NEW YORK – The National Retail Federation “Big Show” is always a good barometer of what trends will influence the retail technology landscape for the coming year, and the just-completed 2015 edition was no exception. Based on the buzz on the show floor and at keynotes and sessions, 2015 should be an eventful and possibly transformative year in retail IT. Chain Store Age lists the five tech trends that stood out to them at last week’s show.

1. Inventory Gets Smart – On the surface distributed order management, or the ability to seamlessly accept and fulfill orders across all channels of customer engagement, appeared to be the leading technology trend of NRF 2015. However, the real underlying trend is the ability to intelligently locate and distribute inventory from anywhere to anywhere in the enterprise, in near or real time.
2. RFID Enters the Wonder Years – Intelligent inventory itself does not happen in a vacuum. Currently, the only way for retailers to obtain the near- or real-time visibility into their enterprise inventory to allow intelligent fulfillment and distribution is to use RFID technology. Retailers are also discovering that RFID is also a great tool for providing CRM features like automatic payment and delivering personalized in-store recommendations.
3. Security – 2015 is the year retailers realize that securing their networks, payment systems and databases is an absolute necessity.  The rapidly approaching October 2015 mandate for U.S. retailers to comply with EMV regulations for accepting secure, chip-based card payments is prompting a lot of activity in the POS and front-end security space. Smart retailers know that EMV is the first step, not the goal line.
4. Do Something with all that Data – Retailers have been collecting and segmenting volumes of “Big Data” for several years. 2015 appears to be the year they finally do something with it. Sophisticated analytical tools and processes are making it possible for retailers to apply Big Data to make assortments, marketing campaigns, discount offers, recommendations and entire shopping experiences more personalized and tailored than ever before.
5. Mobile – Mobile is rapidly becoming the most important customer engagement channel of all, with rapid-pace innovation and forward-thinking retailers and systems developers taking a “mobile first” development approach. Mobile has become understood to be the dominant CRM and transactional tool of the future, including for in-store activities. This also forces mobile technology vendors to provide real value instead of relying on buzz to sell mobile solutions, to the benefit of everyone.

To keep up with the latest technology developments specific to the convenience and fuel retailing industry, visit Conexxus.org or register to attend the Conexxus Annual Meeting in Annapolis, Md., April 26-30.