Building Tomorrow’s Retail IT

Retail sales, adjusted for the inclusion of Black Friday, fell by 0.3% month-on-month in December, as reported by the ONS (Office for National Statistics), despite initial predictions.

Thus, as retail continues to move in a digital direction, the question on business leaders’ minds is – are your current customer systems, processes and infrastructure prepared for digital retail in an ever-changing landscape?

Whilst many retailers may have experienced growth over the past few years, there are massive differences between what they need for a future-proof digital strategy, dependent on organisation size, resources and growth goals. Retailers already have recognised that staying proactive and planning beyond just a golden quarter bump, and having the flexibility to pivot based on market conditions can yield substantial longer-term benefits.

This is especially true when assessing and improving IT business systems. For some businesses, IT applications and technologies have been designed and developed to support specific areas within the business or with customer experience in mind, trying to ensure that retail, logistics and head office functions join up as best as they can. Although this may have worked in years past, including in times when business direction may pivot or trading models change, implementing an IT solution that can work with that future flexibility is a major topic of conversation in boardrooms.

IT is now intrinsic to business success. Ecommerce capabilities and customer engagement are key, and understanding whether your IT is capable and what steps need to be taken is necessary to ensure continued growth for retail businesses.

Understanding the current state of retail operations is a key first step, not just as it relates to business efficiency but also in the wider context of the retailer’s market sector, size and trading position. To deliver the next steps and outcomes that are proportionate and pragmatic, it’s important to understand each business on a case-by-case basis.

By reviewing different aspects of the current state of IT within a business, technology consultants can analyse and construct a broader business-first IT strategy to implement now, in preparation for future events. Achieving this requires a thorough evaluation of the IT organisation’s capacity, governance frameworks, available budgets and the depth of technology integration across operations.

Additionally, a comprehensive assessment of the existing technical infrastructure is crucial to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement. A good starting point often involves understanding the scalability and reliability of IT systems required, using KPI measurements from internal and external third-party providers.

To maximise the impact of technology investments, any initiatives must be aligned with individual customer needs, ensuring every tech deployment contributes directly to enhanced customer experiences, increased sales and improved service quality. This alignment optimises IT resource allocation and strengthens governance to provide a clear understanding of both the monetary and time investments required.

Critically, businesses should establish a culture of continuous assessment, particularly when transitioning away from legacy systems. Regular evaluations help mitigate security risks associated with outdated technologies, which are increasingly vulnerable to sophisticated cyber threats. By setting technology-specific KPIs that mirror broader business objectives, organisations can track the tangible impact of tech investments on customer satisfaction, sales growth, and operational efficiency.

Restructuring operations across IT to improve services and application deliveries is a critical factor in reducing business risk. It’s most important that business leaders and their IT operators are aligned on defining a clear roadmap for improving technical infrastructure and applications, ensuring data and systems safety is paramount. IT and data security audits are essential in making sure the controls remain optimum, risks are acknowledged and mitigated where possible and there are no unwelcome surprises.

In an increasingly risky cyber landscape, ensuring that legacy systems that might provide security vulnerabilities are phased out is a key component. Balancing an IT strategy focused on buy versus build and moving to replace commodity systems with best-in-breed commercial products must be aligned with any functional requirements. Businesses must move away from legacy infrastructure and technologies that may no longer be a fit for their expanding operations, but also in a way that doesn’t create additional security risks.

Understand, however, that upgrading your technology stack to address and remove major security vulnerabilities within legacy technology – often due to a lack of ongoing or available security patching – does not fully prevent the possibilities of ransomware attacks or other cyber threats. If implemented properly, it does aid in realising a quicker and safer recovery process, enabling greater proactive mitigation and reactivity in the event of the worst-case scenario.

Equally, problems such as phishing attacks – the most persistent and effective in cyber-warfare –cannot be removed by improving hardware alone, and constant education is a business must.

Integrating up-to-date email filtering and anti-phishing defences reduces risk significantly, however, and upgrading to systems with greater data encryption and managed access controls adds additional defences. For retailers, a successful phishing attack can compromise operations to the point of needing weeks of auditing and removal of accounts, regardless of the additional expensive payouts on top.

Assessing your cybersecurity stack and implementing a security-first upgrade to your operations requires expert guidance from those who know that security doesn’t stop with phasing out old systems but requires ongoing observation directly addressing employee cyber hygiene practices.

Additionally, retailers must address the fact that onboarding new devices around existing legacy features is just covering the problem in more devices rather than solving it. Software updates to endpoints can often be very labour-intensive and risky; this includes point-of-sale (POS) and payment devices. Planning these updates to ensure success without disruption needs precise project management, with triage, testing and release that rapidly ensures real-time updates without disruption.

Investing in your IT is a necessary way to give your operations a competitive edge in today’s business landscape. Advanced data analytics, retail AI and automation, clienteling and even in-store or online customer aids are just a few of the recent technology developments that have already seen massive business value, yet not every retailer has been able to adopt them, leaving them further behind the pack.

Creating a more service-focused IT strategy that works in tandem with your retail business growth is needed when defining a wider retail business strategy and planning for the years to come. Without a tailored IT strategy that works alongside your retail business needs, retailers will struggle to survive in an already competitive market.

From experience, the biggest IT concerns for retailers moving into Q2 2025 are the scalability and security of their operations. As ecommerce growth continues, it will be vital to ensure IT infrastructure can handle increased traffic and offer seamless customer experiences without lacking security. Advanced cyber threats, including more AI-driven attacks, require sophisticated defence solutions to combat them, and integrating emerging technologies such as retail AI and analytics helps retailers stay competitive in a busy market.

Finally, the sustainability and ethical challenges around building an IT strategy must be considered; expert guidance can help bridge the gap and align your onboarding strategy with both consumer and regulatory expectations.