The retail industry is lagging behind other sectors in several key areas of technology innovation, according to KCOM.

The IT services provider surveyed business leaders and c-level decision makers from 250 organisations, finding that retailers give less priority and budget to digital transformation initiatives compared to other industries polled – like government, financial services, healthcare, transport and logistics.

Just over a third (36 per cent) of retailers said they plan to make digital transformation a priority in the next 12 months, compared to an average of 43 per cent across other sectors.

Meanwhile, a quarter of retailers spend at least 20 per cent of their IT budgets on innovation projects, compared to the average of 32 per cent.

The research did show that retailers (74 per cent) are slightly more likely to invest in new technologies than the average (71 per cent) across other industries,

James Schofield, retail consultant at KCOM, noted that while the sector is doing slightly better than average when it comes to embracing cloud native applications and understanding the importance of investing in employee training, “retailers cannot afford to delay investment in the technologies that will transform the customer experience and ensure that they remain relevant to a new generation of spenders”.

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