In presentations I’ve delivered recently at retail conferences and Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business I speak of a growing innovation-implementation gap. Companies are increasingly unable to keep pace with implementing new innovation, opening the door to competitors leaping ahead by employing new capabilities or new competitors coming in from outside the industry.
Retailers in particular are becoming overwhelmed by both the quantity and the speed of innovation. While cloud computing has enabled bringing incredibly sophisticated solutions to even the smallest retailers it has also enabled nearly anyone that knows how to code to develop a solution. While access to high-powered processing and data storage capabilities has helped foster innovation it has given rise to fast-followers, leading to retailers becoming overwhelmed. 
eCommerce is a case in point. Over the past 12-18 months much has been written about the grocery business moving online; numerous studies show that 10-20% of industry sales will be done online within just the next few years. This brought renewed attention to the few eCommerce solution providers that have been in market for a number of years. But it also drew attention to a fast-growing area of opportunity, drawing in numerous startups. 
As the recent CART eCommerce Buying Guide called out, there are a growing number of solution providers in the market today, and more continuing to enter. Many of these solutions are calling on the same retailers and wholesalers, flooding them with solutions to be evaluated. Each of the solutions provide eCommerce capabilities but there are both significant and subtle differences between them. The bottom line is that retailers are being overwhelmed with having to talk to and compare a growing number of solutions; and that’s just in the eCommerce space.
The same ‘quantity’ problem is happening in other areas. There are more POS system alternatives in the market for retailers today than ever before. A growing number of digital marketing solutions. A growing number of loyalty solutions. And on and on.
Now add to the quantity of new solutions within a given space, speed of innovation. Let’s go back and look at eCommerce as an example. While supermarket retailers are still working on getting even basic online shopping services in place, Amazon continues to extend its lead through the use of Dash buttons and integrating its Dash Replenishment Services into household appliances, moving a growing number of products and categories to automated replenishment, making them forever lost to traditional supermarket retailers. Amazon is even opening up brick & mortar click & collect facilities for shoppers to pick their orders up.
So the innovation-implementation gap is growing and retailers, wholesalers, and brand manufacturers need to be aware of it. Big companies are more at risk than smaller companies, that while lacking resources, can move faster and be more nimble. Big companies often have entrenched organizational structures and complex processes that reduce their flexibility. Some of the largest companies have launched their own technology accelerators or incubators trying to stay aware of new innovation. But being aware of new innovation and being able to implement it are two very different things.
So is there any easy way to address the innovation-implementation gap? I think the answer lies in first, understanding these trends and what is happening in the marketplace. All companies can benefit from creating some kind of filter for how they evaluate new innovation, for example, does it provide new and meaningful value to customers or does it provide new savings or efficiencies? Another important criteria is choosing solution partners that have the resources to continue to invest in their platform while having gaining a view to their product roadmap and future capabilities.
Innovation is strategically important for any retailer today, whether it is one store or a national Tier 1 company. As such, the executive team or company owners need to devote some time to understand the fast moving space, what new technologies are on the verge of massive consumer adoption (like virtual and augmented reality) and what technologies are just a bit further out (like 3-D printing of food). Awareness is the first step towards developing an ability to keep pace with growing innovation.