Ah, summertime. Beaches… ice cream… and our annual inquiry asking retailers what they perceive as going on in their stores – and what they plan to invest in next. It’s the perfect time to ask, as post-holiday conference season has slowed (we can’t rightfully call it spring conference season anymore, as the glut of events have caused a real spillover into summer months), but it’s a time when many retail execs have allotted themselves some time away from the office. And for those at the forefront, that means it’s not long until their minds start to drift back to what improvements they can make in their stores.

One area we’ve been pounding on for years is the need for retailers to embrace WiFi. One: to up the quality of their workforce. And two: because as scary as it is to offer WiFi to consumers, it’s equally important. I could choose any of the past 9 years’ reports to highlight this point, but just take a look at what we said 12 months ago:

RSR has consistently observed that the lack of wireless throughout the store is a real problem for retailers. We keep waiting for the benchmark that shows a significant majority have made the move. So far, it just hasn’t happened. This year, fewer than 50% report they have wireless available on the selling floor at all. Still, it’s interesting to look at what respondents who do have Wi-Fi are using it for (Figure).

Figure 1: Winners Far More Likely To Use Wireless To Help Employees

Source: RSR Research, July 2015

In yet another testimony to Winners’ focus on employee empowerment, we can see that among those who DO have Wi-Fi, almost half use it to support employees and management. Others are as likely to use wireless to support customers or simply for inventory control purposes in the back room. They lag Winners in supporting their employees.

We believe these numbers are still shockingly sub-optimal, but it does beg the question: What is taking so long? Why have we been talking about the lack of Wi-Fi for almost a decade, when almost every home now has the technology installed as part of their internet connection?

What’s The Wi-Fi Holdup?

The answers from those who have no Wi-Fi are instructive. The “store multiplier ” along with sheer size of the store footprint drives costs up. This is the most frequently cited reason Retail Winners are holding off on Wi-Fi implementations. Only slightly behind cost is the “security problem. ” Retailers are growing weary of seemingly endless data breaches, and even though the majority of criminals gained access to corporate networks through email phishing messages, the perception remains that Wi-Fi is a weak spot criminals can exploit to gain access to their systems (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Winners Worry Over Cost and Security, Others Have Other Priorities

Source: RSR Research, July 2015

Others have different priories, likely associated with the lack of cross-channel integration cited above or supporting the implementation of EMV-compliant PIN pads. EMV is an unavoidable priority: without it retail chains will bear the burden of the full cost of future data breaches. Still, almost a third have managed to implement wireless for their customers: perhaps they should consider moving employee support up on their priority list.

So here’s the question: has any of this changed in the past 12 months? We’re starting our analysis of the 2016 data right now. And no one wants to count their chickens before they’re hatched. But our initial analysis tells us that maybe – just maybe – things are finally starting to turn around.

We’ll be certain to let you know when the full data is available to view.