Zebra's Industry Solutions can give your business a competitive advantage by connecting people, assets and data to help you make better decisions.
Scale and energize your retail strategy with a digital backbone that unifies your team, informs priorities and drives results with Zebra's retail technology solutions.
Zebra’s mobile computing, scanning, and printing solutions connect each operational area in your warehouse to give you the agility to realize transformational gains.
Zebra's healthcare technology solutions provide patient identity management, mobile health devices, and business intelligence data to improve efficiency.
Zebra’s manufacturing technology solutions enable manufacturers to become more agile, optimize plant floor performance and embrace market changes.
Zebra's market-leading solutions and products improve customer satisfaction with a lower cost per interaction by keeping service representatives connected with colleagues, customers, management and the tools they use to satisfy customers across the supply chain.
In today's world, the demands on transportation and logistics companies are higher than ever. Dedicated Warehouse, Fleet and Delivery, and Yard and Terminal solutions enable visibility to every aspect of your business and keep operations running flawlessly around the clock.
Zebra's hospitality technology solutions equip your hotel and restaurant staff to deliver superior customer and guest service through inventory tracking and more.
Empower your field workers with purpose-driven mobile technology solutions to help them capture and share critical data in any environment.
Learn how Zebra's public sector technology solutions empower state and local governments to improve efficiency with asset tracking and data capture devices.
Zebra's range of Banking technology solutions enables banks to minimize costs and to increase revenue throughout their branch network. Learn more.
Zebra's range of mobile computers equip your workforce with the devices they need from handhelds and tablets to wearables and vehicle-mounted computers.
Zebra's desktop, mobile, industrial, and portable printers for barcode labels, receipts, RFID tags and cards give you smarter ways to track and manage assets.
Zebra's 1D and 2D corded and cordless barcode scanners anticipate any scanning challenge in a variety of environments, whether retail, healthcare, T&L or manufacturing.
Zebra's extensive range of RAIN RFID readers, antennas, and printers give you consistent and accurate tracking.
Choose Zebra's reliable barcode, RFID and card supplies carefully selected to ensure high performance, print quality, durability and readability.
Zebra's location technologies provide real-time tracking for your organization to better manage and optimize your critical assets and create more efficient workflows.
Zebra's rugged tablets and 2-in-1 laptops are thin and lightweight, yet rugged to work wherever you do on familiar and easy-to-use Windows or Android OS.
With Zebra's family of fixed industrial scanners and machine vision technologies, you can tailor your solutions to your environment and applications.
Zebra’s line of kiosks can meet any self-service or digital signage need, from checking prices and stock on an in-aisle store kiosk to fully-featured kiosks that can be deployed on the wall, counter, desktop or floor in a retail store, hotel, airport check-in gate, physician’s office, local government office and more.
Discover Zebra’s range of accessories from chargers, communication cables to cases to help you customize your mobile device for optimal efficiency.
Zebra's environmental sensors monitor temperature-sensitive products, offering data insights on environmental conditions across industry applications.
Keep labor costs low, your talent happy and your organization compliant. Create an agile operation that can navigate unexpected schedule changes and customer demand to drive sales, satisfy customers and improve your bottom line.
Empower the front line with prioritized task notification and enhanced communication capabilities for easier collaboration and more efficient task execution.
Get full visibility of your inventory and automatically pinpoint leaks across all channels.
Reduce uncertainty when you anticipate market volatility. Predict, plan and stay agile to align inventory with shifting demand.
Drive down costs while driving up employee, security, and network performance with software designed to enhance Zebra's wireless infrastructure and mobile solutions.
Explore Zebra’s printer software to integrate, manage and monitor printers easily, maximizing IT resources and minimizing down time.
Make the most of every stage of your scanning journey from deployment to optimization. Zebra's barcode scanner software lets you keep devices current and adapt them to your business needs for a stronger ROI across the full lifecycle.
RFID development, demonstration and production software and utilities help you build and manage your RFID deployments more efficiently.
RFID development, demonstration and production software and utilities help you build and manage your RFID deployments more efficiently.
Zebra DNA is the industry’s broadest suite of enterprise software that delivers an ideal experience for all during the entire lifetime of every Zebra device.
Advance your digital transformation and execute your strategic plans with the help of the right location and tracking technology.
Boost warehouse and manufacturing operations with Symmetry, an AMR software for fleet management of Autonomous Mobile Robots and streamlined automation workflows.
The Zebra Aurora suite of machine vision software enables users to solve their track-and-trace, vision inspection and industrial automation needs.
Zebra Aurora Focus brings a new level of simplicity to controlling enterprise-wide manufacturing and logistics automation solutions. With this powerful interface, it’s easy to set up, deploy and run Zebra’s Fixed Industrial Scanners and Machine Vision Smart Cameras, eliminating the need for different tools and reducing training and deployment time.
Aurora Imaging Library™, formerly Matrox Imaging Library, machine-vision software development kit (SDK) has a deep collection of tools for image capture, processing, analysis, annotation, display, and archiving. Code-level customization starts here.
Aurora Design Assistant™, formerly Matrox Design Assistant, integrated development environment (IDE) is a flowchart-based platform for building machine vision applications, with templates to speed up development and bring solutions online quicker.
Designed for experienced programmers proficient in vision applications, Aurora Vision Library provides the same sophisticated functionality as our Aurora Vision Studio software but presented in programming language.
Aurora Vision Studio, an image processing software for machine & computer vision engineers, allows quick creation, integration & monitoring of powerful OEM vision applications.
Adding innovative tech is critical to your success, but it can be complex and disruptive. Professional Services help you accelerate adoption, and maximize productivity without affecting your workflows, business processes and finances.
Zebra's Managed Service delivers worry-free device management to ensure ultimate uptime for your Zebra Mobile Computers and Printers via dedicated experts.
Find ways you can contact Zebra Technologies’ Support, including Email and Chat, ask a technical question or initiate a Repair Request.
Zebra's Circular Economy Program helps you manage today’s challenges and plan for tomorrow with smart solutions that are good for your budget and the environment.
The Zebra Knowledge Center provides learning expertise that can be tailored to meet the specific needs of your environment.
Zebra has a wide variety of courses to train you and your staff, ranging from scheduled sessions to remote offerings as well as custom tailored to your specific needs.
Build your reputation with Zebra's certification offerings. Zebra offers a variety of options that can help you progress your career path forward.
Build your reputation with Zebra's certification offerings. Zebra offers a variety of options that can help you progress your career path forward.
Over 80% of Retailers Challenged by Shrink; Better Analytics Can Drive Profitability
Zebra Study also shows seven in 10 retailers pressured to improve returns efficiency as 82% of shoppers prefer retailers offering easy returns
LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill. – Oct. 25, 2023 – Zebra Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: ZBRA), a leading digital solution provider enabling businesses to intelligently connect data, assets, and people, today announced the findings of its 16th Annual Global Shopper Study which confirmed retailers are feeling the omnichannel squeeze, particularly with managing online returns and reducing shrink caused by theft, fraud and other contributing factors.
Eight in 10 retailers agree minimizing fraud/shrink is a significant challenge (82%), and the ability to forecast demand is important to their organization (86%). According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), retailers lost $112 billion due to shrink in 2022, up from nearly $94 billion in 2021. The Zebra study indicates 36% of retailers believe better analytics on shrink could help drive profitability. Many retailers expect to deploy loss prevention analytics (49%) and demand planning and forecasting (54%) by 2026.
While omnichannel shopping causes challenges for retailers, most shoppers prefer options. Eight in 10 favor a blend of online and in-store shopping, and 75% choose to shop with online retailers that have a brick-and-mortar location. As omnichannel shopping continues to grow, the volume of returns increases along with it. Seven in 10 retailers say the pressure is mounting to improve the efficiency and expense of managing online orders, returns, and the fulfillment process. Six in 10 retailers say they are upgrading their returns management technology by 2026.
Store associates will be pleased with this technology investment. Among associates managing returns from online orders, nearly three-quarters (74%) cite frequent returners as their top challenge. This year, the ease of making returns has moved ahead as a leading reason shoppers choose to shop in stores, outpacing comparison shopping. The increase of returns has impacted retailers globally, growing to $1.8T according to the IHL Group.
“Retailers simply can’t keep doing what they are doing when it comes to returns,” said Matthew Guiste, Global Retail Strategy Lead, Zebra Technologies. “While consumers are demanding the ability to easily return items more frequently, retailers find themselves in a tailspin trying to manage the increased expenses associated with inventory visibility, reverse logistics and a high-level of returns. Despite their best efforts and capital expenditures, the problem has progressed, not improved.”
The returns conundrum also impacts related industries, particularly warehousing. Retailers are tapping into the power of technology to help manage returns with 62% saying they plan to deploy reverse logistics technology by 2026 to better manage fulfillment pressures. Nearly three in 10 (31%) of retailers think charging a fee for online orders from frequent returners could potentially improve the overall profitability of online orders.
Consumers Dialing into Digital Checkouts
Since 2020, the number of shoppers who favor digital payment applications have increased substantially; solutions like ZebraPay align with this trend. Those preferring pay/checkout anywhere in-store almost doubled from 15% to 26%, mobile payments jumped from 33% to 50% and “just walk-out” to avoid a long checkout line doubled from 14% to 30%. Meanwhile, 48% of consumers opt for self-checkouts with 75% saying it helps improve their experience.
Most retailers agree self-checkouts deliver value. In fact, eight in 10 of them agree the investment in self-checkouts is paying off as this technology allows associates to work on higher value tasks and improves the customer experience. However, about 80% of retail decision-makers and associates agree store shrinkage and theft is a major issue with self-checkouts.
Moving Modern Retail Forward
Consumers have high expectations for technology. In fact, 80% of surveyed consumers expect retailers to use the latest technology, and seven in 10 say it improves their shopping experience. In alignment with this trend, over half of retailers plan to deploy handheld mobile computers (56%), scanners (54%), RFID (61%) as well as task (54%) and workforce (56%) management software by 2026.
Store associates will favor this outcome as the study shows eight in 10 of them feel more valued–and view their employer more positively–when they have technology to help them do their work. Today, 77% of associates–up from 67% in 2022–feel shoppers are better connected to information than they are.
“To successfully operate a modern store today, it’s critical retailers invest in technologies that elevate the customer experience, engage associates and optimize inventory,” said Guiste. “Consumers demand the way they browse, acquire, consume, and return merchandise to be seamless wherever they shop. This shift requires retailers to work in new ways with technology to deliver the shopping experiences consumers expect, more profitably.”
KEY REGIONAL FINDINGS
Asia Pacific (APAC)
- More retailers in APAC (87%) believe they need better inventory management tools to improve accuracy and visibility compared to 84% globally.
Latin American
- Over the next 12 months, 64% of Latin American shoppers say they plan to shop in-store and 71% will shop online more over the coming year compared to five in 10 shoppers across both channels in other regions.
Europe
- Retailers in Europe are prioritizing sustainability, with 51% saying it plays an increasing role in their business strategy compared to 45% globally.
North America
- Over three-fourths of retailers (77%) in North America say accepting returns of online orders is a significant challenge, compared to 81% globally.
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SURVEY BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY
Zebra’s 16th Annual Global Shopper Study surveyed over 4,200 shoppers, store associates and retail decision-makers globally to gauge the opinions and expectations on today’s shopper experience, technology usage and fulfillment in June – July 2023 by Azure Knowledge Corporation.
ABOUT ZEBRA TECHNOLOGIES
Zebra (NASDAQ: ZBRA) helps organizations monitor, anticipate, and accelerate workflows by empowering their frontline and ensuring that everyone and everything is visible, connected and fully optimized. Our award-winning portfolio spans software to innovations in robotics, machine vision, automation and digital decisioning, all backed by a +50-year legacy in scanning, track-and-trace and mobile computing solutions. With an ecosystem of 10,000 partners across more than 100 countries, Zebra’s customers include over 80% of the Fortune 500. Newsweek recently recognized Zebra as one of America’s Most Loved Workplaces and Greatest Workplaces for Diversity, and we are on Fast Company’s list of the Best Workplaces for Innovators. Learn more at www.zebra.com or sign up for news alerts. Follow Zebra’s Your Edge blog, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, and check out our Story Hub: Zebra Perspectives.
Media Contact:
Michael Gilhooly
Zebra Technologies
+1-708-814-5281
michael.gilhooly@zebra.com
Industry Analyst Contact:
Kasia Fahmy
Zebra Technologies
+1-224-306-8654
k.fahmy@zebra.com
ZEBRA and the stylized Zebra head are trademarks of Zebra Technologies Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©2023 Zebra Technologies Corp. and/or its affiliates.
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ZEBRA and the stylized Zebra head are trademarks of Zebra Technologies Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©2024 Zebra Technologies Corp. and/or its affiliates.