In-store Inefficiencies Cost Retail $196 Billion Annually Driven By Misordered Tech Deployments Strategies

Insight summary

• •Retailers face $196.4 billion in annual costs from in-store inefficiencies, rising to 6.4% of gross sales in 2026.
• •Technology sequencing rather than investment amount drives retail performance and ROI.
• •60% of retailers are scaling store intelligence tech, yet only 33% invest in foundational shelf digitization.
• •Digitized shelves enable significant improvements, such as 40% faster online order fulfillment and 30% reduction in out-of-stocks.
• •Store intelligence reduces manual tasks by 14%, allowing reallocation to higher-value work enhancing customer experience.
• •Research is based on a survey of 200 U.S. retail decision-makers across multiple sectors with $100M+ revenue.
• •The report stresses seamless data flow across store operations, supply chain, and digital channels is key to reducing inefficiencies.