New research from Ipanema Technologies, the industry leader in network solutions allowing enterprises to guarantee their application performance, reveals that most retailers (65%) struggle with getting the omni-channel right and cite underperforming technology, changing IT trends and the complex organizational infrastructure as the primary reasons.
The customer challenge
Retailers’ increasing focus on customers is driving the omni-channel challenge. They see the customer-centric experience as excellent customer service (58%), fast transactions (55%) and interchangeable purchase channels (49%) but with only 35% of respondents describing their customer experience as excellent, it is clear retailers are grappling with this challenge.
The technology challenge
Back-office technology underpins the delivery of the omni-channel experience but technology issues are hampering their efforts: a sprawling IT infrastructure (74%), business pressure to provide technology innovation (71%) and cost pressures.
In addition, companies are wrestling with a host of IT priorities such as cloud deployment (57%) and mobile application development (55%), supply chain optimization (54%), requiring network design changes:
- Increasing bandwidth (52%)
- Server virtualization (52%)
- Network architecture (47%)
- Content delivery (43%)
- Hybrid networking (39%)
The application imperative
The vast majority (76%) recognize the importance of excellent application performance but lack confidence in the ability of their IT infrastructure to deliver it (78%), roll out new applications (78%) or manage application SLAs (77%).
In addition, retailers believe that guaranteeing consistent and high levels of application performance can have a major impact on:
- Customer/shopper satisfaction (54%)
- Employee productivity (50%)
- Brand reputation (49%)
- Company financial targets (41%)
In fact, if retailers made significant improvements to their omni-channel approach by the end of the year, more than half would expect to see an increase in sales (55%), increased market share (47%), positive word of mouth (47%) and cost savings (46%).
“The ultimate shopping experience depends on a robust omni-channel that delivers speed, Quality of Service and a seamless channel service. Guaranteeing the performance of key retail applications is the surest way to close the gap and deliver that experience”, comments Béatrice Piquer-Durand, VP Marketing, Ipanema Technologies.
To know more:
- Download the retail survey report and infographic: The application gap in retail
- Watch the retail video: Delivering engaging shopping experiences & maximizing your business efficiency
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About the research
Loudhouse, an independent research agency based in London, interviewed 400+ IT decision-makers involved in networking in retail organizations – with at least 1,000 employees and 10 to 250+ global sites linked via WAN.
About Ipanema Technologies
With Ipanema, (re)discover simplicity to guarantee your application performance. For more information, please visit ipanematech.com
