Bringing Online Shopping Experience Offline -Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Bringing Online Shopping Experience Offline? Answer: Introduction: The way in which the retail business conduct their process of business has been greatly affected by the growing use of the internet. IoT or Internet of Things is considered to be the enabling factor that lies behind the digital future. IoT is the collective network of physical devices, vehicles, and other electronic appliances embedded with various software sensors and many more for the purpose of enabling this objects to connect and exchange the data (Dlamini and Johnston 2016). Internet of Things or IoT allows various objects to be sensed or controlled remotely across the network infrastructure that is existing at the present state. This will be creating new opportunities for direct integration of the real world with the systems that are computer based (Weber 2015). The term Things in IoT mainly refers to the devices that are connected to the internet and this mainly involves devices like the bio-transponders present at animals in a farm or jungle, heat monitoring devices and many more. What these devices do is they generally collect the useful data by making use of the different existing technologies. Initially this collection of data is followed by autonomous flow of data to the other devices (Kahlert 2016). The report also analyses the various uses of IoT in the retail business along with the technologies that are used and how the business processes are enabled in the Retail sector by the use of IoT. Later part of the report discusses about the benefits of using the IoT in retail business and the challenges that are faced during the implementation of IoT in retail. Lastly the report discusses about how the challenges in the retail business can be overcomed. Literature review: The main purpose of this literature review is to identify the various benefits of IoT in the retail business along with the various challenges associated with this use. This literature review will help in understanding the key terms, definition and the terminology which is associated with the use, benefits and challenges of the IoT devices. It can be stated that IoT is an internet based global information technology that is mainly associated with the facilitation of good and service exchange (Porkodi and Bhuvaneswari 2014). This technology is gradually gaining a lot of importance in the whole world. There are various benefits associated with the implementation of IoT in the retail sector. Along with this IoT implementation also provides various new ways of interacting with the customers. An environment is encompassed by IoT which is generally made up of thing, communication, applications and analysis of data. For various reason the IoT has been perceived as a disruptive technology in the retail sector (Perera et al. 2014). IoT is generally used by the retailers for the purpose of leveraging the opportunities like the connection of devices for the purpose of creating a new service which will be helping in the improvement of customer experiences, optimisation of the supply chain operations long with creation of new opportunities which would be helping in the generation of new revenues. Analysis of the retail sector using IoT: The main reason that lies behind the use of IoT in the retail sector is due to the presence of a unique feature of identifying the products along with an ease of communication and providing of real time information (Guo et al. 2013). As the competition is increasing the retail market day by day so the use of IoT is growing more and more by the retailers for the purpose of gaining a huge amount of market share. IoT has made it very much easy for the retailers to gather the information of the customers along with easy access to data and availability of huge amount of data. IoT also helps the retailers in optimising their store layout by the process of installing the sensors which would be helping in the tracking of the movements of the customers so as to identify the aisles which are having the highest traffic which in turn would be helping in the placing of goods on the aisles which will increase the rate of purchase. This can be better understood by the use of example like Hugo Boss made use of the heat sensors in his cloth store so as to track the movement of the customers which would be initially followed by the usage of this data to identify the aisles which is having the highest traffic (Dlamini and Johnston 2016). This was followed by the placing of the premium products in those aisles having the high traffic so as to increase the sales. The retail business makes use of the data that is received from the IoT device so as to gather various information about the customers behaviour along with using them so as to understand the informations and recommend the products which are more likely to be brought by the customers which would he helping in earing profits (Gregory 2015). For example, Dohle a German grocery retailer makes use of the smart shopping cart that helps in providing information related to the products in the store. This carts were also able to retrieve and store the information in real time along with answering of the queries and enabling the process of checking out without waiting in the lines. IoT also helps the customers as well. IoT helps the customers in finding products that helps in finding the products that they are looking for in the stores. The IoT devices helps in enabling this process by tracking and locating the products which the customers are looking for (Longo et al. 2013). The IoT devices are installed by the retailers on the shelves so as to notify the retailers when the products are running out. It has been estimated that around 3.9% retailers suffers due to running out of the stocks and by use of IoT in the shelves this loss can be eliminated very much easily. In an alternative way this IoT can help the retailers in accessing the quality of the products which is very much popular in the supermarkets as they keep the fresh products (Parry et al. 2016). Example of such use is the use of IoT device by the Panasonic in their selves who uses this technology so as to monitor their shelves. Analysis of the Security and the Privacy Challenges: Retail business can fully gain the benefits of IoT only by overcoming the challenges that that rises due to the use of such devices. The most important issues of IoT are this security and the privacy challenges which can also be considered as the centre of trust, relationship building and exchange. Security challenges: One of the greatest challenge faced by the retail sectors is the various type of security issues. The use of new IoT devices are increasing day by day which is initially leading to the increase of data attacks on the new devices (Kim Park and Shin 2014). Many businesses had faced the security challenges and have compromised their security and customer information and this includes many renowned companies like Apple, Home Depot, JP Morgan, Anthem, Sony and many more. This is main reason due to which security can be considered to be a major challenge and the business needs to overcome this challenges. This can be done by effective use of IoT technology (Nowodzinski ?ukasik and Puto 2016). The security of the IoT devices are very much complex due to the fact that there exists a connection of billions of devices. Along with this more devices are getting connected due to this reason the risk of potential attacks also increases to the IoT technology. These type of attacks can also effect the communication channels by means of physical threats. Privacy challenges: Privacy can be defined as the process of preserving the anonymity which means that it is the process which is strongly connected with the controlling of the information about themselves. Large amount of data transfer takes place between the IoT devices which initially makes this prone to high amount of risk when the privacy of the data is considered (Rashid Peig and Pous 2015). So it can be stated that along with the security challenges the privacy of data is also one of the major challenge in the IoT technology. The connection of devices by making use of the data creates a huge amount of privacy as well as trust issues. It must be ensured by the retail business that they are capable of keeping the data of the customers in an ethical way along with which it should also be seen that they are no forcing their customers to reveal their information about themselves to anyone else by making use of the IoT technology (Vermesan and Friess 2014). Network Challenges: The use of IoT devices are increasing day by day which is initially leading the business to take care of the network elements. This is done so as to ensure that efficient transmission of data takes place between the wired as well as wireless technologies. With increase in the IoT devices a huge amount of load is imposed upon the network bandwidth which initially leads to challenges related to capacity and the bandwidth which causes failures in the network (Fantana et al. 2013). The traditional form of network that is being used right now does not provide any type of technical feature along with the operational cost which requires a coverage of wide range and bandwidth, good lifespan of battery, less hardware and low operating cost along with a connection density which is relatively high. Suggested methods for the purpose of solving the problem: There are several ways in which the challenges faced by IoT can be overcome some of them are listed below: The security challenges can be eliminated by building of security into the device at the outset rather than as an afterthought during the process of designing. The employees should be trained about the importance of the security and should be ensured that the management of security is done at an appropriate level in the retail business. The retail business must ensure that they are hiring an outside service provider so as to make sure that the providers are capable of maintaining a reasonable security along with providing a reasonable oversight of the providers (Shankara et al. 2015). The time when the security risk is identified then there is a need of considering an defence in depth strategy whereby multiple layer of security maybe used for the purpose of defending against a particular risk. Measures need to be considered so as to keep away the unauthorised users from accessing the device, data or personal information of the consumer which is stored on the networks. Monitoring of the connected devices needs to be done throughout the entire life cycle along with situations where it is feasible along with the providing of security patches so as to cover the risks (Gumzej 2012). The challenges regarding the privacy can be overcome by making use of service agreements between the business and customer along with the technological advancement that is fixing of the bugs. Another way is the encryption of the data so as to protect the data which is produced by the IoT technologies at the application level. This would be helping in the protection of sensitive data along with limiting the access to the data while using mandates which might include things like Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard which is ideal for the retail business (Chaudhuri 2016). There is and need of selection of IoT technologies which could efficiently and effectively communicate with the wired, wireless and mobile networks for the purpose of eliminating the risks related to network challenges. Evaluation of the solution: The new solutions will greatly help the retail business and this includes the maintenance of the inventory accurately, prediction regarding the maintenance of the store facilities, use of the RFID for the item level inventory, tracking of the supply chain inventory, proximity marketing and security based upon the sensors. The new systems will greatly help in cutting down the risk of employee threat and shoplifting. This will be done by providing the retail stores with an extra power of accountability at every level of operation. Along with this by application of smart shelves, source tagging SKUs, video surveillance and many more the keeping of an accurate count of everything would become very much easy. IoT technologies would also help in constant monitoring of temperature, humidity, and other environmental variables in retail sectors associated with food and pharmaceuticals. Analysis of the Technologies Used for IoT: RFID systems are the key components of the IoT technology. The RFID system is mainly made up of readers, which are associated with the triggering of the transmission of the signals and tags. A unique identifier is attached to every tag, object, sensors and actuators (Zancul et al. 2016). It can be stated that RFID is mainly used the retail business for the purpose of improving the traceability and visibility of the products which would be initially leading to the increase in accuracy, efficiency and speed of various processes in the retail business. the use of RFID also helps in reducing the storage, handle and distribute the costs, along with the improvement in sales by decreasing the rate of running out of stock. Various type of benefits is offered by the IoT and this mainly includes the reduction in cost, increase in the revenue, improvement of processes and many more (Balaji and Roy 2017). There are also other technologies which help the IoT in gaining its capability by working together. These other technologies mainly include the Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), cloud computing, ubiquitous communication, Near field communication, smartphones, and many more. So it becomes importantly important for the retail business to know which combination of technology is the best for the purpose of improvement (Novotny Dvid and Csfor 2015). But despite all this most of the IoT technologies are not a complete set which is needed for the purpose of building an IoT business solution. This leads to the need of configuring, modifying and integrating with the several back end systems associated with the building up of IoT solution by use of the data which is best suited for the business. Analysis of The Future of Retail Business by Making Use of IoT Technology: The IoT device would be changing the structure of business by the end of 2020 and over 20 billion different type of things will be connected. This would be helping the technologies that are currently consumer centric and would be used by the business and vice versa (Singh and Singh 2015). The business that are currently using the IoT have an aim of reducing the cost along with improving the efficiency and creation of new models for business by means of physical products, services and data analysis. But the impact of this usage differs among various businesses. The impact of IoT will be noticeable on industries like the retail, utilities and manufacturing as compared to the impacts on other industries like the government, education, insurance and banking. So with increase in the use of IoT there is an essential need for the business to acquire new data centres which would be much more flexible as well as scalable for the purpose of supporting the received escalations (Logvinov et al. 2016). So it can be stated that a stand-alone IoT strategy might add value but there the value can be realised at a greater rate when there is an incorporation of IoT strategy within a business wide digital strategy. IoT would be acting as cornerstone in the digital business strategies of the several organisations along with which it would also be disruptive, and would be requiring the mastering of new technologies and capabilities. Analysis of the Business Processes that will be Enabled by the use of IoT: The impact of IoT on the everyday processes and behaviours of the retail business is inevitable. This turns to be the main strength for the business associated with this is the processes which are new for the business. The different processes in the retail business have undergone several changes with years passing by (Lee and Lee 2015). For example, with the use of IoT it is possible to guide the customers directly to items which they want to purchase when the customer enters the store. This is done by usage of a connection enabled by the IoT devices and the cell phone of the customer. By adaptation of new process like automatic checkouts the retail business would be able to create new business models, improve the productivity, reduce the costs and increase the sales as well. Checkouts is one of the biggest process used by the retail business which is very much time consuming along with being costly. So IoT can be used by the retail business for the purpose of optimising the processe s (Li et al. 2012). This would be initially leading to the automated checkouts which would provide various benefits like the decrease in time required by the customers during standing in long ques. The automated checkouts would also help in lowering the cost required for the labours along with the cutting of time which is spend by the customers in the stores. Apple Pay is one example of automated checkout system. Conclusion: The report helps in concluding to the fact the use of IoT technology is increasing in the retail sector. The retail industry is looking forward for new disruptive technologies that would greatly help them in increase their efficiency. Ultimately it can be stated that the retailers who are embracing this IoT technology are capable of knowing about all the aspects of their business besides knowing about their customers and business along with the supply chain. Everything involved in IoT can be identified uniquely by making use of its embedded computing system. It is possible to operate this inter connected devices if they are within the existing Internet Infrastructure. There are various challenges associated with the use of IoT in the retail sector but this challenges can be easily overcome by making use of certain methods. The use of IoT greatly helps the retailers in various ways and this includes reduction of cost for the labors, managing of stock and many more. Retailers have been working with the RFID for a longer time now they are thinking of moving into the use of different type of IoT devices. This would be initially leading to the improvement of efficiency, accuracy, along with the economic benefits and reduction in the human interventions. References: Balaji, M.S. and Roy, S.K., 2017. Value co-creation with Internet of things technology in the retail industry.Journal of Marketing Management,33(1-2), pp.7-31. Chaudhuri, A., 2016. Internet of things data protection and privacy in the era of the General Data Protection Regulation.Journal of Data Protection Privacy,1(1), pp.64-75. Dlamini, N.N. and Johnston, K., 2016, November. 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