Internet of Things

A Pandemic’s Silver Lining
May 18, 2021 at 6:46 pm

The pandemic has undoubtedly accelerated the shift to e-commerce by half a decade, with more people than ever before opting to shop online for items like groceries that have always dominated traditional brick-and-mortar retail. Now that customers have experienced the convenience of shopping online for products they never imagined, it’s unlikely that they’ll return to…

How Retailers Can Increase Supply Chain Efficiencies With the IoT
March 3, 2021 at 5:21 pm

With the pandemic keeping individuals around the world sheltered inside for much of 2020, the retail experience has largely shifted online — and it’s expected to stay that way moving forward. According to PYMNTS’ Black Friday 2020 Report, more consumers shopped online this Black Friday than ever before. While 47 percent of shoppers surveyed did…

IoT Tech Trends to Look for in 2021
February 9, 2021 at 7:29 pm

2020 was an unprecedented year that has changed the retail industry forever, turning omnichannel operations on its head. With many stores closed and customers staying at home, retailers had to rethink their overall strategy, many converting in-store inventory to fulfill online orders and turning stores into temporary distribution centers. Buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS)…

Using the IoT to Prepare for a Very Different Kind of Holiday Shopping Season
November 19, 2020 at 7:35 pm

With the pandemic raging on, one thing is for certain: the 2020 holiday shopping season is going to look very different from years past. With the CDC categorizing shopping in crowded stores as a high-risk activity, many retailers are nudging consumers to get a head start on holiday shopping or order online to mitigate Black…

How the IoT Can Help Retailers Get Ahead
March 25, 2020 at 2:36 pm

From Kmart to Forever 21, numerous retail brands closed locations, laid off employees, and filed for bankruptcy in 2019. While the drivers behind these unfortunate circumstances varied, most resulted from a failure to digitally transform — i.e., an inability to successfully use modern tools to best engage target customers. To avoid similar fates, retailers today…

IoT Helps Retailers Win Customers and Drive Sales
March 24, 2020 at 4:15 pm

When it comes to embracing the Internet of Things (IoT), the retail sector takes the top spot in PwC’s 2019 IoT survey. This trailblazing industry has the highest percentage of companies with active IoT projects: 58 percent, compared with only 48 percent for the total number of survey respondents. Furthermore, another 30 percent of the retail…

How AI and IoT Will Digitize the Physical World
March 17, 2020 at 2:19 pm

It’s been well-documented that new technologies — in particular, artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) — will change our digital lives, but their uses extend even further than we may realize. By 2023, the worldwide number of IoT-connected devices is predicted to increase to 43 billion, three times more than 2018. With such…

Retail is the Most ‘Intelligent’ Enterprise Sector, But What Does That Really Mean?
February 13, 2020 at 11:02 am

Retailers are accelerating efforts to become more “intelligent” as they try to stay ahead of competitors and customer demand, as revealed in Zebra’s 2019 Intelligent Enterprise Index. In fact, retail gained the most momentum of all sectors over the last 12 months, graduating from the bottom of the 2018 vertical Index rankings to nearly the…

The Internet of Things (IoT): Finally Finding a Home in Retail?
February 13, 2020 at 10:43 am

For retailers, Internet of Things (IoT) is a technology that has taken some time to figure out exactly how it can be used properly, but it seems that it is indeed starting to find some semblance of a home within the industry, according to our new research. In our fifth annual study on IoT, we…

4 Ways IoT is Changing Retailers’ CX Game
October 24, 2019 at 9:34 am

When it comes to digital transformation in retail, omnichannel marketing and the customer-first approach are dictating the trend. Data collection, personalization and general convenience of customer experience (CX) are especially in the spotlight, creating demand for any technology enabling them. In this environment, Internet of Things (IoT) in retail is still a relative newcomer among…