August - October 2022Retail Business Review8In the early 1990's I was in a Chicago grocery store (Dominick's) testing out "on cart" product locators with LCD greyscale displays (I assume they didn't survive the test as they were gone forever after three months). In the late 90's and early 00's we ordered groceries for my grandmother from Peapod online and had them delivered and "subscribed." In the mid-00's, I could buy online and pick up in store from Sears. By the early 2010's I could even return the same way or have the employee put the product in my trunk. What is fascinating to me is that much of the innovation and processes that have been achieved in retail over the course of the pandemic had been figured out by various retailers and tech companies already, in some cases, for well over a decade or more (e.g., BOPIS and other "curb side," omni-channel driven conveniences). The effect of the pandemic was to expand these innovations across the broader retail and consumer facing sectors faster than most of these companies were doing so themselves naturally or had tried them and found them cost prohibitive.With limited options of interacting with customers though and a technology "back bone" that has continued to rapidly evolve along with the platforms, devices, algorithms and networks necessary to support them, these costs either became necessary or have been reduced to being very manageable for companies when they previously had not.It is a great time to be embracing this innovation though as the number of vendors, options, and technologies which work with so many of the different unique systems a retailer may have is large. Very importantly, the innovation is not just on the consumer facing side, but it is there for your employees as well. The number of companies I see at Retail Conferences these days dealing with employee engagement, training, task management, compliance, etc., is fantastic, and based on the demos and talking with peers who utilize them, they are genuinely useful tools. So, whether you need the ability to drop ship, schedule customer By Sean MacCarthy, Executive Director of Analytics and Segmentation, Claire's Inc.Retail Tech Evolution and What's Next?In My OpinionBy
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