2026 Retail Resilience & AI Adoption Study
How Low Decision Confidence at Speed Has Become Retail's Most Expensive Operating Cost
Q2, 2026
Retail has invested heavily in data, dashboards, and AI, but most organizations are still making decisions too slowly. Demand shifts in days, yet the average retailer takes four to twelve weeks to act on a signal. That delay has a name and a measurable price tag: the Latency Tax. This study surveyed 298 supply chain and merchandise planning executives across North America and EMEA to find out exactly what slow response is costing the industry, and why it keeps happening.
Exclusive findings will be shared in Berlin at World Retail Congress on 27th April, 2026. If your organization knows what needs to change but keeps hitting the same walls, this report shows where others have broken through - and what it was worth when they did. It cuts through to where the bottlenecks actually live: from how often forecasts get updated to whether AI tools are built to inform or built to act. It identifies what separates the top ten percent of retailers from the rest, and how those choices show up in full-price sell-through, lost sales, and margin.
FOUR KEY B2C COMMERCE IMPERATIVES
Incisiv
Here’s a preview of the report. The full report is available for free download via the form below.
As consumers continue to reshape their expectations,
enterprises must contend with a uniquely challenging landscape.
The consumer technology landscape is forever changing.
From Pinterest to TikTok, WeChat to Instagram, new experiences can rapidly gain consumer adoption and relevance.
From augmented reality to voice, smartwatches to chatbots, consumers are constantly embracing new interaction paradigms.
Commoditized convenience is eroding loyalty and margin.
Consumers expect convenience. If you can't deliver it, they'll go elsewhere - e.g. next day shipping becoming the new standard.
Walmart will reportedly lose USD 1 billion on eCommerce revenue of USD 21 billion this year as it faces challenges in its bid to complete against Amazon – from trouble integrating its DNVB acquisitions to impact on margin from its next-day delivery operations.
Consumers value experiences that are curated to fit their lives better.
They want to engage, be served, and transact at their time, their pace, their place. They have little patience, infinite choice and the freedom to swipe left at the slightest hint of friction.
