• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, October 12, 2015

The majority of successful retailers expect the Internet of Things to drastically change how companies do business.

They also see beacons as high value for in-store customer communications, based on a new study.

The majority (54%) of winning retailers, defined as those with sales growth above the average, say the Internet of Things will drastically change the way companies do business in the next three years, according to the research.

The study, the Internet of Things in Retail: Great Expectations by Retail Systems Research (RSR), comprised a survey of 138 retailers, 47% with revenue in excess of $1 billion.

Of those with average or below average growth, only a third (33%) sees the IoT impact on retail.

Most interesting is that retail winners are more aggressive about the opportunities they see around IoT applications for their business.

Here are the technologies that retailers with the largest growth see as high value, according to the RSR study:

• 70% -- Beacons for in-store customer communications
• 58% -- RFID for supply chain inventory tracking
• 56% -- Visual analytics for making sense out of IoT data
• 56% -- Loss prevention sensors
• 54% -- Predictive analytics
• 54% -- Security sensors
• 54% -- RFID for item-level inventory
• 52% -- Big data solutions for storing and analyzing IoT data
• 52% -- Sensors for tracking status of equipment
• 50% -- Sensors for tracking inventory
• 50% -- Sensors for tracking customer footpath through stores
• 50% -- Beacons for store perimeter marketing
• 48% -- Event-based alerting and exception management
• 46% -- IoT device and network monitoring
• 42% -- Cameras and video analytics for customer experience purposes

Average and below average retailers have a very different view in every category.

For example, fewer than half (44%) rank beacons for in-store customer communications as a high value IoT technology and only 28% see using beacons for store perimeter marketing as high value.

The good news is that many of the fastest growing retailers see the impact of the Internet of Things ahead and can plan accordingly.

Only time will tell if the others will follow and what impact that may have on determining if the stay below average.