Technology Advances in Retail
Technology Advances in Retail: Improving Margins using Wireless Networks
Introduction
The retail industry is one that lives and dies on margins, with managers on a never-ending quest to increase revenue and decrease costs. Technology has been an area of intense focus in retail industries as a way to accomplish both goals. Improvements have been made in areas such as supply chain management, inventory management, customer experience, and loss prevention. Wireless technology, permitting communication between people and devices anywhere and without cables, has enabled the dramatic transformation of business processes in the past, and continues to do so. However, wireless deployments in the past have been limited by security requirements, the cost of deployment, inadequate management solutions, lack of standards, and availability of innovative solutions. Rapid advances in wireless local area network (WLAN) technology in recent years along with widespread adoption of the technology in the consumer and enterprise space have eliminated many of these roadblocks. Today, a new wave of opportunity exists for retail industries to improve margins through the use of wireless technology. This white paper discusses the applications for this technology, the security requirements in a retail environment, and considerations when selecting the right architecture for mobile network deployments.
Retail Applications for Mobility
In the general enterprise market, wireless LANs are being adopted primarily as part of the networking infrastructure, to support standard desktop applications such as email, web browsing, file server access, and other conventional enterprise applications. In the retail industry, wireless LANs are deployed to support much more specific and innovative applications, with a focus on either improving existing processes or adding new ones.
Mobile Point-of-Sale
Point-of-Sale (POS) is the physical location where goods are sold to customers. Traditionally,
Introduction
The retail industry is one that lives and dies on margins, with managers on a never-ending quest to increase revenue and decrease costs. Technology has been an area of intense focus in retail industries as a way to accomplish both goals. Improvements have been made in areas such as supply chain management, inventory management, customer experience, and loss prevention. Wireless technology, permitting communication between people and devices anywhere and without cables, has enabled the dramatic transformation of business processes in the past, and continues to do so. However, wireless deployments in the past have been limited by security requirements, the cost of deployment, inadequate management solutions, lack of standards, and availability of innovative solutions. Rapid advances in wireless local area network (WLAN) technology in recent years along with widespread adoption of the technology in the consumer and enterprise space have eliminated many of these roadblocks. Today, a new wave of opportunity exists for retail industries to improve margins through the use of wireless technology. This white paper discusses the applications for this technology, the security requirements in a retail environment, and considerations when selecting the right architecture for mobile network deployments.
Retail Applications for Mobility
In the general enterprise market, wireless LANs are being adopted primarily as part of the networking infrastructure, to support standard desktop applications such as email, web browsing, file server access, and other conventional enterprise applications. In the retail industry, wireless LANs are deployed to support much more specific and innovative applications, with a focus on either improving existing processes or adding new ones.
Mobile Point-of-Sale
Point-of-Sale (POS) is the physical location where goods are sold to customers. Traditionally,