Conexxus Annual Conference Addresses Evolving Technology Landscape

First day’s speakers address growing influence of mobile and social on retail and payments.

April 28, 2015

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – More than 125 of the industry’s top technology experts are gathering in Annapolis this week for the Conexxus Annual Conference. As the convenience and fuel retailing industry’s only event focusing on new technologies and technology standards to improve business processes, reduce costs and increase productivity, the conference provides a unique opportunity to learn from experts both within and outside of the retail channel.

Conexxus Executive Director Gray Taylor opened the conference by reminding attendees that “Conexxus is about far more than simply standards,” an assertion that become clear as the day progressed, with presentations by Microsoft Retail CTO Marty Ramos and Social Driver Chief Strategy Officer Anthony Shop.  

Taylor provided attendees with an overview of the technology and payments landscape, from the ever-closer EMV implementation, to the beginning of the “wallet wars” and development of cloud-based systems, to the future of payments in tokenization.  

He also shared his predictions for what he sees as the burning issues that will arise over the next year, among them:

  • EMV (of course), whose implementation remains hobbled by the long-delayed specifications that are only now being built in to payment systems. When the audience was asked how many expect to be compliant by October, few hands went up, leading Taylor to emphasize the need to develop a comprehensive guide for implementation.
  • Device integration, i.e., the Internet of Things. “This is where we’re going to see a lot of change in the next year or so,” said Taylor.
  • EB2B: “Supply chain is the next frontier of profitability and optimizing the supply chain will be essential,” explained Taylor, citing the particular relevance of supply chain optimization in order to maintain a successful fresh foodservice offer.
  • Mobile “everything,” especially how retailers can integrate improved interaction between mobile and brick-and-mortar stores.
  • Tokenization, which will be increasingly important, because “If we don’t do it right, we can be paying a lot down the road,” said Taylor.
  • Globalization of standards: The industry needs to get ahead of it before the card brands develop their own global standards that we’re forced to use.

Following Taylor’s forward-looking industry overview, Marty Ramos took the stage to share his experiences as Microsoft CTO for retail, consumer products and services worldwide enterprise and partner group. Ramos shared an inside look at Microsoft’s 23,000-square-foot “test” mall, inviting attendees to visit if they’re ever in Redmond, Washington – an offer Conexxus members took advantage of earlier this year with a site visit.

Ramos described the changing consumer landscape, describing how in the past, shopper behavior and experience was pretty linear, but is now going through multiple channels in a very non-linear way. That means retailers must manage those multiple channels as well, creating an “interesting” environment, according to Ramos.

Ramos cited the example of Starbucks’ success with mobile payment, calling the Starbucks card “one of the best innovations out there. It’s truly their own tender type.” Customers who pay with their Starbucks card buy three times more and by the end of December more than 15% of Starbucks customers were paying with their phone. “No other form of mobile payment has that kind of uptake,” Ramos said.

“Technology enables brick-and-mortar stores to regain parity with online,” he emphasized. With 1.7 billion mobile users, it must be an integral part of the shopping experience, indispensable both inside and outside of the store.

Ramos also provided numerous examples illustrating the potential of beacons and other types of sensor devices. Beacons give retailers vast amounts of information, from predictive analytics to customer history, to in-store shopping paths, and tying web history in with buying patterns. (For more on beacons, read “The Beacon Break Through” in the January issue of NACS Magazine.)
Other high-tech integration efforts mentioned by Ramos included using in-store LED lights set to pulse at a frequency that signals phones while invisible to shoppers; emerging context applications, such as the solutions provided by Conexxus Platinum Member P97 Networks; the “Media Cart” experiment to put a tablet on shopping carts that sense where in store the customers are and can push advertising; Kinect-enabled shelf monitoring that can track shopper interaction at all levels; and NFC-enabled shelf labels.

“Technology must enhance the shopper experience,” emphasized Ramos.
The consumer experience was at the core of the morning’s final presentation by Anthony Shop, chief strategy officer for the digital agency, Social Driver. He emphasized that an essential lesson for retailers is to understand that when they interact with customers, it needs to be about what works for the customer, not the retailer. “When we tap into the energy in people, we will unleash remarkable results,” he stated.

He advised attendees that, while it may seem overwhelming, social media creates a lot of opportunities to engage with customers in new ways. “So don’t throw up your hands, learn about it,” he advised. “That will differentiate the leaders.”

He also cautioned that companies need to focus on innovation, not imitation, because what works for one company may not work for yours, citing examples of several retail efforts that missed the mark when they tried to copy someone else’s successful campaign. “Think critically when someone says, ‘Hey, I saw something at another store’,” he advised.

He ended his presentation by suggesting that all efforts should keep three things in mind: Be flat, fast and fun. “You might not be able to change your whole company, but you can change your next project.”

The Conexxus Annual Conference continues through this week in Annapolis, Maryland. For more about Conexxus and its annual meeting visit conexxus.org.

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