A recent survey of North American retailers found that 49 % struggle to quantify return on investment (ROI) for in‑store technology deployments, and 54 % say they cannot keep up with the pace of technology change.
The research highlights a key paradox in today’s omnichannel environment: while retailers acknowledge that in‑store tech (such as POS upgrades, digital signage, smart fitting rooms, IoT sensors) is important, many lack the data infrastructure, standardised metrics or governance to assess whether those investments drive sales, productivity, or customer‑experience improvements.
Operationally, this trouble translating technology investment into measurable business outcomes creates risk: budgets may flow into “shiny new gadgets” that do not integrate with core systems or tie to KPIs such as conversion rate, average order value, or fulfilment cost. Further, many retailers report internal conflict over whether technology is distracting rather than enabling—some 37 % express that view.
For the omnichannel ecosystem centered around Bentonville and the broader retail‑logistics community, the implications are significant. As retailers invest in store‑based fulfilment, click‑and‑collect, mobile checkout, and associate‑enablement tools, they must align those deployments with clear business models and measurement frameworks. Without that, tech spend may remain under‑leveraged while complexity grows.
To win this challenge, retail executives must build unified data platforms, link tech spend to performance metrics, pilot deployments with clear business cases and continuously review ROI across digital and physical channels. The stores of the future will be smart—but only if smart investments are properly governed.
