Loss Prevention Research Council Weekly Series - Episode 176 - Top Retail Technologies 2024 and Fun Valentine Facts
With Dr. Read Hayes, Tony D'Onofrio, and Tom Meehan
Store Experience Study 2024: The Heart of Retail Evolves
https://risnews.com/store-experience-study-2024?email-confirmed=1707782540261
Let me start this week with the new 2024 Store Experience Study just published by RIS News.
The coming year appears bright with possibilities for the retail industry. Survey respondents have an optimistic outlook going into 2024. Overall store counts are up, IT spend is up, and NRF’s forecasted sales growth of 4-6% for 2023 lands right in the wheelhouse of the retailers who responded to our survey.
Retail sales in 2022 ended on a positive note, gaining 7.9% over 2021 (e-commerce sales were up 22.1%), according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Retail sales for 2023 are up 5.1% (through the third quarter). However, none of those numbers account for inflation. Retailers are expecting an average of 4.0% sales growth for 2023, which is down from last year. The 2024 forecast is for a more optimistic 4.9% growth.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is making its presence felt in a big way, and top priorities for retailers for 2024 look much like those in years gone by.
Forecasted sales growth by channel in 2024 is 5.1% for physical stores and 7.1% for e-commerce.
By customer journey, in terms of total revenue, 72% takes places in physical stores, 12% is from buy online or delivery from warehouse / DC, 5% is from buy online pick up in store, 6% is local store delivery, 3% is ship from store and 3% is other. In other words, physical stores still rule the shopping journey.
IT spend at the enterprise level is expected to rise 4.9% and for stores at 4.3%.
The top five technology priorities for retailers in 2024 are personalize the shopping experience, upgrade customer relationship management and loyalty systems, empowering store associates, inventory visibility, and refresh point of sale infrastructure.
The top 5 emerging technology priorities for 2024 are voice / walkie-talkie in stores and parking lots, 5G tech at store level, RFID, second location for digital orders instore, and microservices.
The top 5 areas where retailers are implementing artificial intelligence are pricing and promotions, order fulfillment, merchandising and allocation, sales and marketing, and business intelligence and analytics. Loss prevention in terms of artificial intelligence focus ranks number 7.
Study: Peak holiday online returns growth outpaced sales growth
https://chainstoreage.com/study-peak-holiday-online-returns-growth-outpaced-sales-growth
Switching topics, let me focus on new data just published on cyber shopping week which are the 5 days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday.
As Chain Store Age reported, for 2023, the rate of returns for Cyber Week purchases reached a surprisingly fast pace.
Sales that week reached reached $38 billion, up 7.8% from 2022, driven primarily by record spending on Thanksgiving and Black Friday. But as sales increased, so did returns. Compared to 2022, the data indicates that returns were up 15% for Cyber Week 2023, nearly doubling the pace of recorded sales growth.
Three in four returns in 2023 were for the fashion and accessories industry.
Additional research found that while 89% of retailers have changed their returns policies in the past 12 months to make them more expensive for consumers, or otherwise tightening the restrictions around returns, more than half (59%) experienced an increase in the rate of returns over that same period.
The results indicate that 63% of retailers face significant challenges with the management of returns as customers increasingly turn to online shopping options.
Retail returns in other words are still a big problem seeking more resolutions, especially for apparel and accessories.
17 Little Known Facts About Valentine that will surprise you
https://www.countryliving.com/life/entertainment/a35229444/valentines-day-facts/
Finally, as this is Valentine’s Day Week, let me end this week with some fun facts about this holiday as reported by countryliving.com.
- A Roman fertility festival was the precursor to Valentine’s Day - It may be difficult to believe given how innocuous the holiday is nowadays, but the roots of Valentine's Day stem from a bloody pagan fertility festival dating back to 6th century B.C. Every year, between February 13 and 15, Romans celebrated Lupercalia by sacrificing animals and slapping women with their hides, which was believed to make them more fertile.
- There is more than one St Valentine for which the holiday is named - History tells us that Pope Gelasius I outlawed Lupercalia at the end of the 5th century and instituted St. Valentine's Day on February 14. But who was the holiday's patron saint? Most sources point to one of two men of the same name: a third-century Roman priest who defied (and was martyred by) Claudius II Gothicus, or another priest of the same time period but who hailed from a town about 60 miles away in what is modern-day Terni, Italy (he was also martyred by Claudius II). To further muddy the waters, some contend these two Valentines were the same person, while the Catholic Education Resource Centerpoints to early martyrologies for three Valentines, all sharing a feast day on February 14.
- Valentine’s Day was not romantic until the middle ages - And we have birds and Chaucer to thank. In medieval times, it was common wisdom that birds began mating in mid-February, specifically on the 14th, aka St. Valentine's Day. According to The Folklore Society, people in those days tended to refer to dates by the saint designated on that day by the Church's calendar (there were no printed calendars and names were easier to remember than numbers). Through this happenstance, Valentine's Day became associated with making like a bird and pairing off. This notion is the theme of one of the earliest Valentine's Day poems associating the day with romantic love and marriage, “Parliament of Fowls,” penned by Chaucer in 1381
- Cupid was a Greek God - that cute little chubby baby with the bow and arrow we associate with Valentine's Day started out way back in 700 B.C. as the Greeks' handsome, virile god, Eros. Able to make mortals fall in love (or hate) with his magical arrows, he was remade into Cupid by the Romans around 4th century BCE. But, as comreports, it wasn't until the turn of the 19th century that Cupid became the face of Valentine's Day for his "love-creating abilities."
- The Victorians began the traditions of giving Roses for Valentine’s Day - Red roses as a symbol of romance dates back to ancient Rome—it was the favorite posy of Venus, the Roman goddess of love (and Cupid's mom). But it wasn't until the the Victorian era that men really began giving the flower to women they were wooing.
- Valentine’s Day is Expensive - At least if you go by statistics released by the National Retail Federation, which found that Americans spent more than $23.9 billion (about 175 smackers per consumer) on the holiday in 2022. Much of that money goes toward jewelry (an estimated $6.2 billion!) and that includes a whole lot of diamond rings. As many as six millioncouples get engaged on Valentine's Day.
This last one is great news for retail. Hope you all had a great Valentine’s Day. And with that fun fact filled news, let me now turn it over to Tom.
