TECHNOLOGY REPORT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

TECHNOLOGY REPORT - Essay Example The other innovation in the retail industry is the use of mobile shopping through use of technologies such as MyGROCER business. The emerging technologies will cut down the time taken to process transactions and ensure better customer service. Introduction The retail industry is one of the most crucial and biggest industries in the marketplace. In UK, the retail sector stands for more than seven percent of the total value-added goods sold and has employed over 2.6 million or about 10 percent of the working group (SCB Partners, 2011, p. 5). In US, retail industry contributes to 9.2 % of the GDP and created jobs for 17.4 percent of the total workers. The grocery and food sectors are the main sectors in the industry and it accounted 173.42 billion Euros in 2010 that represented 52.7% of the total revenue from the retail sector in UK. This sector is projected to continue growing at 3.9% annually. In 2010, UK had 91,509 food stores out of which 7970 are grouped as hypermarkets, superstore s and supermarkets (Kourouthanassis et al., 2002, p. 265).Tesco, one of the major retail companies in UK is the largest private employer and was ranked as the twelfth sole contributor to the GDP in 2006 (SCB Partners, 2011, p. 5). ... Technological innovations in the industry also target to enhance efficiency in the back office operations of the firms. The technological innovations in the retail industry to be discussed in the paper include a technology to encrypt card information at the point of sale, the use of mobile devices in retail shopping and the use of NCR software. Moreover, the use of radio frequency identification in the retail industry will be explored (Bird, 2012). Cash Processing Technologies There has been a move by retailers to adopt technological innovations that enable them enhance the security of their customer’s credit card and streamline their back office activities as a way of improving efficiency and customer service (Bird, 2012). Most of the retailers are adopting technologies that help encrypt the information gathered from the credit card once it is swiped at the point of sale. One of the technological products is the VeriShield Protect developed by Lenexa-based Balance Innovations LLC, allows encryption of credit card information up to the point of processing a transaction. Ball Stores adopted VeriShield Protect and this has helped to streamline processing of transactions (Chilson, 2012). This technology has the benefit of assuring customers that the security of their information is maintained and the cash processing becomes easier thereby saving on the time taken to process each transaction. By cutting on time taken in processing transactions, a retailer is able to reduce queues in its stores and therefore become more attractive to customers (Chilson, 2012). The other technology adopted by retailers to enhance the way they process transactions is by use of electronic systems to process