2018 a crucial year for tech implementations, Zynstra

53% of retailers will focus on using technology to improve the shopping experience in 2018, according to research by Zynstra. The company polled 308 retail IT decision makers in the US and UK and found that currently only 27% feel their infrastructure is fully able to support plans to improve customer experience in-store. One-quarter said their in-store IT allowed them to frequently and regularly do this and one-fifth had to delay or reject a past roll-out of new in-store applications because of IT limitations, costs or concerns.

Additional priorities for 2018 include improving operational efficiencies (44%), enhancing security and compliance of in-store IT (42%), in-store innovation (34%), mitigating the risk of end-of-life technology (27%), and incorporating all channels of engagement in a single platform (17%). “2018 is a crucial year in laying down the infrastructure that will reduce costs today and provide a long-term platform for a consistent and intentional customer experience. In the challenging retail conditions that are predicted, those who don’t take this step are going to lose out,” says Nick East, CEO, Zynstra.

“In today’s retail environment, particularly those organisations with a distributed branch network, having the right technology in place to support both operations and overall customer experience is a key competitive advantage. Increasingly, we’re finding the biggest impact on store cost and day to day operational efficiency improvements lie in implementing an intelligent edge infrastructure with end-to-end management and control.”

The research also found that virtualisation of PoS systems is playing an increasingly important role. 23% of retailers are using it already, while 26% will adopt it as soon as possible, and 21% in the next two years.