How Internet Of Things Is Changing The Retail Ecosystem?

You really need to update yourself if you are not aware with the Internet of Things! One of the most demanding technologies of this era, IoT, is literally transforming the way we are living our lives.
Undoubtedly, there is hardly any sector left untouched by its impact. As per Forrester Research’s 2015 Global Business Technographics Networks and Telecommunications Survey, SMEs with more than 1000 employees are either using or planning to use IoT technologies.
What is Internet of Things?
Internet of Things is basically a system of interconnected computing devices, digital appliances or objects having unique identifiers and enough capacity to transfer data within the network without any sort of manual help.
Did you know?
“IoT technologies are growing at a 23% CAGR from 2015 to 2021!! “
Internet of Things enables a wide range of devices in interacting and communicating with the external environment, other devices and people via the internet using embedded technology.
Typical examples of ‘things’ that can be included under the IoT technologies are electronic appliances, cars, thermostats, security systems, vending machines, alarm clock and much more.
The growth of Internet of Things
Internet of Things has completely transformed and renovated the way we used to deal with the ‘things’ in our day-to-day life. The concept of Internet of Things has grown to the extent where we have started using it even in the smallest part of our usual tasks. Right from turning the lights on/off to keeping an eye on your home even from kilometers away, IoT has simplified our lives pretty well.
It has brought innovation and created ’n’ number of opportunities across all the sectors. According to stats, it is estimated that the global IoT market would rise by 28.5% annually to reach almost $457 billion by 2020. And by 2025, we would be able to witness at least 75 billion devices communicating with each other.
During this, the top three major sub-sectors that would own the market share would be smart cities, industrial IoT and connected health with a share of 26%, 24%, and 20% respectively.
Industries that have already embraced Internet of Things
There would be hardly any industry that would not have embraced IoT by now. Organizations that left untouched by its impact have also adopted it in the recent times.
Internet of Things is predominantly present in the healthcare industry. It is majorly used in developing wearable technologies that monitor the conditions of the body in spite of the time and location. This lets the consumers run their daily errands with the assurance of being monitored by their physicians remotely.
Apart from the healthcare industry, be it the manufacturing sector or the automation industry — every sector has embraced and accepted the outcomes of IoT. Smart machines and robots are used for the production and repetitive tasks resulting in improved efficiency and reduced redundancies.
How can Internet of Things impact and change the retail industry?
The retail industry has seen some major sort of changes in the last two decades and thus got several opportunities to collect, analyze and test data for targeting their audience across various marketing channels.
Did you know?
“IoT is estimated to cross $30 billion by 2024 in the retail industry!!”

( Source : https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/iot-internet-of-things-retail-market)
Internet of Things has played a major role by bringing several innovations and opportunities to the market. Nowadays, retailers from the entire world are experimenting with IoT in order to reform and revolutionize their sales and operations. Once the market adapts to the new innovations, retailers get adapted to the new IoT technologies to improve customer experience, personalize the shopping journey, increase the operational efficiency, monitor the quality of the products, and create new revenue streams.
Clearly, early adopters of IoT technologies get the opportunity to drive an improved and differentiated brand experience resulting in better revenue and customer satisfaction.

IOT in Retail (Source : http://www.verizonenterprise.com/verizon-insights-lab/state-of-the-market-internet-of-things/2016/)
- Understanding Buyer’s Psychology
IoT technologies are getting only improved with the advent of time enabling the retailers to observe, understand and analyze the buyers’ psychology. Smart devices like beacons help the retailers in tracking their consumers’ behavior right from the moment they enter the store.
From knowing the products that they are interested into the sections that they visit, products that they buy the most, Internet of Things helps in getting all the possible data about the consumers to create a seamless shopping experience.
- Eradicating Checkout Lines
Using IoT technology, it is viable to eliminate the checkout lines at the counters. All you need is an app to check into the store and select the items you need.
Though this concept is still in its beta phase, be rest assured that once it comes into the implementation, it can drastically transform the way traditional retail shops work.
- Smart Shelves and Fleet Management
Every retailer, in spite of their business’s size, faces one common issue of having enough inventories in the right place and at the right time. With the help of Internet of Things, it is possible to eliminate this problem and improve the inventory tracking as well. Retailers get to know the inventories that are out of stock, making sure that the customer doesn’t have to return empty handed.
It also plays a major role in improving fleet management by letting the retailers, and transporters interface their systems to share necessary information and data.
- Beacons
Beacons have undoubtedly been a boon to the retail market. These tiny Bluetooth transmitters are responsible for sending push notifications to customers’ smartphones for notifying them about the offers/discounts that are available.
Did you know?
“86% of respondents identified consumers’ smartphones as IoT whereas only 43% thought beacons should be classified as IoT!!”
Beacons also help in collecting data via tracking the navigation of customers’ behavior. This helps the retailers in boosting their sales and increase customer loyalty by targeting the appropriate buyers.
- Smart Stores’ Creation
Like smart homes, smart stores are also getting into the recent trend. This not only resulted in cost efficiency but also helped in saving energy and creating a customized environment.
Besides, it also results in enhanced customers’ service by providing critical information to the store employees.
- Enhanced Shopping Experiences
As we are getting habituated with the upcoming technologies, IoT is all set to bring enhanced shopping experiences for the consumers. From building smart mirror device to syncing smartphones to the retailer’s app, people will get to witness a big upgrade in the next phase of Internet of Things.
- In-Store Personalization
Internet of Things, no wonder, is changing the way people use to shop. It enables the retailers to send contextual information to the right consumer at the right place and right time. This also helps them in setting personalized offers and discounts which in turn boost their sales as well as productivity.
- On-time Tracking
Do you remember when it was last that you ordered something, probably via a catalog, and didn’t know at which day and time it would arrive? Exactly!! We have covered a long distance till now and it is getting better each day. Thanks to the IoT technologies.
Technologies like RFID are apt for tracking products right from the point of manufacturing to till the time it gets delivered via text messages and push notifications. Such systems not only help the consumers to stay updated on the purchases they made but also help the retailers to stay updated on their inventories and warehouse conditions.

- Shop At Your Fingertips
Who would have imagined that one day Alexa or Siri would be reminding us when and what to purchase!
IoT technologies have lessened the pain of shopping for consumers and improved the art of business for retailers on the other side. It creates an engagement between the customers, retailers and smart devices for a flawless in-store experience. With the connectivity and security it provides, products are literally a click away from your fingertips.
- Planned Ads Placements
IoT enables the retailers to analyze and understand customers’ hot spots and patterns with the help of in-store sensors and video feeds. This ultimately helps in improving the store layouts and promotional placements which eventually results in a better buying experience and sales.
- Ecosystem Possibilities
With every passing day, people are getting more adequate with internet connected world and in such cases, retailers coming up with an end-to-end internet connected stores should not be a wonder to us.
- Data Analysis
Internet of Things is way too smarter than what we think. It doesn’t only helps in setting personalized shopping experiences for the consumers but also helps in analyzing their behaviors as well as the market trends to come up with irresistible products and offers.
- Online and social technologies
And between all these what we must not miss out are the emerging social media channels which are owning a big share of the credit for creating a seamless buyers’ journey.
IoT technologies when synced with online technologies create new channels for the retailers to market their products and create new revenue streams.
- Smart Kiosks
With the help of IoT, deploying kiosks and other mobile retail solutions have become much easier. Internet of Things enables retail businesses to be both portable and flexible by offering fast and reliable wireless connectivity to achieve their customers’ needs.
The Bottom Line
IoT has completely changed the retail ecosystem and the definition of retail marketing. With better customer reach, improved shopping experience, efficient operations and enhanced business streams, it has simplified the way of business.
It doesn’t matter in which industry or via which channel you are running your business if you have still not adopted the IoT, you are definitely lagging behind and need to seriously rethink your business!
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Originally Published at www.henote.com
