What’s Hot in the Retail IT Channel? RSPA Unveils 2024’s Most Popular Content

By: Jim Roddy, President & CEO at the RSPA

The RSPA Blog and Trusted Advisor Podcast build the association’s brand and help keep us top of mind when we’re not making headlines hosting RetailNOW in July or the RSPA Inspire Leadership Conference in January. But the content isn’t about us; it’s about you. The RSPA attracts hungry, high-initiative, growth-oriented IT solution providers to our community, and our job is to mobilize their expertise and share their collective wisdom with like-minded business leaders.

We hope you glean new ideas and best practices through this peer-focused content, and we also hope to serve as an example for you to emulate. Make your customers the hero – while building your brand and growing mindshare – by creating quality content. For guidance on how your company can create thought leadership content efficiently and effectively, read the RSPA’s Spartan Plan to Powerful B2B Content Marketing.

In this post, we’ll share what content rose above the rest and captured the attention of the retail IT channel in 2024. By reviewing web analytics from the past year, the RSPA team learned what was the most popular thought leadership content published on GoRSPA.org. We’ve divided the results into three content categories below: Blog, Community IQ, and Podcast. For each category, we’ll list at least the 10 most popular pieces of content and then I’ll offer some analysis.

RSPA Blog

  1. Remembering BlueStar’s Steve Cuntz
  2. New DOL and FTC Rules (Maybe) Mandate Employment Changes
  3. RSPA Inspire 2024 Provides a Startling Reality Check for Channel Leaders
  4. The Ultimate List of Recurring Revenue Products and Services [Version 4.0]
  5. From NRF 2024: AI Is Everywhere But It Ain’t Everything
  6. ScanSource Implores VARs, ISVs to “Embrace the Complexity” at 2024 Partner First Conference
  7. Unleash the Power of Trade Show “Pre-Networking”
  8. From NCC’s 2024 Reseller Conference: The Channel’s Prescription for Personal Service
  9. “Be Radically Different”: Advice and Insights from BlueStar’s VARTECH 2024
  10. Legally Speaking: Surcharge and Cash Discounts – What RSPA Members Need to Know
  11. For the Retail IT Channel, Will 2024 Be a “Grow” Year or a “No” Year?
  12. 9 Steps to Win Over an Upset Customer

I’m honored that so many in our industry took time to read my tribute to Steve Cuntz, the founder & CEO of BlueStar and one of the most influential executives in the retail IT channel, who passed away Nov. 4, 2023. More than one year later, Steve’s influence is still felt in our community.

I author most every RSPA blog post, but all the credit for the second most read story goes to RSPA Legal Counsel Atty. Jill Miller and her colleague Atty. Rebecca Seguin-Skrabucha for their Department of Labor update. Jill’s column on surcharging and cash discounts also cracked the top 10, solidifying her footing as our industry’s foremost expert on that topic.

A big assist also goes to the RSPA solution provider community for their insights which powered our updated “Ultimate Recurring Revenue List” which ranked fourth this year. Six of the top nine blog posts were related to industry events, a consistent trend we’ve seen over the years. You want to build an audience? Publish content with insights from the events you attend.

RSPA Community IQ Resource Center

  1. Sales Per Labor Hour Formula: How Your Customers Can Use it to Reduce Labor Expenses by TimeForge Labor Management
  2. Combining AI and Standard Security for Stronger Retail Defense by One Step Secure IT
  3. Revolutionizing Retail Payments: Rise of the Digital Wallets by Blake Rouse, Sola (formerly Cardknox)
  4. Universal 8112 Coupons: A New Standard for Retail by Auto-Star Compusystems
  5. Security Do’s, Don’ts and What-Were-They-Thinking Use Cases for AI by Troy Leach, Cloud Security Alliance
  6. The Bare Minimums of Security for VARs by Thomas Greenman, Skurla’s POS Solutions

Visit the RSPA Solution Center – a web platform designed to connect VARs and ISVs to providers of innovative solutions

  1. RFID Technology in Retail: The Future of Checkout with RFID Technology by Michael Chalberg, Combase USA
  2. First Line of Defense or Easy Target? by Brett Stoddard, One Step Secure IT
  3. Path to Partnership: Insights from RSPA’s NextGen Rising Stars featuring Christin Dorner, Star Micronics; Jessica Maroney, Metropolitan Sales; Truman Meecham, Alpha POS; Sami Alakkam, JRs POS Depot; Alejandro Swaby, Cervion Systems; Blake Rouse, Sola (formerly Cardknox); and David Sohn, Helpt
  4. How Restaurants Use Special Events to Boost Sales by ItsaCheckmate
  5. Making Your RFID Smarter Using AI by Jerry Abiog, Standard Insights

The Community IQ Resource Center on the RSPA website features thought leadership content authored by our members. When reviewing this year’s list, two trends jumped out to me, the first being the popularity of security content. Security-related articles locked down half of the top eight most-consumed pieces of content in 2024. RSPA is committed to double-down on security content in 2025 by continuing to publish our “Securely Speaking” e-mail newsletter featuring insights from RSPA members and our security-focused association partners.

The second interesting trend is the staying power of some of the most popular Community IQ content. TimeForge’s “Sales Per Labor Hour Formula” ranked #1 on this list in 2023 as well. “Making Your RFID Smarter Using AI” by Jerry Abiog of Standard Insights pulled off a three-peat; that piece debuted at #10 in 2022, rose to #2 in 2023, and stayed on the list this year at #11. “Path to Partnership, ” featuring insights from several RSPA NextGen Rising Stars, was #10 on our list in 2023 and #9 this year. If you invest time creating a quality, audience-focused article, report, podcast, or video, then you use the right words to boost SEO and promote that content effectively, you’ll reap benefits for years.

To submit your content or learn more about the Community IQ Resource Center, email the RSPA Marketing team of Chris Arnold (CArnold@GoRSPA.org) and Ayana Scriven (AScriven@GoRSPA.org).

RSPA Trusted Advisor Podcast

  1. Creating and Maintaining a Candid Culture with PAR’s Savneet Singh
  2. New BlueStar CEO Ryan Girvin Talks Leadership
  3. Sales Messaging Best Practices with COCARD’s Dan Brattland
  4. Next Gen Leadership with Alpha’s Truman Meecham and BMC’s Bobby Bauer
  5. Tonic POS, BOLD Co-Founders Talk Leadership Amid Rapid Growth
  6. Surcharging & Cash Discounting with RSPA General Counsel Jill Miller
  7. Leadership with Jon Decker of BlockChyp and Tom Bronson of Mastery Partners
  8. 2024 RSPA State of the Industry Report
  9. BlueStar’s Rob Dorsey on Building Relationships and Making Sales
  10. Retail IT Channel 2024 Outlook
  11. SMB Marketing Best Practices with Heartland’s Chris Allen
  12. Cash Discounting & Surcharging Update from Atty. Jill Miller

Big thanks to the 100+ guests who have appeared on The Trusted Advisor Podcast since we launched the series in October 2019. We tried something new this year by focusing most episodes on leadership, talking with leaders about their journey, successes, mistakes, and learnings. That focus turned out to be a huge hit based on the numbers and anecdotal feedback. Leadership-focused episodes held four of the top five spots on the 2024 list, my candid conversations with PAR CEO Savneet Singh and BlueStar CEO Ryan Girvin leading the way (pun intended).

Besides leadership, the podcast’s hottest topics were sales (thanks to COCARD’s Dan Brattland and BlueStar’s Rob Dorsey), surcharging and cash discounting (thanks to RSPA General Counsel Jill Miller), and SMB marketing (thanks to Heartland’s Chris Allen). Similar to the trend we saw with the Community IQ content, several of those episodes ranked on last year’s list as well. Repeated (and italicized) for emphasis: If you invest time creating a quality, audience-focused article, report, podcast, or video, then you use the right words to boost SEO and promote that content effectively, you’ll reap benefits for years.

It’s been great walking through this content with you, I hope you have a Happy New Year … and we gotta get back to work creating more content for you in 2025!

Editor’s Note: To see our content rankings from previous years, follow these links:

Don’t forget to visit the RSPA Solution Center – a web platform designed to connect VARs and ISVs to providers of innovative solutions

Jim Roddy is the President and CEO of the Retail Solutions Providers Association (RSPA). He has been active in the retail IT channel since 1998, including 11 years as the President of Business Solutions Magazine, six years as an RSPA board member, one term as RSPA Chairman of the Board, and several years as a business coach for VARs, ISVs, and MSPs. Jim has been recognized as one of the world’s Top Retail Influencers by RETHINK Retail, a Leading CannaTech Influencer by The CannaTech Group, and is regularly requested to speak at industry conferences on SMB best practices. He is author of two books – The Walk-On Method To Career & Business Success and Hire Like You Just Beat Cancer – and is host of the award-winning RSPA Trusted Advisor podcast. For more information, contact JRoddy@GoRSPA.org.