New challenges and opportunities for the retail industry

Retail leaders and administrative and technology staff agree that market competition and growing workforce issues will challenge the industry through the next 12 months. A new Windstream Enterprise report breaks down concerns and predictions from across the retail industry.

More competitors + tighter labor market

In response to what challenges retail C-Suite, admin and technology professionals are facing, it's no surprise that over half of the respondents noted retail competition and a tight labor market. Businesses must continue to foster a workplace culture that empowers their existing employees while attracting new employees. Digital solutions take the burden off of current employees so they can stay focused on customer satisfaction and engagement.

Download the PDF version

A better customer experience

Keeping and growing customer share in a highly competitive retail environment requires retailers to deliver a competitive digital and in-store shopping experience.

Improving customer personalization

In the aggregate, 40% of respondents ranked IMPROVING CUSTOMER PERSONALIZATION as their top priority.

Leveraging multiple vendors

67% of respondents reported their customer-facing teams needed to use 3 or more data sources to have a complete and accurate view of the customer.

Doing more with less

Businesses are tasked with maximizing workforce productivity through technology.

Despite investments in digital transactions, 73% of respondents expressed that their organizations would increase the number of physical locations.

The challenges facing retail today

Retail industry executives ranked the top three challenges as ‘increasing’ or ‘significantly increasing’:

53.7% of the survey respondents report having a network outage in the past 12 months Downtime can cost retailers in customers, productivity, compliance, cybersecurity and reputation.

The solution for retail

A commitment to increasing tech investments to ensure the retail business stays competitive, meets compliance and regulatory demands and addresses cybersecurity threats.

47% of the survey respondents reported their budgets for digital solutions increased in 2022 compared to 2021

How retailers make their buying decisions

The cost of doing nothing is high. Data breaches and network interruptions can cost retail organizations dearly in lost productivity, customers, brand reputation and non-compliance fees and penalties.

With a range of innovative solutions and a team of retail experts, Windstream Enterprise is uniquely positioned to help you leverage the power of your network to deliver a dierentiating customer experience and bring about transformative change.

In the first quarter of 2022, studioID of Industry Dive and Windstream Enterprise conducted a national survey of 365 retail professionals from C-suite, Administrative and Technology roles about the state of digital transformation. C-Suite respondents included roles, such as CFO, COO, CIO and CEO. Technology respondents included focus areas such as Cybersecurity and IT. Administrative professionals included Finance, IT, Marketing and Operations.

About the Author

Windstream Enterprise believes people should expect more from their service provider. Our mission: as network, security and application performance become continuously more critical, WE will be the partner that responds to unique customer needs—a pathfinder to help lead them through technology transformation. A trusted advisor to help them connect, transform and elevate their businesses.

Visit Website More Content by Windstream Enterprise