As Paula notes, the 2013 Store Report is being written by Nikki and I this year. And while all three of us are currently at JDA’s Focus Conference in Orlando (expect a full write-up to follow next week), we’ve had plenty of chance to discuss some of its most key findings in our conversations here: the store is on everyone’s mind right now.

So it only makes sense to share a sneak peek with RPW readers, too. No one store can be all things to all people, and as a result, confusion about what a store should be has set in. Recent months have seen headlines of old models falling on the sword of show-rooming (Best Buy) and very public failed re-imaginings (JCPenney).

It therefore only makes sense that the first thing we wanted to know from our retail respondents was what they saw for the future of the store. As you can see from Figure 1, at first blush, its perceived future does not look overly bright.

Figure 1: An Incomplete Vision of the Future…

Source: RSR Research, May 2013

However, these opinions are heavily influenced by retailers’ current status in the market. It comes down to one simple question: are you a Winner or a laggard?

Night and Day

One of the prime examples of this difference is in how Winners regard the future of the store. As seen in Figure 2, Winners have an entirely different point of view from their peers: they see stores as helping to compete with the online experience (49% strongly agree to laggards 24%), and they are much less likely to think that future growth will only come from digital channels (6% to laggards’ 18%). They are much more realistic in their goals, and understand that they can reverse the erosion of the store only if they can better incorporate technology as part of the in-store experience. They are also more likely to believe that they are already on the correct path: believing that the current technology investments they are making will be the ones to help them get where they need to be.

Figure 2: …Comes Into Focus 

Source: RSR Research, May 2013

In essence, Winners have a completely different view of the future, and keeping in mind this “lens ” through which they look while reading the full report (which publishes later this week) will help explain the myriad different tacks they are taking to help return stores to their rightful place of relevance. Furthermore, this vastly different perspective shows they understand the problems stores currently face: while a happily-ever-after scenario may have previously been possible for retailers offering unique products or superior customer service, today, those functions absolutely require new technologies in the store. Customers demand them. In fact, they are an absolute necessity for anyone operating on anything other than a low-price model. And while we’ll discuss the importance of pricing several places throughout the full report when it releases, history has already proven there are very few retailers who can compete on a low-price basis.

This report will be about how technology can help every other store-based retailer compete with rock-bottom-price competition – whether it’s coming from other stores OR the online channel. We’ll make sure to send you a link to the full report as soon as it is available this coming Thursday afternoon.