Forrester Research, Inc.

Consumers are changing the way they browse and shop for goods using mobile devices.

According to the State of Retailing Online 2016 study from Forrester Research, Shop.org and Bizrate Insights, growing use of smartphones by consumers, a shift in investments by technology companies and continued optimization strategies from retailers has landed smartphones on top as a driver of mobile sales and traffic for retail companies.

Consumers are changing the way they browse and shop for goods using mobile devices.

According to the State of Retailing Online 2016 study from Forrester Research, Shop.org and Bizrate Insights, growing use of smartphones by consumers, a shift in investments by technology companies and continued optimization strategies from retailers has landed smartphones on top as a driver of mobile sales and traffic for retail companies.

Chain Store Age spoke to industry experts to get a sense of where four strong trends in retail technology — mobile payment, same-day delivery, Internet of Things and social commerce — are heading in 2016. We also offer a sneak peek at the burgeoning trend of visual search.

I left Walmart to pursue what I saw as the future of retail. In my exit interview with Mike Duke (at that time president and CEO of Walmart International) he asked me what I meant by the future of retail. Having worked in the international division, Sam’s Club and Costco prior to that, the future I saw at the time revolved around leveraging data and managing technology to understand customers in a granular fashion and speaking to them directly as individuals with highly lifestyle relevant products and services.

Retailers looking to boost in-store redemption rates for coupons should consider implementing a particular leading edge technology.

A new study from Juniper Research, “Mobile & Online Coupons: Redemption, Loyalty & Consumer Engagement 2015-2020,” has found that nearly 1.6 billion coupons will be delivered annually to consumers via beacon technology by 2020, up more than 10 times from 11 million in 2015.

Various technology analysts, retail industry pundits, and economists of all stripes, have long predicted the demise of paper and coin currency along with the dawn of a cashless society.

And it is true that over the last few years, we’ve seen a big acceleration in the drive towards large-scale consumer adoption of new digital payments technologies, especially in the mobile category.

Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM EST

A new study from Juniper Research has found that the increased rollout of contactless payment services using fingerprint scanners will push the number of biometrically authenticated transactions to nearly 5 billion by 2019, up from less than 130 million this year.

The research observed that at present, only two services, Apple Pay and Samsung, used fingerprint scanners for authentication, with availability currently limited to the U.S. and U.K. for the former, and the U.S. and South Korea for the latter.

With the rise of multichannel retailing and a saturated retail market, today’s customers expect to find the products they want, when they want and in a way that is most convenient to them. Be it via speedy delivery, in-store pickup or traditional store visits, shoppers today want to be connected to their purchases quickly. Retailers that don’t provide such services will be outperformed by competitors that do this Christmas season.

The National Retail Federation has formed a Digital Council to focus on the e-commerce, mobile and innovative initiatives that exist within the retail industry today.

The members-only council, powered by NRF’s Shop.org digital division, will support and promote collaboration in efforts like the exchange of information on digital retail trends and strategies, the development of original research, and educational events and advocacy opportunities in Washington, D.C.