This is one of several studies under the IHL Insight Market View series of research that is part of the Retail Executive Advisory Program (REAP) at IHL. This study looks at top vendors and what their customers are saying about them for their investment plans in 2017.
This data is the result of a primary research study and was collected from 122 different larger retail chains. This data was piggy-backed onto the survey we did that generated the Retail Transformation Study. The data is a cross-tabbed view of individual vendor’s customers and their responses. The manner in which it is written is recommendations from the data to each individual vendor represented based on their data, but there is GREAT competitive value in the data and insight for retailers considering each vendor. For it helps them understand why other customers buy their solutions and why.
Each profile is a series of charts and reviews of the data in the broader study. Here are some of the data points that you get on each vendor.
Business Increasing or Decreasing Among Core Segments – This measures purchase intent among this company’s customers and what percentage are increasing business, decreasing, not changing, don’t work, or won’t work with in 2017.
How Customers View Themselves in Tech Leadership – This is a picture of the vendor’s customers vs. everyone in their key segments as to whether they consider themselves a Leader, Quick Adopter, Late Adopter or Trailer in terms of adopting technology.
Key Priorities – Looking at the top Priorities in the Retail Transformation Study, how do this vendor’s customers prioritize these items verses the entire market. This shows where this vendor wins and doesn’t win. There is great insight in this data.
Customer 2017 Growth Plans – This looks at the vendor’s customers vs. the market in terms of plans for growing store count, enterprise IT spend and store level IT spend. Together with the first measurement, this shows how their overall business is likely to grow, indicating potential takeover targets and updated competitive positioning.
For Core Segments, % of Software Spend Cloud-Based for 2017 – By key line of business categories and in the segments this vendor operates, what percentage of software budget in 2016 is being spent in cloud technologies of total software budget.
Customers Spend on Emerging Technologies – This looks at differences between this vendor customer’s plans for budget growth in emerging technologies verses the overall market in their segments. Are their customers more or less bullish on Beacons, RFID and Predictive Analytics, and Data Visualization?
Sales by Channel – This looks at where this vendor’s customers get their business. Are they higher or lower in sales at stores, ecommerce, mobile commerce or other types of transactions?
IT Spend by Type – This shows the breakout of what type of spending they are doing for the coming year. Is it going to be mostly Maintenance Upgrades, Ongoing Integration, Upgrading Existing Systems, or truly Transformative IT Spend.
IT Spend Increase By Task for 2017 – Where the previous table has the breakout of spend, this looks at the growth rate of investment in the budget for 2017 for those customers.
How Do Their Customers Drive Innovation? – This looks specifically at this vendor’s customers and how they drive innovation in their companies. Do they look outside to Innovation Labs, Consultants, Universities, have their own team or simply rely on established technologies once they are mature.
