Scaling up the Internet of Retail with IoT will be challenging: prepare for casualties

The WPP Global Retail Practice provides expertise, support, information and consultancy services to client initiatives and projects in retail and fast-moving consumer goods. As such it maintains a constant watching brief over the evolution of the Internet of Retail. David Roth says that while there is no doubt that the IoT in combination with the Internet of Retail will be of profound global significance and is close to reaching an inflection point, it should be remembered that it is still very much a work-in-progress and that work is at different stages in different parts or the world. With the hype machine cranking into overdrive, Mr. Roth cautions would-be pioneers in the Internet of Retail to bear in mind that while trials of technologies and processes are relatively easy to manage, extrapolations of trials results into a fully functioning far-flung commercial network is something else altogether. He also makes the point that history shows that those that guide the pioneers into unknown territory are seldom the leaders when the land is claimed and settlements are built.

Filmed at: The Internet of Retail 9-10 February 2016, Crowne Plaza Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire