| | September 20154Retail is in the midst of a transformation. Retailing faces a revolution driven by technology innovation.Today's retail shift is driven primarily by three overriding factors—changing consumer behavior, consumer technologies and globalization. These factors have forced retailers into a position where they must leverage the latest technologies just to stay in the game. For organizations to grow in this new retail paradigm, they must take a customer-centric view of shoppers' engagement with their brand. Leveraging latest technologies today, retailers are empowered to gain better customer insights than ever before. The amount of data retailers can collect from customers—who are engaging with brands in ways that include mobile, social, and the web—presents untold ways to connect and nurture relationships with customers. From there, CIOs must gain organizational alignment and implement a modern, open technology backbone that will enable them to be much more agile and stay ahead of the technology-savvy shopper. In 2015, we will see retailers continue to stretch the boundaries of their interactions with consumers, adding capabilities such as location based marketing, mobile POS and virtual instrumental shopping. As CIOs aggressively scout for innovative technology solutions, there is no dearth of such solutions in the market. Our editorial team evaluated several mature vendors to present you the most promising retail technology solution and consulting companies. These are companies whose solutions are truly capable of impacting the retail landscape. We also spoke to some of the successful CIOs who shared their wisdom on how they are leveraging technology to deal with the wide array of challenges in the current environment. Reading through these insights will give not only a peek into their business environments but also an understanding of the key technology trends impacting the retail sector, and guidance on how to deal with these changes and lead with confidence. On that note, we present to you this special edition on technology for the retail industry. Katie WilliamEditor-in-Chiefkatie@retailciooutlook.comA New Era for Retail: Technology Changes the GameEditorialCopyright © 2015 RetailCIOoutlook, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part of any text, photography or illustrations without written permission from the publisher is prohibited. The publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or illustrations. Views and opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the magazine and accordingly, no liability is assumed by the publisher thereof.SEPTEMBER - 2015Mailing AddressValley Media Inc44790 S. Grimmer Blvd Suite 202, Fremont, CA 94538T:510.402.1463, F:510-894-8405 September 2015, volume SE 21 Published by Valley Media Inc To subscribe to Retail CIO outlookVisit www.retailciooutlook.com Editor-in-Chief Katie WilliamEditorial StaffSalesT:510.565.7564 VisualizersStephen ThomasAshok KumarRETAIL TECHNOLOGY SPECIALFrank Anthonyfrank@retailciooutlook.comEileen SinghJoshua ParkerAlex D’SouzaJudy ChristinLauro Pinto Matthew JacobShirley FaithSonia Sachar
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