Technology can help you keep ahead in difficult times, bringing rapid returns and better efficiency, as well as helping save the planet. So, as show delegates found out, innovation is more important than ever

The sun shone on Retail Solutions this year in its new London home, even though retailers may not feel that it is shining on them.

While the tough economic climate was the talk of the show, technology is so critical to the running of a retail business that retailers can’t just slash spending to cut costs.

Addressing the conferences that ran alongside the show, retail IT directors spoke of the imperative to minimise the costs associated with keeping the lights on.

The upshot of this should be that there is still money to spend on what one described as “the fun stuff”.

And there was certainly plenty of new technology on display that can provide retailers with a quick return on investment.

From price or promotions optimisation software to videoconferencing systems, people-counting technology that links to the point of sale or new payment options, retailers are not short on ideas to help them innovate.

Neither was this year’s show short on news from retailers or suppliers.

The first few pages of this review give a glimpse of some of the deals done in the past year that have come to fruition recently.

Later on, you can find details of what exhibitors were getting up to at the show and the new products they were demonstrating.

Technology is increasingly being used by retail businesses to address environmental and social issues.

Tesco spoke in depth about the measures being taken by its IT department to reduce its carbon footprint across the board. We also look at some of the green measures BT proposed at the show on its Sustainable Retailing stand.

Another theme of the show was retailers’ increasing openness to using services and outsourcing, rather than keeping things in-house where they feel they can’t add value.

So Retail Solutions headline sponsor EDS highlights why it thinks outsourcing is more relevant to the retail community than ever before.

Joanna Perry, technology editor, Retail Week