Last week I wrote a blog post called “The Relevant Retailer. ” In that piece, I put forth the notion that along with buying and selling merchandise, it’s imperative for retailers to remain relevant to their customers. That means, among other things, that what they buy and sell has to match what consumers actually want.

This seems simple enough… but it turns out there’s a lot of insecurity in the retail world over exactly what consumers really want in the first place. Creative technologists respond to this insecurity. And we, at RSR, find ourselves taking briefings from technology providers about technologies that are either solutions looking for problems, use cases that barely make any sense at all, or good technologies that are being aimed in the wrong direction. Unfortunately, with repetition, comes belief, and it appears that retailers have started putting their faith (and scarce budgets) in the wrong places.

That brings me to the topic of the Internet of Things (or IoT). By now, you probably know we have just released our third annual benchmark on the topic, called “The Internet of Things: Identifying REAL Benefits. ” As you can tell from the title, we had a sense that retailers are a bit muddled on pragmatic short-term value of the technology.

Before I go any further, I need to state unequivocally that I believe there are very significant business opportunities retailers can gain from the IoT. And if managed and rolled out correctly, we expect to see real retail problems solved by the increased visibility and knowledge the IoT provides across the enterprise. But so far, it feels like middle managers are missing the boat and so senior management is turning down IoT projects out of hand.

This in itself is not new either. Last year’s benchmark title was “The Internet of Things: Getting Beyond The Hype. ” And even our first benchmark, written in August 2015 was called “The Internet of Things: Great Expectations. ” In other words, this is a technology that’s viewed by some as a savior.

We are therefore in a tricky situation here. We see great value to the technology and would like retailers to be working with it… but we’d like to see that done in the context of current business issues. So far, our best idea to spread the word has been to create a companion to the benchmark; a simple primer for executives titled appropriately enough, “The Internet of Things: A Primer For Executives. ” Our goal for this companion piece is pretty straightforward: to cut through the noise, the flash and the glitz to the practical and pragmatic.

Want to become more operationally efficient? The IoT can help. Want to get your arms around where the heck your inventory is at any moment in time? Yup, the IoT can deliver some immediate benefits there too. Want to get a leg-up on preventive maintenance of refrigeration units, HVAC, stoves and other assets used in fast moving consumer goods and the food service industry? The IoT is ready NOW to help you. For a simple, non-retail example, my standby generator has the capability of reporting its status to a smart phone app. Now, I obviously don’t use my generator every day, but it’s nice to know if the battery is dying or if the oil levels are growing dangerously low before I have an expensive repair on my hands. Makes sense, and makes me more proactive. But it’s not going to change the weather, and it’s not going to prevent power outages… just help me survive them.

Similarly, the IoT is not going to help end our endless pricing “race to the bottom. ” No, it really isn’t. Creative merchants and predictive analytics are the right tools for that. Sadly, in our benchmark, retailers really did report this as a real opportunity for the IoT. That’s why we built a very simplistic primer. VERY simplistic.

In the coming weeks, we’ll be publishing video, audio and written snippets from our IoT report. But the very first take-away I’d like to leave you with is that while IoT is not the cure for world hunger, or even for an overly price conscious retail environment, it can help save money and save sales. That’s a damned good start! And well worth an investment of time and effort.

I hope you enjoy the information to come. And if you are so inclined, please download the benchmark and/or primer, too.