Abstract

This IDC Perspective reviews important findings from IDC's 2022 Global Retail Operating Models Survey of 800 retailers worldwide, which provides deep insight into how retailers are digitally transforming their business to improve performance. The global COVID-19 pandemic has forced a permanent shift in the way consumers shop and the ways they engage with retailers. For retailers to thrive in this environment and expand their customer base, they must innovate to better serve their customers, driving revenue growth and profitability. Competitive pressures and a clear understanding of what is required to thrive now and into the future is driving retailers to invest more year over year on technology with finely tuned objectives including increasing customer engagement and enabling better visibility and control in store operations, inventory, and supply chain. Retailers that thrive are agile enough to accommodate changing customer needs.

Leslie Hand, group vice president, IDC's Retail and Financial Services, noted, "Retailers are not investing in small step changes to their portfolios — they are digitally transforming and investing in the massive scale and speed of digital, cloud-based, connected, and AI- and sensor-driven automation. We are in the middle of a customer-led, technology-enabled revolution in retail."

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