What retailers are thinking about today

Headlining the first-ever Loss Prevention (LP) Pavilion at the 2014 NRF Big Show, Telaid was uniquely positioned to speak with retailers about both their IT and their LP goals and concerns. Based on dozens of conversations, here is what we discovered retailers are thinking about today.

1. Business intelligence: from a cutting-edge tool to a must-have

Business Intelligence is essential to all areas of retail: operations, marketing, LP, merchandising. Data from cameras alone can be evaluated by sophisticated software to reveal invaluable insights on dwell time, pathing, stock levels and customer patterns. This information is critical to retailers who must simplify store design, maximize product placement, streamline operations, and prevent losses. In most cases, existing systems are already capturing key insights. But leveraging business intelligence means figuring out what to look at and how to benchmark.

The big questions include:

• How to deploy?
• How to reap the quickest possible ROI?
• Which solution to choose?

2. IT and physical security convergence is here. (The challenge is getting the teams to work together effectively.)

Convergence is not coming… it’s here! Most retailers are in various stages of moving from analog to IP-based solutions for their physical security technologies. The challenge is not as much in the implementation of the technology as it is in developing a smooth working relationship and defining the roles of IT vs. LP/AP.

• Who has technology selection rights?
• Who “owns” the technology”?
• How do you ensure the proper trade-offs between performance and resources?

3. Keeping up with what’s next has become a full-time, but necessary job. Every technology implementation demands process tweaks.

Aside from the obvious responsibilities of managing a retail operation, retailers are also faced with keeping pace with technologies that are presenting themselves at break-neck speed. From wireless infrastructure that supports IT and physical security technologies, to implementation of mobile POS, retailers are finding it challenging to manage adoption of these technologies as well as the issues of security, redundancy and operational changes inherent with each.

Retailers were asking:

• How quickly will these technologies gain widespread adoption?
• How will they impact our current IT infrastructure?
• How will adoption of these technologies impact LP?

If any of these questions is up for debate at your organization, contact us to start a conversation with Telaid, the leaders in bridging the gap between IT and LP/AP. We can schedule some time for you with Keith Aubele, LP veteran with companies including Wal-Mart and The Home Depot, to discuss your LP challenges. Let us show you how our "best practices" approach to deploying technology saves retailers time and money.