Cyber security, big data analytics and enterprise cloud among top digital technologies for retail and CPG firms

This article is brought to you by Retail Technology Review: Cyber security, big data analytics and enterprise cloud among top digital technologies for retail and CPG firms.

An Infosys research report titled, Digital Outlook for the Retail and CPG Industry, highlights how digital technologies deployed at organisations are improving existing operations, solving new problems, and creating new opportunities.

The research polled IT and business decision makers within the retail and CPG industry as part of a global survey to discover the opportunities presented by new digital technologies.

Key findings from the report:

• Cyber security, big data analytics and enterprise cloud were polled as top three digital technologies being utilised within the retail and CPG industry.
• According to retailers surveyed, the most common trends that will make a positive impact on their organisation over the next three years are aligning marketing, promotion and offer spends using data analytics (52 per cent), using technology to increase customer convenience (50 per cent), and investing in retail workforce management technology and platforms (47 per cent). However, respondents from the CPG industry stated investments in technologies for automating the manufacturing process (61 per cent), digital asset management (52 per cent), improving supply chain visibility (49 per cent), and deep product personalisation (49 per cent) are the trends which will make a positive impact on their organisation within the next three years.
• 79 per cent of the respondents from the retail industry invested in augmented reality for virtual selling followed by technologies for point of sale or store experiences (73 per cent) and data analytics to align marketing campaigns and offers program spending (70 per cent). Within CPG, 73 per cent respondents invested in technologies to automate the manufacturing process, 63 per cent in technology for workforce management and 61 per cent in technologies to automate the back office.
• 35 per cent of the respondents from retail industry are planning to invest in smaller stores (with no or fewer inventory) to create a bigger experience for the customer using technology.
• Mainframe modernisation (81 per cent), Internet of Things (80 per cent) and ERP and enterprise application implementation/modernisation (79 per cent) are the top three technologies that retailers will implement in the near future to improve existing business operations. Within CPG, ERP and enterprise application implementation/modernisation (74 per cent), 3D printing (69 per cent), and enterprise cloud (63 per cent) topped the list.
• Respondents from both retail and CPG consider improvement of existing skills a must to implement top digital trends.

Methodology

Infosys commissioned independent market research company Vanson Bourne to undertake research to understand the use of digital technologies and key trends within nine different sectors. From October to December 2017, the quantitative and qualitative subset of the study was carried out, interviewing 1,000 senior IT and business decision makers in organisations that use digital technologies. Respondents were from organisations with 1,000 employees or more and $500 million global annual revenue or higher across verticals such as Automotive, Banking, CPG, Healthcare, Industrial manufacturing, Insurance, Life Sciences, Retail and Utilities.