What IoT Means for Retailers?

By CIOReview | Tuesday, June 11, 2019

FREMONT, CA: In the last few years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has transformed the retail industry. It has revolutionized the shopping approaches of customers as well as the marketing strategies employed by retailers. Despite the potential benefits, the adoption of IoT requires careful consideration, planning, and strategy.

The implementation of IoT can significantly improve the customer experience as well as supply chain management. Also, it will enable them to streamline the productivity of staff and resources. However, it also requires the retailers to take the right steps to adopt robust security measures to secure the IoT infrastructure.

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IoT applications in retail can be adopted to complement the existing systems in the stores, adding enhanced layers to customer interactions. For instance, the utilization of in-store sensors to trigger personalized discounts for shoppers as they navigate the sales floor can improve customer experience. Also, the digitalization of supply chain and inventory management will benefit both traditional and e-commerce retailers.

The IoT tools can be used to observe the condition of products through the supply chain, eliminating excessive loss due to damage, spoiling, and contamination. It can also prevent overstocks and shortfalls by allowing retailers to track the products. The benefits of IoT include personalization, user preference knowledge, and integration of devices.

However, greater connectivity is synonymous with higher security risks. The vast amount of data, such as personal identification, financial data, biometric identification, medical information, and so on shared between the connected devices, will likely attract the attention of cybercriminals. Based on the cyber war activity of the last few years, it does not seem impossible for skilled fraudsters to come up with innovative methods of hacking into the IoT devices and manipulating the consumer data.

The IoT network will have multiple connected devices, and each of these devices serves as a potential point of attack by cybercriminals. Also, the decentralized nature of the system makes it difficult to monitor and pinpoint the sources of attack.

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Hence, it is inevitable for organizations to come with efficient IoT strategies to mitigate potential risks. With the implementation of new digital tools, retailers should also implement adequate cybersecurity measures to protect consumer data. Retailers can leverage advanced fraud scoring to examine the fraud indicators to evaluate the identities of the customers and secure the IoT network.