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IDC Survey Spotlight: Workforce Transformation Challenges

Jun-23 DOC # US49080722 Presentation

Authors:

• Leslie Hand
• Anne Paris

This IDC Survey Spotlight highlights our most recent data (April 2023) on which retail team members have access to data and which technology and organizational barriers can get in the way of serving customers most effectively, as well as IDC's take on what steps retailers and their technology vendor partners must take to digitize the store and equip the frontline workforce with the information they need to improve customer experience. Giving real-time data to frontline employees allows them to serve customers more effectively and efficiently, yet retailers face significant challenges in making this data available.

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IDC TechBrief: Electronic Shelf Labels

May-23 DOC # US50083723 Insight

Authors:

• Leslie Hand
• Anne Paris

This IDC TechBrief examines the benefits, risks, success factors, adoption rate, and required investment for retailers considering implementing an electronic shelf label (ESL) solution as part of their strategy to digitize the store. It also lists several key suppliers of ESL technology worldwide. To respond with agility to price changes across channels, and to manage skyrocketing labor costs, retailers are turning to electronic shelf labels to automate tedious, manual price changes.

"I am optimistic that electronic shelf label technology will be adopted more broadly as price and product transparency become more important for the consumer and in-store process automation becomes essential in store operations," said Leslie Hand, GVP of IDC Retail and Financial Insights.

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ServiceNow to Acquire G2K in a Move That Will Help Retailers Make Data More Actionable

May-23 DOC # lcUS50678823 IDC Link

Authors:

• Leslie Hand

ServiceNow, the digital workflow company, announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire G2K, an AI and IoT technology company on May 12, 2023 – financial details have not been disclosed. The acquisition improves ServiceNow's ability to connect the workflows that it enables to G2K-powered real-time data across stores and digital properties thus providing a complete view of operational data while streamlining customer and employee experiences. Two of the greatest impediments to innovation today for retailers is managing the complexity inherent in data management and integration to workflows and ensuring that valuable data is actionable — ServiceNow's acquisition of G2K promises to address these challenges.

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Which Technology Providers Are Driving Strategic Value for Retailers Right Now?

May-23 DOC # US50656623 Presentation

Authors:

• Leslie Hand
• Anne Paris

This IDC Survey Spotlight looks at the most recent survey data that reveals the top 3 types of vendors retailers are turning to for strategic vision, as well as our take on why these vendors are top of mind. Retailers want their technology providers to do more than provide hardware, software, and services; retailers are looking for technology vendors to act as strategic partners, with an understanding of how operations can be streamlined, workers can be more engaged, and customers can have interactive experiences in stores.

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Retail at an Inflection Point: How IDC Retail Insights Is Guiding the Industry into the Future

Apr-23 DOC # US50573623 Presentation

Authors:

• Leslie Hand

This IDC Market Presentation features recent retail IT budget shifts and investment priorities. Timely topics covered include the projects that must be completed now and those that may slow down until the disruptive force of the macroeconomic climate settles down. Other highlights include top priorities in cloud, AI, and services and a brief note on generative AI (including ChatGPT).

Leslie Hand, group vice president, IDC Retail Insights, suggests, "The current macroeconomic climate has retailers evaluating the current value in ongoing and future technology investments frequently, and the technology vendors that serve retailers need to be diligent in tracking shifting priorities on a quarterly basis at minimum — monthly is even better."

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IDC TechScape: Worldwide Omni-Channel Retail Operations Technology, 2023

Mar-23 DOC # US50428123 IDC DecisionScape

Authors:

• Leslie Hand
• Anne Paris

This IDC study provides a systematic assessment of the retail operations technologies that make up a fully digitized store. The IDC TechScape model is designed specifically to capture progress in the adoption of emerging disruptive technologies, mainstream technology buyer alignment with current industry best practices, and support technologies that promise to deliver operational advantages to organizations that choose to adopt them.

"In the fully digitized store, the customer receives all of the ease, personalization, and choice they get online, and the retailer gets the same level of data and analytics that ecommerce offers," said Leslie Hand, group vice president, IDC Retail and Financial Insights. "Retailers are moving quickly to meet customers where, when, and how they want to shop. The challenge for retailers will be building a modular framework that can rapidly integrate new technologies as they emerge, keeping customer choice, employee engagement, and real-time inventory and operations at the center."

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What We Learned About Retail Experiential Operations at the 2023 NRF Big Show

Feb-23 DOC # US50309923 Insight

Authors:

• Leslie Hand
• Anne Paris

This IDC Perspective discusses how, despite an anticipated recession and continued disruption from global events, retailers and vendors came to the 2023 NRF Big Show ready to celebrate the ways that technology has transformed retail since 2019. With 10 analysts onsite, IDC covered 160 meetings, gathering insights into the types of problems retailers are hoping to solve in the coming year.

This document also covers the technology we saw at NRF 2023 that optimizes and automates operation in stores, with an emphasis on frictionless customer experience, workforce empowerment, and the essential components of the digitized store. Technology investment continues to make sense for retailers despite economic conditions, as modernization and automation in IT management, business processes, and contextualized engagement will reduce costs and drive growth.

"Technology investment continues to make sense for retailers despite economic conditions, as modernization and automation in IT management, business processes, and contextualized engagement will reduce costs and drive growth. We saw evidence at the NRF Big Show that technology vendors are ready to help retailers ride the waves of market volatility expected in 2023 — from customer experience tools that power frictionless interactions to workforce experience tools that help employees fulfill a purpose, not just fill a shelf, to hardware and software that form the connective tissue of the digitized store," said Leslie Hand, group vice president, Retail and Financial Insights at IDC.

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Highlights from NRF 2023: Retail's Big Show

Feb-23 DOC # US49080823 Insight

Authors:

• Leslie Hand
• Ananda Chakravarty
• Jordan K. Speer
• Margot Juros
• Dorothy Creamer
• Ornella Urso
• Filippo Battaini
• Karen Augustine
• Anne Paris

This IDC Perspective reviews key trends and technology innovations that were highlighted at NRF 2023: Retail's Big Show — held January 15–17, 2023, in New York City, which attracted over 35,000 attendees across the industry, double the number seen last year at NRF 2022 in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Technology innovations focused on seven key areas: customer experience, intelligent operations, end-to-end connected supply chains, AI for better decisioning and operational efficiency, workforce optimization, sustainability, and infrastructure modernization. Retailers are accelerating data-driven automation to improve customer experience and resiliency.

Leslie Hand, group vice president, IDC's Retail and Financial Services, noted, "The exuberance for retail and retail technology investment at NRF this year spoke volumes. Retailers clearly understand that the future of retail business depends on the ability to meet customer experience needs for frictionless, personalized shopping experiences, even as they continue to change. Becoming digital businesses is core to meeting changing customer expectations, but perhaps more importantly, to be more resilient and seize a competitive advantage (and new opportunities). We are in the middle of a customer-led, technology-enabled revolution in retail."

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IDC Retail Insights NRF Big Show 2023 Recap: Hot Topics and Technology Trends

Feb-23 DOC # US50248623 Presentation

Authors:

• Karen Augustine
• Filippo Battaini
• Ananda Chakravarty
• Dorothy Creamer
• Leslie Hand
• Margot Juros
• Anne Paris
• Jordan K. Speer
• Ornella Urso

This IDC Tech Buyer Presentation highlights the hot topics and technology trends presented in the Retail's Big Show. Gleaned from across our retail analyst team, the insights presented in this IDC Presentation reflect the highlights and insights from the NRF 2023: Retail's Big Show, held January 15-17, New York. This presentation was delivered to retailers in a post-NRF event, giving context to what happened at the show with supplemental IDC insights and predictions for the retail year ahead.

The investments covered in this presentation will help retailers to scale and gain the agility needed to drive better customer experiences and improve business performance. Topic areas covered include Customer Experience and Engagement, Intelligent Operations, Connected End-to-End Supply Chain, AI for Better Decisioning and Operational Efficiency, Workforce Experience Catches up to the Human Experience, Operationalizing Sustainability from Concept to Consumer, and Intelligent Foundational Technology.

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IDC FutureScape Webcast: Worldwide Retail 2023 Predictions

Jan-23 DOC # US49984322 Event Proceeding

Authors:

• Ananda Chakravarty
• Leslie Hand
• Margot Juros
• Jordan K. Speer
• Ornella Urso

This IDC Web Conference presents a discussion of IDC's 2023 predictions for the global retail industry. Amid myriad sources of disruption, retailers are steadfastly reimagining business models, business processes, and the technology that will drive breakthrough growth and profitability. IDC's Retail Insights team will present several of the top 10 predictions of 2023 for the global retail industry. As retailers continue to adapt to the omni-channel, and increasingly digital retail reality, we'll provide both IT and line-of-business executives clear guidance on the long list of changes in technology priorities, innovation strategies, and business success metrics that retailers are embracing. The ante is bigger to stay in the game — retailers must perform better for customers but also for employees, ecosystem partners, management, and shareholders, as the cost of disappointing any of these constituents is too great.

To learn more about IDC FutureScape 2023, go to www.idc.com/events/FutureScape.

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Five Key Takeaways from AWS re:Invent 2022 That Retailers and CPG Companies Should Consider

Dec-22 DOC # EUR149979722 Insight

Authors:

• Ornella Urso
• Leslie Hand

The IDC Retail Insights team attended AWS re:Invent 2022, held in Las Vegas from November 28 to December 2. "A key message from the event was the importance of an industry-specific focus in order to understand and empathize with the experiences of companies such as retailers and CPG businesses. These companies started their business model revolution years ago and now, despite external and internal challenges, can point to their fully digital business renaissance," said Ornella Urso, research manager, IDC Retail Insights.

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IDC PeerScape: Computer Vision + AI Practices to Improve the Grocery Retail Bottom Line

Dec-22 DOC # US49080522 IDC DecisionScape

Authors:

• Leslie Hand

This IDC PeerScape looks at several practices for choosing how and where to implement computer vision + AI in order to drive sales, improve customer experience, and create operational efficiencies in grocery and convenience store settings.

"Solving one operational problem may not be enough for a retailer to justify the cost of implementing computer vision and AI at scale. Retailers should start with the area of operations that will deliver the biggest value, then compound the benefits over time by leveraging the same technology to solve other problems," says Leslie Hand, GVP, IDC Retail and Financial Insights.

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How Retailers Are Successfully Mitigating IT Skills Gaps

Dec-22 DOC # US40172515 Presentation

Authors:

• Leslie Hand

This IDC Survey Spotlight highlights current trends in retail to fill IT hiring gaps caused by workforce attrition and successful mitigation strategies. Filling positions with the right talent or upskilling workers is imperative, given the magnitude of change underway. The ability to innovate is impacted most as a result of IT staffing challenges (see IDC's Future Enterprise Resiliency and Spending Survey, Wave 6, July 2022, n = 816; n = 95 retail).

"Retailers have embraced the need to continue hiring contract labor but also to address internal IT workforce needs by having flexible workplace policies and by investing in internal knowledge management/information sharing, communication, and automation technologies to address employee staffing gaps," says Leslie Hand, group vice president, IDC Retail Insights. "Career development paths and learning, workplace flexibility, and compensation are the keys to IT employee retention."

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IDC Survey: Future of Industry Ecosystems — Retail Industry

Dec-22 DOC # US49889822 Presentation

Authors:

• Jeffrey Hojlo
• Leslie Hand

This IDC Survey examines results from IDC's Future of Industry Ecosystems Survey. In May and June 2022, we fielded our second annual global survey to 1,270 executives across 5 regions and 11 countries. The goal was to determine executive and business leader sentiment on industry ecosystems, maturity of current approach, and future plans for IT and use case investment. Respondents spanned multiple domains and included CXOs, business-line leadership, and IT management.

Key findings from the survey include:

• Mitigating demand fluctuations and supply chain constraints and pursuing environmental sustainability goals are key joint initiatives for industry ecosystem partners.
• Trust and execution across industry ecosystems are the top risks to mitigate.
• Most organizations plan to, as they did last year, expand their industry ecosystems beyond their core industries.
• Service providers will play a key role in the design and enablement of industry ecosystems.

Another key area of focus for organizations when they consider the design and operation of their industry ecosystem is improvement of customer, consumer, citizen, or patient engagement and experience. That is, how does the shared, open approach of industry ecosystems (shared data and insights, shared applications, shared operations and expertise) better facilitate this?

This IDC Survey on the future of industry ecosystems is focused on the retail industry cut of this survey data. Retailers have faced consistent headwinds of the pandemic, ongoing supply and demand disruption, and inflation (among others) over the past two years and are realizing the benefits that industry ecosystems can provide.

Sharing data and insights, having access to a varied set of applications, and working closely with an expanding set of industry ecosystem partners simply make their business more resilient, innovative, and able to meet dynamic customer and consumer needs. As retailers begin to look outward to partner with other industries for new business models, the importance of this shared, open approach across ecosystems, enabled by a blended physical and digital way of working and delivery of customer experiences, will continue to rise.

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Traffic Intelligence Offers All Retailers a Path to Understanding and Improving Customer Experience

Nov-22 DOC # US49829121 Insight

Authors:

• Leslie Hand

This IDC Perspective discusses how traffic intelligence offers all retailers a path to understanding and improving the customer experience. As edge and cloud technologies bring ecommerce-style analytics capabilities to the brick-and-mortar environment, retailers are eager to gain a layered, contextual understanding of the in-store experiences of their customers. The modern, intelligent store is a data-rich brand hub that contains a wealth of knowledge — the problem thus far has been how to capture all the available data and turn it into actionable analytics. One very important area of knowledge retailers should invest in is traffic intelligence — measuring who comes to the store, where they spend their time, and what experiences capture their attention. Once retailers have this data, they must use it to improve customer experience, guide employee tasks, and optimize store floor operations.

"Without traffic intelligence and analysis, retailers don't have a complete understanding of their customers' experiences. Understanding how a customer moves through the store, whether that journey originated online or in a nearby business, and maybe even knowing if the customer is smiling or frowning when looking at a new display — will allow retailers to deliver what customers want more consistently and more efficiently," says Leslie Hand, GVP, IDC Retail and Financial Insights.

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Retail HR Innovation Investments — AR Investment Is Accelerating in the Next Two Years

Nov-22 DOC # US45957020 Presentation

Authors:

• Leslie Hand

This IDC Survey Spotlight highlights current trends in retail human resource (HR) innovation investment already completed and within two years. This workforce-related data sourced from a recent IDC retail survey suggests that retailers are investing in employee experience, training, and tools to double down on customer centricity (source: IDC's Global Retail Operating Models Survey, August 2022). Without an engaged workforce, being truly customer centric is not possible. Current spending on employee training, task management, payroll flexibility, and augmented reality (AR) apps suggests that all associates will have permissions to access these capabilities. All access will require that all employees have a mobile device — either corporate provided or bring your own device (BYOD).

"Retailers have embraced the need to invest in mobile devices for all employees — both employer provided and employee provided — to take employee experience and training to the next level. As they bring more immersive apps online, they will also open the door to long-awaited tools for learning via the established workflow and then extending employee-generated content to the consumer to inform, excite, and sell more," says Leslie Hand, group vice president, IDC Retail Insights. "Imagine bringing live streaming into training or associating social media contest winners' content to customers. A whole new door to engagement has opened."

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Transforming the Store: Results of the 2022 Global Retail Operating Model Survey

Nov-22 DOC # US49812422 Insight

Authors:

• Leslie Hand
• Karen Augustine

This IDC Perspective reviews important findings from IDC's 2022 Global Retail Operating Models Survey of 800 retailers worldwide, which provides deep insight into how retailers are digitally transforming their business to improve performance. The global COVID-19 pandemic has forced a permanent shift in the way consumers shop and the ways they engage with retailers. For retailers to thrive in this environment and expand their customer base, they must innovate to better serve their customers, driving revenue growth and profitability. Competitive pressures and a clear understanding of what is required to thrive now and into the future is driving retailers to invest more year over year on technology with finely tuned objectives including increasing customer engagement and enabling better visibility and control in store operations, inventory, and supply chain. Retailers that thrive are agile enough to accommodate changing customer needs.

Leslie Hand, group vice president, IDC's Retail and Financial Services, noted, "Retailers are not investing in small step changes to their portfolios — they are digitally transforming and investing in the massive scale and speed of digital, cloud-based, connected, and AI- and sensor-driven automation. We are in the middle of a customer-led, technology-enabled revolution in retail."

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IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Future of Industry Ecosystems 2023 Predictions

Oct-22 DOC # US49372022 IDC DecisionScape

Authors:

• Jeffrey Hojlo
• Robert Parker
• Simon Ellis
• Massimiliano Claps
• Nadia Ballard
• Leslie Hand
• Christopher Holmes
• Shari Lava
• Nigel Wallis
• Lynne Schneider
• Anielle Guedes

This IDC study presents the top 10 predictions for the future of industry ecosystems for the next six years.

"Extending and opening innovation, collaboration, and operation with partners across an ecosystem inside and outside any given industry has become a critical strategy for executives and their organizations. The world and each industry landscape are too complex, dynamic, and disruptive for any one organization to address on its own. The pace of innovation makes it difficult for organizations to keep up. As such, every organization needs an external source of data, insights, applications, operations, and expertise to complement and grow their business. Expansion, collaboration, and innovation with industry ecosystems has become the next phase of digital transformation for every organization," said Jeffrey Hojlo, research vice president, Future of Industry Ecosystems.

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IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Retail 2023 Predictions

Oct-22 DOC # US48655022 IDC DecisionScape

Authors:

• Filippo Battaini
• Ananda Chakravarty
• Leslie Hand
• Margot Juros
• Ayush Narain
• Jordan K. Speer
• Ornella Urso

This IDC study provides IDC's 2023 top 10 predictions for retail.

Leslie Hand, group vice president, IDC Retail and Financial Services, emphasized, "Retailers are not investing in small step changes to their portfolios — they are digitally transforming and investing in the massive scale and speed of digital, cloud-based, connected, AI-driven, and sensor-driven automation. We are in the middle of a customer-led, technology-enabled revolution in retail."

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IDC's Global Retail Operating Models Survey, 2022: Key Findings

Oct-22 DOC # EUR149718722 Presentation

Authors:

• Ornella Urso
• Leslie Hand
• Jordan K. Speer
• Filippo Battaini
• Sofia Poggi
• Ananda Chakravarty
• Margot Juros
• Dorothy Creamer
• Ayush Narain
• Cristiano Quattrini

This IDC Market Presentation summarizes key findings gathered from IDC's 2022 Global Retail Operating Models Survey on digital or technology-enabled initiatives across all retail business functions, products, and services. This survey polled 800 retailers across four regions: Asia/Pacific, U.S., EMEA, and Latin America. Respondents were distributed across countries, subsegments, IT and LOB roles, functional areas, and departments.

Study results show how retailers plan to unlock existing challenges and priorities across omni-channel operating models. The analysis looked at different areas of innovation — customer experience; store operations; marketing; merchandising; commerce; sourcing, logistics, and fulfillment; and human resources and finance — business use cases, and the related technology investments plans over the next two years.

Moreover, the study shows a comparison with customers data gathered from IDC's Global Retail Consumer Insights Survey in July 2022 (n = 1,010) to uncover existing gaps between retailers' priorities and consumer behavior, expectations, and thinking when it comes to omni-channel retail, which today is simply retail.

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Grocery Retail Investments in IoT, Automation, and Integration Open Door to Next Wave of Customer Retention

Sep-22 DOC # US48655422 Presentation

Authors:

• Leslie Hand

This IDC Survey Spotlight highlights current trends in grocery retail technology investment compared with projected investment spending in two years. This near-term strategic data suggests that grocery retailers are rethinking the store to engage customers differently. Current spending is aimed at meeting customer preference for omniscient and frictionless experiences, such as automated checkout, IoT-driven interactions, and automated drive through order pickup. Grocery retailers are also building the cloud- and edge-based systems and connectivity needed to integrate their data streams, which will allow them to gain greater insights into their customers. These investments, already well underway according to August 2022 data, will pave the way for the next wave of strategic spending, which will see grocery retailers increasing their immersive, contextualized interactions with customers via connected customer devices, store devices, and robots.

"Grocery retailers have embraced the need to invest in updated connectivity, automation, and Internet of Things in order to streamline operations. As they bring devices and systems online, they will also open the door to long-awaited tools for understanding and retaining their customers, and we see them planning for that next stage in our data," says Leslie Hand, group vice president, IDC Retail Insights. "For example, the edge technology, computer vision, and sensors that make automated checkout possible now will also enable contextual customer interactions that drive loyalty. Two years from now, grocers are going to have much deeper, richer understanding of who their customers are, what they need, and how to serve them better."

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IDC Survey Spotlight: Retail Priorities Match Consumer Needs

Sep-22 DOC # US49080622 Presentation

Authors:

• Leslie Hand

This IDC Survey Spotlight highlights strategic retail services priorities as they adapt business models to the reality of consumer shopping journeys and preferences. Meeting the customer's expectations in today's omni-channel environment appears to be well understood, given how well priorities tie to consumer needs (source: IDC's Global Retail Operating Models Survey, August 2022, n 800; IDC's Consumer Sentiment Survey — Retail Consumer Insights Survey, July 2022, n = 1,010).

Leslie Hand, group vice president, IDC Retail and Financial Insights, urges "retailers to not ignore or delay giving consumers access to the services that they expect. Consumers told us that they will abandon retailers after just one mis-step (lack of flexible return or fulfillment options, lack of visibility to inventory or order information, bad experience). Consumers are already moving seamlessly between digital to physical shopping at some of the retailers they shop, and that is now the experience that they always expect. This is the bar that must be reached."

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Sustainable Food Distribution: How Grocery Retailers Will Use Technology to Reduce Food Waste and Improve Customer Experience

Sep-22 DOC # US49603021 Insight

Authors:

• Leslie Hand

This IDC Perspective illuminates how humanitarian and climate pressures are driving city, state, and national policies driving retailers to reduce food waste. Grocery retailers have answered the call, but lack of verifiable data and clear processes can hinder the best efforts and intentions of brands and employees. Emerging technologies will help grocers collect accurate data and automate processes to meet and exceed food waste reduction goals while also achieving high key performance indicators (KPIs) in customer experience (CX), employee engagement, and operational efficiency.

"Retailers do not have to choose between sustainability goals and the bottom line. We are finding that retailers that implement sustainability measures report improved employee engagement, new market opportunities, improved customer loyalty, and increased operational efficiency. The key is using emerging technologies and data analytics to find the sweet spots for waste reduction, then using artificial intelligence (AI) to take effective action," says Leslie Hand, group vice president, IDC Retail and Financial Insights.

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Consumer Sentiment Survey, 2022: Findings and Implications

Aug-22 DOC # US49621522 Presentation

Authors:

• Jordan K. Speer
• Leslie Hand
• Margot Juros
• Ananda Chakravarty
• Dorothy Creamer
• Ornella Urso
• Filippo Battaini

This IDC Survey is designed to uncover trends and provide insight into consumer behavior, expectations, and thinking when it comes to omni-channel shopping.

IDC polled consumers about retail spending and behaviors and expectations related to supply chain, store, ecommerce, fulfillment, returns, and sustainability, including how they are using various technologies and what aspects of product and service are most important to them, with a goal of enabling retailers to better understand what consumers are demanding or will likely demand in the near future, and how technology can enable them to digitally transform in ways that will meet and exceed these expectations. This Survey delves into everything from preferences for self-service versus high-touch retailing to those around click and collect, payments, and grocery delivery.

This Survey also addressed implicitly and explicitly the ongoing impact to shopping behaviors resulting from COVID-19 and related disruptions.

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IDC's Worldwide Digital Transformation Use Case Taxonomy, 2022: Experiential Retail

Aug-22 DOC # US49350422 Study

Authors:

• Leslie Hand
• Ananda Chakravarty
• Jordan K. Speer
• Margot Juros
• Filippo Battaini
• Ornella Urso
• Karen Augustine

This IDC study presents the key areas that are being digitally transformed, as retailers adopt new processes and technologies to underpin organizational change. This study defines the strategies, programs, and use cases that will be implemented, highlighting the benefits of moving from current processes to digitally transformed processes, and the technologies that will be required. Retailers are accelerating digitalization efforts to increase operational efficiency and improve customer experience to meet the challenges of a new digital era. New strategies for resilient, touch-free, automated, and sustainable business operations will drive increased digital investment for all retailers that intend to stay ahead of its competition.

"Retailers are just scratching the surface of capitalizing on invisible data streams and AI to create multilayered, digital experiences and to seize the value of new revenue/profit streams," says Leslie Hand, group vice president, IDC Retail Insights. "For most retailers, the reality of digital environments is not the metaverse — yet! Right now, it's the footing underneath the intelligent enterprise — the infrastructure, connectivity, analytics, software, and devices that enable digital twins, sustainable supply and fulfillment operations, orchestrated customer and employee engagement, and touchless (or -light) omni-channel transactions."

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State of the Market: Inflation Impact on IT Spending and the Cloud by Major Industry

Aug-22 DOC # US49593822 Presentation

Authors:

• Robert Parker
• Lynne Dunbrack
• Simon Ellis
• Travis Eide
• Leslie Hand
• Alex Holtz
• Andrew Meyers
• Courtney Munroe
• Daryl Schoolar
• Jerry Silva
• John Villali
• Rick Villars
• Ruthbea Yesner
• Adelaide O'Brien

This IDC Tech Buyer Presentation provides IDC Insights analysts' assessment of the impact of inflation on technology spending and adoption across 11 industries including education, energy, financial services, government, health and life sciences, hospitality, manufacturing, media and entertainment, retail, telecommunications, and transportation and logistics. Our analysis also offers IDC's outlook on IT spending and global economic sentiments gleaned from IDC's Future of Enterprise Resiliency and Spending (FERS) Survey. Future research from IDC Insights teams will delve deeper into the impact of inflation on their respective industries and subsectors.

"Across all industries, organizations are focusing their attention on navigating the storms of disruption brought about by inflationary pressures, supply chain constraints, labor and skills shortages, and geopolitical threats. Technology will play an important role to address these disruptions and blunt the impact of inflation faced by industries worldwide. Inflation is leading industries to prioritize investments in cloud, AI/ML, automation, and advanced data management and analytics." — Bob Parker, senior vice president and general manager, Industry Insights, Software, and Services at IDC

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These Five Trends Will Allow Grocery Retailers to Ride the Waves of Economic Volatility

Jun-22 DOC # US49259021 Insight

Authors:

• Leslie Hand

This IDC Perspective predicts five ways that grocery retailers will accelerate their digital transformation strategies to survive and thrive in rapidly shifting social and economic conditions. Already a narrow margin business, grocery retail has seen margins shrink further due to supply chain challenges, the cost of fulfillment for ecommerce orders, and inefficiencies due to staff shortages. Retailers are looking hard at every element of their business. Macroeconomic influences such as war, inflation, and climate emergencies now raise questions about how retailers will manage to stay ahead. The good news is low interest rates make it more appealing for companies to invest in technology solutions that will help them surf the waves of volatility.

"A seismic shift is coming. Not yet, but soon, it will feel like the flip of switch, and retailers need to be prepared. If brands have not paved the way with connectivity and edge infrastructure, with AI services, with fulfillment channels, and with payment choice — they won't be able to move quickly enough and customers will leave them behind," says Leslie Hand, GVP, IDC Retail and Financial Insights.

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Buyers' Guide: Top Grocery Technology Investment Trends

Jun-22 DOC # US47248621 Presentation

Authors:

• Karen Augustine
• Leslie Hand

This IDC Tech Buyer Presentation explores grocery retailers' IT investments to strengthen their digital transformation in 2022 and beyond. Digital transformation includes process improvements in six areas: supply chain, customer experience, store systems and operations, product merchandising and marketing, ecommerce, and employee experience. Retailers recognize that they need to accelerate digital infrastructure investments to build successful strategies and achieve business goals. This IDC Tech Buyer Presentation provides data-driven insights from IDC's 2021 CloudPath Survey and IDC's 2021 Retail Core Processes and Applications Surveys.

According to Leslie Hand, group vice president, IDC's Retail and Financial Insights, "We see grocery retailers globally rapidly accelerating digital modernization to become more resilient, responsive, and profitable for short- and long-term performance."