Investing to improve and modernize store operations is critical for retailers to deliver exceptional shopping experiences, improve shopper loyalty and drive sales. There is a huge opportunity for retailers to identify challenges in their store operations and work toward unifying the shopper journey, enhancing the shopper experience, optimizing labor productivity and maximizing store sales—the four pillars for building the “store of the future.”

Retailers must understand what is truly driving the need to introduce advanced technologies and the challenges they face. They can then identify key technologies and their benefits as well as building an understanding of deterrents and barriers to technology adoption in order to devise a strategic approach to technology implementation that would maximize return on investment (ROI).

Analysis in this report is based on a global survey of 360 retail business decision-makers conducted in April 2025.

Coresight Research Analysis

1. Ineffective Management of Stores Is Costly; Inventory-Related Issues Present the Greatest Challenges

• Our survey data reveal that 84% of retailers are challenged in managing store operations. Ineffective management of store-related business functions leads to revenue and margin erosion.
• While the most prevalent challenges are related to demand forecasting and inventory management, they extend beyond inventory, too, to checkout friction and limited ability of store associates to service shoppers.

2. Retailers Bet Big on “Store of the future”

• An overwhelming majority (92%) of global retailers are investing in solutions aimed at optimizing store operations across the four pillars of the store of the future, per our survey.
• Shopper experience emerged as the most important pillar in building store of the future, cited at the most important by 40% of respondents.

3. Retailers Are Investing in Multiple Technologies to Optimize Store Operations; Benefits Span Multiple Use Cases

• Which store intelligence technologies are attracting the greatest investment? We found that 57% of retailers are currently investing in advanced data analytics solutions—the highest level across all technologies, although it ranked third in terms of perceived importance in building store of the future. Automated inventory tracking systems are perceived as the most important.
• The three biggest benefits of investing in technology to optimize store operations are improved product availability, improved automation and improved availability of real-time data, cited by the highest proportions of investing retailers.

4. Barriers to Technology Adoption Underline the Importance of Having a Strategic Investment Blueprint

• Incorporating technology into retail operations involves multiple moving parts and can be cumbersome and challenging. High costs are the biggest barrier to technology implementation, but data security concerns are also rife.
• Retailers need to have a strategic and phased approach to adopting modern technology solutions. Additionally, setting clear and timeline-bound goals can also help quantify ROI.

What We Think

Driven by factors such as the financial impact of ineffective store management and rising shopper expectations, we expect stores to be at the forefront of retailers’ investment plans in the near term—and the store intelligence technology market is poised for robust growth.

The state of in-store retailing is far from perfect. Persistent and pressing inefficiencies such as an inability to accurately forecast demand, a lack of real-time availability of inventory and visibility into store operations, ineffective promotion execution, and poor scheduling/WFM capabilities continue to add friction to the shopping experience. The time for building store of the future is now, and retailers must move with purpose to effectively overcome these pressing issues and optimize operations across their entire store fleet.