New Cisco Research Reveals Hyper-Relevance as Key to Winning the Digital Consumer

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Jan 12, 2015) - National Retail Federation 104^th Convention & Expo, Booth 2052 - The digital consumer has come of age and expects a rich palette of retail experiences that provide ever-increasing value and convenience both in-store and out. Today, Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) released survey findings from 1,240 retail consumers in the U.S. and U.K. that uncover their preferences for Internet of Everything (IoE) enabled retail experiences and provides insight to help retailers capture the new digital consumer through IoE innovations fueled by mobility, video, and analytics. The research is part of a global study that when fully completed will survey 6,000 consumers in 10 countries.

Key Highlights

Customers Want a Convenient, Contextually Relevant Shopping Experience

The fifth annual Cisco® Consulting Services retail survey found that most shoppers want innovations that improve convenience and efficiency, extending beyond personalization into hyper-relevance. Hyper-relevance delivers value -- such as greater savings, efficiency, or engagement -- in real time throughout the shopping lifecycle, using analytics to determine the experience that best suits the customer's context (where he is, what she is looking to accomplish in that moment). Analytics helps retailers track in-store patterns and use existing video technology to determine, for example, where shoppers are spending more time in the store and which shelves need restocking, information that can immediately be used to improve shoppers' experience and drive better store performance.

When asked to identify primary areas for in store retail improvements, 39 percent of consumers identified the process of selecting and purchasing goods -- for example, having the products they want in stock and an efficient checkout process. By contrast, 13 percent chose a more personalized shopping experience. That is not to say that customers don't want personalization at all, but consumers made it clear that targeted offers must be contextual, relevant, and easy to participate in.

Digital Consumers Exhibit Strong Interest in IoE-Enabled Experiences, Creating Savings, Efficiency and Engagement

To help provide guidance to retailers on where and how to make their strategic innovation investments, Cisco tested 19 different shopping concepts with consumers in its survey. Together, these provide a snapshot of consumer receptivity to new IoE-enabled innovations in the shopping experience. These use cases are at the heart of the IoE value that is up for grabs for retailers in terms of revenue uplift and employee productivity. For an illustrative $20 billion retailer, these use cases drive a total gross annual value opportunity of $312 million and a 15.6 percent improvement in profitability.