State of the Industry
Real-Time Retail: The New Operating Model for Inventory Intelligence
Q1, 2026
Retail operations are no longer governed by predictable cycles or linear flows. Inventory moves continuously across stores, warehouses, partners, and return paths, while customer expectations demand accuracy and reliability at every touchpoint. Many retailers have expanded their physical networks to keep pace, but the systems coordinating inventory decisions have not evolved at the same speed. As a result, inventory exists across the network without being visible, trusted, or actionable when it matters most, putting growth, margins, and customer trust at risk.
Based on a survey of 215 retail executives across North America and Europe, this report examines how retailers can move toward a real-time operating model for inventory intelligence. It looks at why inventory becomes unavailable at scale even when it exists in the network, how promise failures and returns create financial drag, and what must change to enable faster, more coordinated inventory decisions across channels, nodes, and return flows.
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.
