Acumen Anticipates $40.2 Billion IoT Retail Market

“…77 percent of retailers believe that IoT will improve the customer experience, while 89 percent are hoping that it will give them more insight into their audience’s preferences and behaviors.”

Acumen Research and Consulting is forecasting significant growth in the IoT Retail Market in the next few years. The firm believes that the market will be worth more than $40.2 billion by 2028, after climbing at a CAGR of 19.8 percent for the period between 2021 and 2028.

Some of that growth can be attributed to the impact of COVID-19. The pandemic forced the brick-and-mortar retail industry to adapt to a contactless and remote environment, and that prompted many of those establishments to adopt a slew of IoT technologies. For example, more establishments now support contactless and biometric payments.

However, retailers do have their own motivations for pursuing IoT technology. Most notably, 77 percent of retailers believe that IoT will improve the customer experience, while 89 percent are hoping that it will give them more insight into their audience’s preferences and behaviors. Finally, another 77 percent think IoT tech will make it easier to collaborate with other industry stakeholders. In that regard, IoT and automation tech will help open potential new revenue streams, and help retailers streamline their end-to-end supply chains. 

North America currently makes up the biggest segment of the IoT retail market. It will hold that position throughout the forecast period, though the Asia Pacific region will exhibit a higher CAGR. North America’s dominance reflects its leadership in edge computing, while the APAC region’s growth reflects the widespread use of IoT tech in major population hubs like India and China.

As it stands, around 86 percent of organizations in the APAC region already use some form of IoT tech, though Acumen warned that there is some hesitancy amongst those who have been the victim of a security breach. Acumen listed Cisco, Arm Ltd., IBM, Intel, and RetailNext as some of the key players in the IoT retail space.