Survey: Retail struggling to adapt to digital era
93% of retail decision-makers say there is “vast” or “significant” room for improvement in projects that focused on bringing new digital products and/or services to market
That’s according to a new survey - conducted by Vanson Bourne on behalf of digital product consultancy Elsewhen – which looked at digital progression through the lens of 200 UK decision-makers, including retail leaders.
The study also found that 82% believe that their organisations need guidance in measuring how well digital transformation projects are going while 79% point to big gaps between digital strategy and what can actually be achieved.
Definition
This knowledge gap may be caused by failure to define a suitable digital vision as the survey found that retail sector organisations are relatively unlikely to include a definition of the digital vision in their digital strategy (31% compared to 52% overall).
In more positive findings, the results indicated that retailers are putting employee engagement front and centre of their existing digital projects, with improved employee experience (64%) trumping even improved customer experience (56%) as the overall goal of digital projects in the past 12 months.
Elsewhen co-founder and chief product & strategy officer Leon Gauhman said: “Retail is in the eye of the storm when it comes to digital transformation. This new data highlights the constant pressure retailers face to adopt new processes and technologies in order to keep pace with accelerating customer demand.”
