Businesses @ Work

Retail 2018

Businesses @ Work takes an in-depth look into how organizations and people work today — exploring employees, partners, contractors and customers, and the apps and services they use to be productive.

Welcome to our 2018 Businesses @ Work Report - Retail Edition! This mini report specifically analyzes trends in retail organizations relative to what we’re seeing across Okta’s entire network. This report includes only a subset of our broader Businesses @ Work Report takeaways and data. You can view the complete 2018 Businesses @ Work Report here.

How did Okta create this report?

To create all our Businesses @ Work Reports, we anonymize Okta customer data from our network of thousands of companies, applications, custom integrations, and millions of daily authentications and verifications from countries around the world. Our customers and their employees, contractors, partners and customers use Okta to log in to devices, apps and services, and leverage security features to protect their sensitive data. Our customers span every industry and vary in size, from small businesses to enterprises with tens of thousands of employees. As you read this report, keep in mind that this data is only representative of Okta's customers, the applications we connect to and the ways in which users access these applications through our service.

Unless otherwise noted, this report presents and analyzes data from November 1, 2016 to October 31, 2017, which we refer to as “this year,” “this past year,” “today” and “in 2017.” Similarly, when we refer to “last year” or “in 2016”, we are referring to data from November 1, 2015 to October 31, 2016. 2015 refers to the same period in its respective year.

Retail 2018

The Data

What are the fastest growing applications among retail customers?

When we look at app adoption across our customer base, we specifically dug in to see not just which apps are the most popular, but which are gaining in popularity.

Fastest Growing Apps

  • Retail Customers
  • Global Customers
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Retail Customers

    Growth 11/1/16 - 10/31/17

    Note: This graph shows the change in rank of each app over time based on Okta’s number of customers that make that app available to their employees, contractors, partners, and customers. Growth is from 11/1/16 - 10/31/17.

    View LegendView Full Screen

    Global Customers

      Growth 11/1/16 - 10/31/17

      Note: This graph shows the change in rank of each app over time based on Okta’s number of customers that make that app available to their employees, contractors, partners, and customers. All apps had at least 100 customers at the end of the period.

      Notably, the fastest growing apps among Okta’s retail customers last year have no overlap with the fastest growing apps among our global customer base. Similar to our 2017 Businesses @ Work Report, Slack tops the charts, showing that messaging and communication is a key priority for retailers.

      In an on-demand world, customer service for retailers is difficult, and increasingly-important. Retailers need to listen and act quickly to gain and retain customers. Carter Lee, CTO of Overstock.com, says, “We are primarily an internet retailer, but we are also what I consider a technology company-- that’s what sets us apart from our competition.”

      We’re seeing retail customers turn to ServiceNow and Zendesk to provide exceptional customer service and become technology-first companies -- one of the reasons these two apps made it into the fastest growing apps.

      Also, when it comes to collaboration and content management, the competition is heating up! Dropbox and Box are both top apps among retail customers (#10 and #4, respectively) and Dropbox is on the rise as one of the fastest growing apps this past year.

      Do retail customers favor Office 365, G Suite or both?

      Retail customers appear to be all in on Office 365. 27% of these organizations are using G Suite today, while 53% are using Office 365. In comparison, 31% of our global customer base uses G Suite today, with 58% using Office 365 for their core email. Notably, 16% of retail customers are deploying a best of breed strategy and actually using both Office 365 and G Suite, compared to the 11% of global customers. In instances where a customer is using both applications, we typically see them using Office 365 for email and G-Suite for documents and collaboration.

      Percentage of Customers Using Office 365, G Suite, or Both

      • Retail Customers
      • Global Customers