ISG Launches Two Studies on Retail Technology Industry - Seite 2

• Ecommerce platforms, covering providers that offer a range of services related to such websites, which are continuously evolving to add more functionality, offer more flexible pricing models, become more scalable and provide a high degree of personalization and customer support. Product search and selection have become more user-friendly through visual search, digital stylists and chatbot recommendations.

• Merchandise Planning and Management Software, in which vendors are enhancing their offerings by adding automation and AI capabilities, giving retailers the ability to better estimate demand, optimize their in-store and digital inventories and create better pricing strategies.

• Retail Transformation Services, covering innovations that intertwine ecommerce with new physical store strategies. A significant number of downtown standalone stores are morphing into high-tech experience centers, and there are expected to be more pop-ups and small-format shops opened near residential areas that will also double as micro-fulfillment centers. IT transformation activities will revolve around omnichannel integration, migration to the cloud, digitizing the supply chain, warehouse automation solutions and the emergence of sentient tools with data to support these shifts in the retail ecosystem.

• Platform Migration Services, covering the re-platforming services that will be needed to fulfill the ongoing business requirements of a unified platform and the adoption of new software ecosystems. The providers engaged in these services need to keep themselves updated regarding the latest and greatest versions of vendor platforms and develop capabilities around modern enterprise technology concepts such as cloud-native architectures, API economy and microservices.

• Managed Services, covering providers that undergird the retailer IT environment. They are primarily driven by innovation to find the right balance between becoming more efficient in operations and reducing costs, through fresh approaches such as AIOps.

The software and services report will cover the global retail technology market and examine products and services available in the U.S. and the U.K.