Brand new research from PMC and Retail Economics
Only 11% of retailers are winning the race to unified commerce.
We surveyed 100 senior leaders across UK retail, FMCG and hospitality to find out what the 11% do differently. Download Winning The Race To Unified Commerce (Vol 2) to see where you stand.
11 of the 100 leaders surveyed meet the report’s thresholds for both momentum and readiness.
100
senior decision-makers
£100m+
turnover businesses
Retail, FMCG
and hospitality
Retail Economics research
61% know what they want. Only 36% can prove it's working.
Most retailers have clear transformation priorities. Far fewer can show the return on them. The report looks at why that gap exists, and what the retailers who’ve closed it have in common.
Have clear transformation priorities
61%
Can prove the return very effectively
36%
25 points
Retail splits into four groups. Which one are you in?
Transformation momentum, lower to higher
Pick a group
Select one of the four groups to see the question the report answers about it.
14% of retailers
Premature innovators
Moving fast. Only half are ahead of plan, against 89% of Scaling leaders. Why?
37% of retailers
Scaling leaders
Strong momentum and strong foundations. Their next problem is what happens when scale recreates complexity.
29% of retailers
Foundational rebuilders
Plenty of digital exposure, weak foundations. What should they fix first?
20% of retailers
Efficient executors
Disciplined delivery, narrow ambition. What are they leaving on the table?
Execution readiness, lower to higher
Findings worth knowing
£25bn
Modernising core systems takes investment equal to 5.3% of annual revenue across UK retail. See where retailers are putting it first.
50%
Only half have connected systems, data and architecture fully in place. It’s the weakest of the five conditions that decide whether transformation delivers.
40% vs 12%
Data quality is the top barrier to scaling AI. Just 12% blame their commerce platform. The report explains what sits underneath.
Nearly 7 in 10
Have AI live or scaled, yet only 44% say their data is highly ready. Find out what that costs.
Meet the 11% Club
Every member is ahead of plan. Nine in 11 measure ROI very effectively, compared with 30% of the rest of the market.
The pattern runs wider than the club. Among retailers with three or four execution conditions in place, around six in ten have scaled AI. With one or none, it’s 6%.
What are those conditions, and how many have you got? The report sets them out.
The 11% Club
9 in 11 measure ROI very effectively
The rest of the market
30% measure ROI very effectively
What's inside
1
Mapping the transformation landscape
Where transformation is creating value, how investment is being prioritised and whether readiness is keeping pace.
2
Why transformation stalls
Six barriers, and how they change shape as retailers progress.
3
What the winners do differently
A close look at the 11% Club and the execution stack behind it.
4
A strategic playbook
Five moves to turn progress into value: Define, Fix, Sequence, Embed and Scale.
New to the series?
Winning The Race To Unified Commerce (Vol 2) builds on The Race to Unified Commerce, our first report on how leading brands are overcoming complexity to create connected journeys across every channel. Read Vol 1 for the foundations, then download Vol 2 to see who’s actually pulling ahead.
Common questions
Senior leaders responsible for commerce, technology and transformation in retail and consumer businesses.
Retail Economics surveyed 100 senior decision-makers across UK retail (83), FMCG and brands (10) and hospitality and leisure (7), all with turnover of at least £100m.
Yes, click the download button below to access your copy of the report
Free download. No sign-up needed.
See where you sit against the market.
100 leaders, four groups, one benchmark. The full Winning The Race To Unified Commerce (Vol 2) report covers:
- Mapping the transformation landscape
- Why transformation stalls
- What the winners do differently
- A strategic playbook
Free download. No sign-up needed.
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