therefore, AI will be in the fore front with major retail technologies in 2019. Internet of Things Retailers are also contacting many Mobile App Development Services as they want to build IoT mobile apps so that they can control devices through mobile apps. Right now there are over 11 billion connected products like home speakers, TVs, entertainment systems and cars which are connected to the internet by which retailers can collect huge amount of data and actionable deep insights about customer’s product usage, their behavior and preferences. Retailers can use this for targeted marketing and personalized offering for customers in all of the phases of the buying journey. Actually The Internet of Things makes shopping cheaper, faster and trouble free. Reports say that customers will possess over twice as many smart devices in 2020 hence it looks very clear that IoT will be mainstream technology in 2019. Cyber Security The digital world is changing constantly and now it is giving high priority to security. The rapid expansion of emerging technologies which provide on-demand services is adding the security risks in the retailer’s businesses. With cloud computing and mobility, almost 50% of most organization’s IT landscape exists outside the control of their CIOs. Rapid business expansion means that it will not be easy for the retail organizations to identify who is responsible for a particular process. Hence the retailers will need to embrace more technology to minimize the risks and effect of some cyber-attacks. That’s why retail businesses and security leaders are giving more focus on devising security strategy to strengthen business and building brand trust. As we are seeing now more open networks with consumer owned devises which can be attacked in a different mode than closed networks can be. There are more digital targets like personal shopping data, analytics data, payment information and loyalty data. This data is highly valuable but it is also at higher risk hence cyber security will be in focus in 2019. Big Data Analytics Right now less than 25% of the retailers are using some sort of data analytics within their organization. The big retailers have the resources but the smaller retailers don’t have enough budget, focus and people to make much use of reporting and analysis. Till now even the big retailers were largely doing traditional reporting and analytics but now they are employing more data-driven business capabilities. Now the models for how to best deploy analytics capabilities, staff analytics resources and building data platforms to support both are evolving fast. Year 2019 will see more investments in Big Data Analytics by the retailer firms as they will look for more harmonizing methods for data capture, management and transformation, and business intelligence alongwith customer segmentation and forecasting and optimization and also for creating memorable customer experience by using personalization and digital engagement. Blockchain We have been hearing the blockchain buzz for quite some time now but till now it had little effect in retail. Blockchain technology will continue to evolve in 2019 and there will be rapid development around the technologies like Bitcoin, blockchain, distributed ledgers, cryptocurrencies etc. These will be more prevalent in retail very soon. One of the reasons why Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are getting such buzz is because they offer an opportunity to bypass expensive forms of payments for something much cheaper with the help of cryptocurrencies. So there is a potential of lot of demand for cryptocurrencies from a customer perspective. Right now it is not easy to set up a digital wallet, gain access to a cryptocurrency exchange, and start buying up coins. Also the security of some of these cryptocurrency market is not assured. But as we proceed in 2019, all of these issues will be sorted out and blockchain will become one of the most popular technologies to be implemented in retail sector. Blockchain have major benefits in retail as we see in product tracking and tracing, detecting counterfeit goods, providing product warranties and in trade promotion management. Augmented Reality Augmented Reality is also becoming an important tool that’s being increasingly used by retail stores. Augmented Reality or AR is expected to become even more sophisticated in 2019 with Apple and Google moving AR into their respective iOS and Android mobile operating systems. Therefore, the adoption and implementation of AR technology will definitely see an increase. As AR technology is maturing, more retailers will explore ways to use it. For example, retailers have produced demos of AR in the changing room to great effect. Recently, you must have heard of IKEA which is one of the most successful case studies of AR app development. Its app uses Apple’s ARKit to preview how different IKEA products would look in actual and real environment without any need to go there. Its working is very simple as you just have to scan the floor using iPhone and select the product that you would like to place. Hence AR will be in more limelight as we go ahead in 2019. Conclusion We have just discussed the major retail tech trends which will rule in 2019. If you talk about successful retailers, they are already investing in adaptation of latest cutting edge technologies. They are continuously creating unparalleled and immersive customer centric experience in store, enabling brick and mortar to complete with the convenience and variety of online shopping. They are trying hard to use the strengths of each to create the best options of both the worlds. With the implementation of more such tech trends in retail, it will be a boon time for the customers which will now get more advanced and feature full products at much more affordable rates.