At last week’s National Retail Federation show in New York, nearly all conversations covering retail or technology were prefaced with comments about the state of the increasingly fragile world economy.

Luckily one of the keynote speakers, IBM Global Services global retail industry leader Fred Balboni, was able to reassure retail executives in the room that squeezing prices is not the best way to compete for customers.

“If your shopper isn’t loyal to you, then they become loyal to price,” said Balboni, whose employer has surveyed 20,000 US consumers to find out what’s important to them and which retailers stood out as providing it.

Alongside this, IBM has come up with seven dimensions that retailers must consider to promote advocacy among their customers. What’s interesting is the impact that IT can make on these dimensions.

The first dimension is store experience. IT’s impact here becomes better understood once you hear that US consumers picked bookseller Barnes & Noble’s web site as the top store experience. The way the site has been built and the services it is able to provide to customers, has proved to be more compelling than anything that a physical store can offer.

Second is convenience – and the news here is that all retailers still have work to do. No US retailer was providing convenience to a level that was ensuring customer loyalty. And if US retailers aren’t succeeding here yet, then their UK counterparts have even further to go. After all, Sears offers kerbside pick-ups for store-fulfilled online sales and Barnes & Noble offers same-day deliveries in Manhattan.

Whole Foods was the stand out retailer for the third dimension – assortment – particularly because it tailors its range for local communities. At NRF, delegates also heard from another grocer that is successfully winning back customers from Whole Foods by making assortment decisions at store level – a process that has only been possible with the implementation of new technology.

Customer service was also highlighted. Here, Balboni says that technology and staff go hand in hand. While systems can help deliver customer services, it will never replace simple courtesy. The retailer that was mentioned by most consumers in relation to customer service was Publix, a Southeast US supermarket that walks customers to their cars with their groceries.

Multichannel was another dimension mentioned. Tiffany was US consumers’ stand-out retailer because of the way it has been able to mirror its in-store branding on its web site. Like many US retailers, it has integrated online and in-store customer experience – meaning that if you ask to learn more about diamonds through its web site, a specialist from one of its stores will call you back within minutes. Again, systems are required to integrate multiple sales channels, making IT essential for a good multichannel experience.

Wal-Mart came top for the sixth dimension, which was shelf availability. Balboni said that the retailer has this absolutely right because of its “bullet-proof supply chain” – again something that no retailer can achieve without appropriate and well-run systems.

The final dimension was quality and Target was the retailer that came in for praise here. Quality can be achieved without significant technology investments, yet retailers with private labels increasingly use technology to ensure quality standards when working with third-party manufacturers.

Retailers’ performance in these areas will influence where their customers sit in the range of attitudes from antagonist to apathetic through to the holy grail of the advocate.

IT has never had a greater role to play in ensuring customer loyalty.