IDC Reveals Worldwide Retail Predictions For 2015

By 2017 three times as many retailers as now will explicitly underpin their customer and operations strategies on 3rd platform technologies

International Data Corporation (IDC) recently hosted a web conference, IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Retail Agenda 2015 Predictions, to highlight the predictions based on the IDC FutureScape report. The session provided organizations with insight and perspective on long-term industry trends along with new themes that may be on the horizon. The web conference predictions series and accompanying IDC FutureScape reports, are designed to help IT leaders capitalize on emerging market opportunities and plan for future growth. An audio replay of today's web conference is available this afternoon. To access the replay, please visit: http://bit.ly/IDCRetailFutureScape2015.

The predictions from the IDC FutureScape for Worldwide Retail FutureScape are:

1. By 2017 three times as many retailers as now will succeed to explicitly pin their customer and operations strategies on 3rd platform technologies.
2. In 2015, CIOs will invest in omni-channel integration technologies as a top priority to support growth in the omni-channel shopper sales premium of 30%.
3. Over the next 3 years, half of CIOs across the top 250 retailers will adopt omni-channel IT governance fit for a 3rd platform era to combat shadow-IT.
4. By 2016 the top 150 retailers will improve ROI on hyper-personal loyalty based on unified customer engagement.
5. By 2018, 60% of omni-channel retailers will have launched customer mobile payment initiatives to enhance existing ecommerce, loyalty and store MPOS investments.
6. As cyber attacks increase, by end of 2016 50% of the top 250 retailers will have reduced exposure and loss by more than 50% with intelligent sense and respond security strategies.
7. By end 2016 product intelligence (PI) will inform 80% of the top ten e-commerce retailers’ pricing decisions and drive mainstream adoption of high-velocity pricing.
8. By 2018, on demand socially networked delivery services (including Uber, EBay Now, Shutl, Deliv, Postmates, Instacart, Amazon, Alibaba) will perform 90% of all intra-day direct to consumer deliveries.
9. By end of 2015 at least 25 retailers with location-based services will increase LBS-impacted same shopper sales by 5% via analytics driven agile engagement and operations.
10. By 2016, even as private brand growth flattens in the U.S., consumer driven private brand product innovation will drive a 10% improvement in customer visit frequency

“Relentless technology innovation underpins consumers' participatory behavior and expectations. The most successful retailers will find opportunities by putting mobility, analytics, cloud, and social to work in their customer and operations strategies, adopting omni-channel integration technologies and IT governance, unifying customer engagement for hyper-personalized loyalty, adopting product intelligence for marketing and competitive insight, employing location-based services via analytics driven agile engagement and operations, utilize socially-networked on-demand delivery services, and gain share with private label merchandise” said Leslie Hand, Vice President of IDC Retail Insights.

The IDC FutureScape report that this web conference is based on will be published and available within the next 24 hours. To learn more about IDC Predictions and IDC FutureScapes, please visit: www.idc.com/Predictions2015.

About IDC FutureScapes
IDC FutureScapes are used to shape IT strategy and planning for the enterprise by providing a basic framework for evaluating IT initiatives in terms of their value to business strategy now and in the foreseeable future. IDC's FutureScapes are comprised of a set of decision imperatives designed to identify a range of pending issues that CIOs and senior technology professionals will confront within the typical 3 year business planning cycle.

About IDC Retail Insights
IDC Retail Insights assists retail businesses and IT leaders, as well as the suppliers who serve them, in making more effective technology decisions by providing accurate, timely, and insightful fact-based research and consulting services. Staffed by senior analysts with decades of industry experience, our global research analyzes and advises on business and technology issues facing the retail industry. International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology market. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world’s leading technology, media, research, and events company. For more information, visit www.idc-ri.com or http://idc-community.com/retail.