Nearly three quarters (72 per cent) of retailers have suffered a loss of network connectivity affecting key technology such as point of sale devices and stock management systems.

A survey of more than 300 IT managers, information officers and chief technology officers in UK retail for CSL, a secure connections provider for IoT and M2M devices, also found that 44 per cent of retailers experience an outage of wifi or network connectivity once every month.

The study suggested that with growth of internet-enabled technology in the retail sector, loss of network connectivity could lead to the loss of up to 50 per cent of sales for five out of six retail business operations.

Of the 44 per cent of retailers that said they lost the connectivity every month – an event that three-quarters of those questioned said had a moderate or high impact on core functions – 86 per cent said that point of sale systems had been affected by the 81 per cent said it had hit stock management, while 76 per cent said general administration processes has been most affected by the outage.

Simon Banks, chairman of CSL Group, said: “The results of this study clearly highlight the importance of connectivity within the modern retail environment, both in term of business continuity and impact on sales.

“Every retailer should have a contingency plan for connectivity downtime, and one of the most reliable and cost-effective ways of achieving this is via 4G based technology,” he said.

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