Revenues generated by Internet of Things (IoT) retail platforms will exceed $4.3 billion by 2023, up from an estimated $890 million in 2018.

According to the analysis from Juniper Research, challenging retail conditions, exacerbated by strong competition in the retail sector, the rise of e-commerce and spiralling rental costs, are acting as a ‘push factor’ for retailers to adopt IoT platforms.

This platform implementation will allow retailers to unlock efficiencies, particularly in the supply chain, which will improve operational margins, the report suggested, with the push for efficiency driving the total number of IoT connected assets to almost 25 billion units by 2023, up from just over five billion in 2018.

The rise of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, leveraging IoT sensors to enhance resource utilisation, will drive overall IoT retail software spend to over $13 billion by 2023.

Research author Nick Maynard explained: “Retailers are facing a perfect storm of pressures and challenges, which IoT implementation can help them navigate successfully – ERP and retail platform providers are a compelling proposition in enabling successful IoT transformation.”

Juniper also assessed the extent to which retailers have implemented the various technologies, based on factors such as technological clarity, cost barriers and existing deployments, finding that RFID will continue to have the biggest impact on the retail space.

This is due to the positive impact RFID implementation can have, in not only logistical and warehousing operations, but also as part of ‘just walk out’ shopping experiences like Amazon Go and other cashierless stores being trialled by UK supermarkets.

In fact, previous Juniper analysis suggested retail spend at frictionless payment stores will grow from an estimated $253 million in 2018 to over $45 billion by 2023.

Resource optimisation and heat sensor technologies were also found to be highly mature and disruptive, Juniper noted.

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