Survey: Omnichannel drives retailer tech priorities

The need to provide a seamless customer experience is having a big impact on the types of solutions retailers are trying to implement.



According the new Retail Industry Insight benchmark report conducted by Retail Systems Research for SPS Commerce Inc., e-commerce and stores have switched places as the top growth driver for retail IT purchases. Retailers rank growing e-commerce sales as their top priority (75%) followed by improving the in-store experience (53%).



However, retailers are hardly overlooking the importance of the store in the omnichannel experience. Retailers rate their visibility to available inventory from supplier warehouses as critically low (21%) and in-store visibility at insufficient levels (75%) to meet consumer demand. In addition, retailers cite more or improved item attributes as their top desire from vendors in 2016 (69%),



"For the last three years, the survey has shown omnichannel retail evolving from a quest for consistent customer-facing experience to a scramble for faster fulfillment,” said Nikki Baird, managing partner at Retail Systems Research. “Retailers need to have the ability to take an order no matter where demand is generated, or where the inventory to meet that demand is located, and get it to the customer as quickly as possible. Over the past year, we saw the ecosystem take a deep breath as it absorbed the depth of change required to achieve these omnichannel goals.”