MINNEAPOLIS, Dec. 16, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SPS Commerce, Inc. (Nasdaq:SPSC), a leader in retail cloud services, today unveiled the Enhancing the Retail Omnichannel Customer Experience report. A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of SPS Commerce, the research survey of retailers confirmed that consumers rely on their digital shopping experiences to make in-store buying decisions, making inventory availability and convenient fulfillment critical to creating the personalized shopping experiences that drive sales. Retailers report having made strides in expanding assortments and onboarding vendors, and rank customer analytics, point-of-sale solutions and item management as the technologies most critical to their omnichannel initiatives.
"Retailers are racing to engage consumers across their existing channels, striving to integrate their in-store and digital merchandising," said Peter Zaballos, vice president of marketing and product at SPS Commerce. "We believe this research study highlights how much fundamental change retailers and supplies must make in their business processes and technology systems as the adoption of mobile apps, social media strategies and digital wallets such as ApplePay change how consumers shop."
The research study revealed the following about retailers' responses to the latest consumer buying behavior trends:
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Mobile and store boundaries are disappearing. Of consumers who have used their mobile phone for shopping related activities in the past three months, nearly 50 percent use their devices most of the time to find product information, compare pricing or access customer reviews while shopping in stores.
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Cross-channel engagement is core to retailers' omnichannel strategies, identifying top priorities include enhancing their e-commerce site (60 percent), equipping store staff with mobile apps (32 percent) and improving cross-channel product visibility (30 percent).
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Top investments in omnichannel technologies include customer analytics (60 percent), Point-of-Sale solutions (58 percent) and item management (32 percent).
- Sixty-eight percent of retailers have or are in the process of onboarding new vendors to deliver a broader product assortment.
The complimentary Enhancing the Retail Omnichannel Customer Experience study is available for download from SPS Commerce.
About the Enhancing the Retail Omnichannel Customer Experience Study
The research study quantifies how retailers are transforming in the omnichannel retail era, identifying their top investment priorities and assessing the convergence of the store and mobile shopping channels. SPS Commerce commissioned Forrester Consulting to perform the survey and market analysis, which used existing consumer data from Forrester's Consumer Technographics, as well as data from a custom survey completed by 50 retailers in 2014.
About SPS Commerce
SPS Commerce perfects the power of trading partner relationships with the industry's most broadly adopted, retail cloud services platform. As a leader in cloud-based supply chain management solutions, we provide prewired, proven integrations and comprehensive retail performance analytics to thousands of customers worldwide. With a singular focus on the retail marketplace, we revolutionized traditional EDI systems by developing a platform that enables highly cost-effective and reliable trading partner collaboration. SPS Commerce has achieved 54 consecutive quarters of revenue growth and is headquartered in Minneapolis. For additional information, please contact SPS Commerce at 866-245-8100 or visit www.spscommerce.com.
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