The majority (76%) of retailers understand that it is crucial that they have confidence in their technology performance, according to a survey from Ipanema Technologies. However, 78% of respondents said they are unable to quickly or easily guarantee exemplary application performance.
Retailers that achieve consistently high application performance rates can receive a number of benefits, including improved customer satisfaction (54%), employee productivity (50%) and overall brand reputation (49%).
The survey report, titled: The Application Gap In Retail, was commissioned by Ipanema Technologies. Independent research agency Loudhouse surveyed 411 IT decision-makers working in retail organizations across 10 countries in North America and Europe.
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Only one third (35%) of retail organizations describe their omnichannel customer experience as “excellent,” while 65% of companies surveyed said that offering a “shopping 2.0” experience to customers is a challenge for their organization.
Although IT decision-makers appeared to have a general lack of confidence in creating an optimized omnichannel experience, 79% of respondents agreed that to succeed, it is crucial that retailers get omnichannel right. In fact, most respondents believe that creating omnichannel experiences leads to increased sales (55%) and improved reputation (51%).
Managing Technology Priorities
Building the proper omnichannel experience can be difficult for retailers, particularly from a technology standpoint. Approximately three fourths of employees (74%) respondents cited a sprawling IT infrastructure as a challenge, while 71% said there is business-wide pressure to provide technology innovation.
To address these stresses, respondents said certain technology investments are taking priority, including:
- Cloud deployment (57%);
- Mobile application development (55%);
- Supply chain optimization (54%); and
- Unified communications (52%).
Updating technology throughout the entire retail organization remains paramount to businesses; 45% of respondents said that the failure or underperformance of technology and/or applications has detrimentally affected staff productivity. In addition, 35% of those surveyed attributed customer purchase abandonment to technology failures.
Click here to access a complete version of the survey results.
