Amid escalating security threats across the retail sector, SOTI — a global leader in business mobility and IoT management — has announced significant updates to its SOTI ONE Platform.

The latest enhancements are designed to give retailers greater control over device and identity management, improve operational visibility, and increase productivity among frontline workers.

Findings from SOTI’s latest report, The Rise of Social Commerce: Turning Tech-Driven Browsers into Influenced Buyers, reveal that 82% of Australian consumers expect retailers to prioritise data protection and security when shopping online, with 77% holding the same expectation for in-store purchases.

Despite this, a series of recent high-profile data breaches underscores the sector’s ongoing struggle to meet these demands. At the same time, retailers face mounting pressure to deliver faster, with 85% of online shoppers citing delivery speed as a key factor when choosing where to buy.

“Price is no longer the only deciding factor for success in retail. The real differentiators are speed, quality of service and seamless experiences,” explained Michael Dyson, VP of Sales, APAC at SOTI.

“Meeting these standards requires empowering frontline staff with the right tools to act decisively and stay connected,” said Dyson

“The newest features in the SOTI ONE Platform are built to support this shift, ensuring retailers can maintain resilience while driving productivity in an increasingly demanding environment.” he said

To address the critical challenges faced by retailers today, key updates to the SOTI ONE Platform were introduced at SOTI SYNC 25 in Montreal, Canada. These enchantments focus on security, visibility and efficiency across retail operations, including:

• Simplified Device Lockdown for Shared Retail Environments:

As retail staff often use different devices for different tasks, such as handheld scanners, tablets, and mobile point-of-sale (POS) devices, IT teams can now leverage an intuitively guided and efficient drag-and-drop design system to quickly create custom tailored role-based device experiences.

These experiences restrict frontline workers’ access to only the essential apps and tools that they need. The integrated authentication enhances frontline productivity and security with fast and convenient device access by using QR codes or NFC tags to speed up shift changes and device handovers.

Real-time condition monitoring provides immediate security to lockdown device access even further, such as when a device is detected to be outside of its prescribed geofence.

Whether it’s for inventory lookup online, order picking or processing, or direct customer checkout, devices are locked down to maximize staff productivity.

• Enhanced Productivity Visibility for Optimised Operations:

By analysing data on lockdown usage and activity patterns, the SOTI ONE Platform now gives retailers more insight into how devices are being used across retail operations.

Device insights help IT teams identify issues, such as non-charged or underperforming devices, and ensure label printers stay operational, helping mitigate negative customer experiences and increasing productivity, especially during peak shopping hours.

With this data, decision-makers can optimise performance, boost employee productivity and reduce operational bottlenecks that impact the bottom line.

• Real-Time Visual Context for Storeroom and Warehouse Oversight:

New Indoor Location Camera Streaming provides greater situational awareness for better efficiency in retail operations.

By linking live camera feeds to specific areas of the floorplan, retail IT teams can monitor critical devices or equipment. This includes investigating delays in restocking inventory, locating misplaced items or identifying issues with automated systems.

• Stella, an AI-Powered Assistant:

Stella enables IT administrators to troubleshoot and easily access key information about their devices in retail environments through simple conversations and voice commands.

This allows IT teams to maximize the value of their resources and focus on business-critical tasks, such as troubleshooting and resolving device issues, ensuring retail workers can focus on providing the best customer experience.

• SOTI XSight Integration with ServiceNow:

IT teams can now benefit from the advanced diagnostic tools of SOTI XSight directly within ServiceNow and provides access to vital tools such as Remote Control, screen recording, Live Chat, obtain device snapshots, retrieve debug log files and screen annotation.

Streamlining these capabilities accelerates IT response time and minimizes device downtime, reducing disruptions that impact frontline retail workers.

This results in more time for sales associates, store managers and warehouse employees to focus on serving customers and maintain operations.

• SOTI Connect Support for Epson Printers:

Retail organisations are now able to easily enroll, configure and remotely manage Epson receipt printers with SOTI Connect to ensure smooth retail operations.

Efficient printer management helps retailers to complete customer transactions quickly and reliably, minimising downtime and ensuring receipts are printed without delays. A seamless checkout experience not only improves customer satisfaction but also strengthens loyalty and protects revenue.

“Security and operational resilience are now business-critical for retailers. When devices fail or data is exposed, customer trust and revenue are at risk,”

“The latest updates to the SOTI ONE Platform give retailers the confidence to protect their operations, while empowering frontline staff to deliver the speed, reliability and seamless service customers expect,” concluded Dyson,”

With SOTI’s innovative portfolio of solutions, organisations can trust SOTI to elevate and streamline their mobile operations, maximise ROI and reduce device downtime.

Globally, with over 17,000 customers, SOTI has proven itself to be the go-to mobile platform provider to manage, secure and support business-critical devices