Suppliers Forecast Increase In Retailer Tech Spending

CSNews interviewed a handful of suppliers at NACStech on where they think retailers will invest their tech budgets in the coming year

Pinnacle Corp.

CSNews: Do you expect to see retailer technology expenditures increase in 2010? Yes, in four target areas. 1) Data security — not only with respect to implementing a Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS) point-of-sale platform, but within the entire enterprise in order to achieve Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCIDSS) compliance. 2) Loyalty — especially surrounding solutions that offer or interface with fuel coalition rollback capabilities in addition to traditional loyalty discounting programs. 3) Fuel — with today's price volatility, solutions that provide more timely information or accelerated business processes in pricing, dispatch, real-time inventory and billing areas of the business. 4) Mobile technology — this is a key component of today's society and is a must whether it's business intelligence or operational reporting for the retailer, or solutions that enable retailers to better communicate with their customers.

CSNews: In what areas will investment in retail technology bring the greatest return, and why?

With respect to investments in data security technology, there is no return and should be thought of as eliminating the biggest risk to losing the company. It's a defensive investment required to protect the business from bad guys because many companies won't survive a breach, and it's simply not worth the chance.

On the positive side, anything that attracts new consumers into the store or keeps the ones you have from being lured away by competitors (either traditional retail convenience competitors or other retail sectors creeping into our space). Anything that can be viewed as "loyalty," which I define as whatever it takes to increase consumer frequency and spend. Not to be confused with discount programs, but programs that provide more value for the customer and at the same time put more to the bottom line.

KSS, Fuels Pricing Experts

CSNews: Do you expect to see c-store retailer technology expenditures increase in 2010?

During the last couple of years, retailers largely dedicated their IT spends to mandatory upgrades and expenditures — PCI compliance for example — thus trimming discretionary budgets. That trend was then exacerbated by the severe economic downturn, postponing most technology projects, no matter how robust and measurable the return.

With the current economic improvements, we will likely see a gradual increase in discretionary IT spending this year. In addition, the primary focus of IT projects will generally shift from compliance efforts to technology purchases that provide the biggest operational impact and return-on-investment.

CSNews: In what areas will investment in retail technology bring the greatest return, and why?

Finding a technology provider with a solution that creates a low-risk value proposition, yet still provides significant competitive advantages is a challenging effort. But the market has made it clear: technology that is proven, easy to implement and provides measurable results will generate the greatest return.