2015 Outlook: Consumer Centric Technology Hot, Consumer Spending Mild

By Matt Pillar, chief editor

December 2014 Integrated Solutions For Retailers

Our 2015 retail technology spending forecast tells the story of a retail industry grasping at apples on a slow-growing tree.

Respondents to our survey of more than 200 retailers indicate strong spending on the mobile POS, in-store digital and mobile marketing, HCM (human capital management), and omni-channel fulfillment solutions that they’re banking on to win more customers. Unfortunately, those customers are borrowing less and spending conservatively, and according to finance and business analysts at Kiplinger’s, that tepid consumer spending will continue through 2015. Consumer spending and confidence, they say, remain below what would be considered normal levels by the standards of past economic expansions. The experts are pegging 2015 retail sales growth at 4 percent, a decline from this year’s modest projection of somewhere between 4.5 and 5 percent.