IDC Retail Insights: Predictions for 2012 for the Retail Industry

IDC has released its IDC Retail Insights' Predictions for 2012 via it’s annual predictions conference call.  This was a global predictions call and was focused broadly on all types of financial services.  There are also other calls coming up that focus on regional predictions in both Europe and Asia as well as calls specific to sub-industries within Financial Services.   

Leading this conference call was Bob Parker Group Vice President.  Other IDC Retail Insights team members on the call were

• Christine Bardwell   Research Manager
• Greg Girard   Program Director
• Leslie Hand   Research Director
• Ivano Ortis   Head – International, IDC Retail Insights

Summary

According to IDC Retail Insights, the economic indicators are strong going into 2012.  IDC believes that year to year spending growths for Retail Industry segments will range from a low of 3.9% for for Home Furnishing to a high of 5.6% for Drug Stores.  Spending will grow the fastest in the software at 5.8% year to year, while services growth will be lowest at 3.5%.  Asia Pacific is poised to grow the fastest at 4.8% while Western Europe will only row at 3.6%.

The IDC Retail Insights team also confirmed four major IT trends that are reshaping the industry:  Cloud Computing, Social Computing, Mobile Computing, and Analytics.

The Ten Predictions

The 2012 predictions list below was sourced from the conference call slides.

1. Growth Strategy. “Consumers, not products or channels, create the basis for growth strategies.”
2. New Retail IT Model. “The Omni-Channel Consumer directs a new Retail IT model for the industry – O3.” 
3. Innovative & Efficient. “Retailers will race to innovate and will operate more efficiently.”
4. Synchronicity. “Retailers will synchronize the supply chain with the clock speed of their customers.”
5. Brand Experiences. “Retailers will create great brand experiences by enabling engaged employee experiences.”
6. Customer Engagement. “Planning paradigms will begin to evolve to support genuine customer brand engagement strategies.”
7. Assortment Planning. “Continuous assortment planning (AP) orchestrated for space becomes the planning hub.”
8. Store Evolution. “The store evolves – welcome to the Omnichannel Store.”
9. Social Conversations. “Customer experience improvements that boost online conversion will go beyond the web store.”
10. Delivery Models. “eCommerce delivery models will fragment.” 

For More Information

• The full report will be posted at the IDC website sometime in the next month.
• Conference Call Replay (registration required): IDC Retail Insights Predictions 2012: Retail. Other webinars targeting EMEA and AP are also available at the IDC website
• Press Release:  IDC Retail Insights To Present Top 10 Predictions for 2012
• Community:  The IDC Retail Insights Community has blogs, videos, forums, resource library, events etc.
• IDC Retail Insights Newsletter: www.idc-ri.com/newsletter
• The IDC Retail Insights main page is at http://www.idc-ri.com
• The IDC 2012 Predictions portal is at http://www.idc.com/research/Predictions12/Main/index.jsp.  This page is being updated daily as new reports come out, webinars announced, etc.