VISIONARY / TECHNOLOGY / LEADERSHIP

Top 25 Retail Website / Global Retail Influencer

 
 

Loss Prevention Research Council Weekly Series - Episode 52 - The Happiest Countries and the 2021 Retail Technology Study

With Dr. Read Hayes, Tony D'Onofrio, and Tom Meehan

Loss Prevention Research Council Weekly Series - Episode 52 - The Happiest Countries and the 2021 Retail Technology Study
Listen

Good news on consumer confidence in the United States according to Chain Store Age. As they said it,

Consumer confidence jumps to highest level in a year

https://chainstoreage.com/consumer-confidence-jumps-highest-level-year

The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index rose in March to its highest reading in a year, after a modest increase in February. The Index now stands at 109.7, up from 90.4 in February. The percentage of consumers claiming business conditions are “good” increased from 16.1% to 18.5%, while the proportion claiming business conditions are “bad” fell from 39.7% to 30.5%. The percentage of consumers expecting business conditions will improve over the next six months rose from 30.7% to 40.8%. The proportion expecting business conditions will worsen declined from 17.7% to 11.0%.

On another piece of good news, the latest list of the 2021 World Happiness report is out.

https://worldhappiness.report/blog/in-a-lamentable-year-finland-again-is-the-happiest-country-in-the-world/

The top 10 countries that were happiest in 2021 are

  1. Finland 🇫🇮
  2. Iceland 🇮🇸
  3. Denmark 🇩🇰
  4. Switzerland 🇨🇭
  5. Netherlands 🇳🇱
  6. Sweden 🇸🇪
  7. Germany 🇩🇪
  8. Norway 🇳🇴
  9. New Zealand 🇳🇿
  10. Austria 🇦🇹

The UK is ranked 17 and USA is ranked 19.

As one would expect with lockdowns and physical distancing, the pandemic had a significant effect on workforce well-being. Falling unemployed during the pandemic is associated with a 12% drop in life satisfaction. The report also points towards a ‘hybrid’ future of work, that strikes a balance between office life and working from home to maintain social connections while ensuring flexibility for workers, both of which turn out to be key drivers of workplace well-being.”

The happy data is from the World Happiness Report.

From RIS News, here is a summary of the 31th Annual Retail Technology Study which they titled “Building the Future Proof Enterprise.”

https://risnews.com/retail-tech-study-2021

The survey takers describe the current state of retail as “changing,” “transforming,” “in flux” and “unpredictable.”

The Top five Challenges for Next 3 Years for Retailers

  1. Application integration
  2. Retiring Legacy System
  3. Change Management
  4. Amazon, Walmart, and Alibaba
  5. Consolidating Channel Silos

The top five technology driven strategies for the next 18 months are:

  1. Expanding unified commerce initiatives
  2. Improving network and IT systems security
  3. Advancing analytics tools and capabilities
  4. Developing personalized marketing capabilities
  5. Advancing mobile commerce for consumers

Retailers report that 31.6% of overall sales now come from digital channels (compared to 23% last year). This massive jump coincides with anecdotal evidence observed throughout the pandemic, and although we will not likely see such a significant leap in 2022, it is safe to assume that many of these digital gains will be maintained — especially if tech-savvy retailers continue to invest in the digital experience.

The top 5 digital investment areas over the next two years

  1. CRM / personalization
  2. Email, mobile, text marketing, messaging
  3. Product / catalog management
  4. Product recommendations
  5. Distributed content management / repository

The store is still the epicenter of retail

The top three in-store investments today

  1. Mobile devices for Associates / Manager
  2. In-store pickup / return of web goods
  3. Real time monitoring / KPIs

Top 3 in-store investments in the next 12 months

  1. Clienteling / guided selling
  2. Location based sensing for marketing / communications
  3. Shopper tracking capability

Curbside pickup is getting a lot of attention at store level with

  1. 33% have it today
  2. 27% currently implementing
  3. 10% will implement next 2 years

Lots of focus on store analytics with top 5 focus areas being:

  1. Multi-channel customer behavioral segmentation
  2. Campaign analysis and forecasting
  3. Inventory optimization
  4. Multi-channel frequent shopper or loyalty shopping
  5. Market Basket Analysis

Summarizing this week:

  • Increased consumer confidence is another indicator that retail is coming back strong.
  • Lots of lessons that can be learned by studying what are classified as the world’s happiest countries as we emerge to the new normal.
  • Technology is leading retail back and retailers are intensifying focus on understanding the needs of the green shopper.
  • Don’t forget the red shopper as these new technologies will open new opportunities for theft.
  • Engage with LPRC to continuously improve processes for both green and red shoppers.

Optimism in Retail Success Increasing and Cyber Security is Increasing! In this week’s episode, our co-hosts discuss these topics and more, including Vaccine Testing Increases, Happiest Countries are Released, Microsoft Exchange has Security Issues, and Ransomware Research is Analyzing Costs. Listen in to stay updated on hot topics in the industry and more!