Retail IoT Platforms to Connect 12.5 Billion Assets by 2021, Rising 350% from 2016

New data from Juniper Research has found that retailers will connect 12.5bn business assets, such as products, digital signs and Bluetooth beacons, to IoT platforms by 2021. This figure is expected to rise from 2.7bn in 2016, representing a 350% increase.

Juniper predicted that RFID (radio-frequency identification), will re-emerge as the industry’s ‘killer app’ becoming the key factor in the IoT retail ecosystem. RFID tags, used to identify and locate retail assets in real-time, are now at a low enough price point for mass deployment and integrate well with new IoT systems and analytics. New services, such as dynamic pricing or enabling promotional offers via in-store digital signs are also poised for growth.

Integrated Systems Crucial to Disruption

Juniper’s latest research, IoT in Retail: Strategies for Customer Experience, Engagement & Optimisation 2017-2021, argued that ‘next-gen’ processes, such as personalised retail, could be achieved by integrating enterprise software and emerging technologies, with data from connected IoT assets. Juniper forecast that software spend for enterprise resource planning systems to integrate this data would reach $11.3bn annually in 2021, from $1.5bn in 2017.

“Innovative retailers such as Rebecca Minkoff have combined RFID with smart mirrors” explained research author Steffen Sorrell. “Integrating these systems allows real-time information to improve the store experience and bridge physical and virtual worlds – in this case, the concept drove a 200% increase in sales.”

Aiming for the Endgame

Juniper advised that each retailers’ approach to the IoT should differ depending on their main channel focus. It argued that physical retail spaces still have many benefits, not least in terms of being able to avoid the sterility of online shopping. Therefore, Juniper predicted that online retailers’ focus would be on technologies such as machine learning to provide digital assistance, or digital performance management. In this latter instance, measurements such as user experience, IT performance and business outcome are analysed holistically to determine necessary improvements.

Source: Juniper Research media announcement