Retail 2022: Betting Big On Digitalized Stores

Retailers are bullish on stores and are increasing store technology investments to differentiate themselves in a dynamic marketplace.  Retailers bet on the importance of the digitalized store.  In 2019, Gartner predicted that by 2023, e-commerce would cease to be a differentiator in the retail marketplace. This does not mean that e-commerce isn’t important. It reflects how the digital battleground has moved to the physical world. This transition was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, as consumers adopted a wide variety of fulfillment models to deal with the pandemic’s disruptions. Physical stores remain a vital part of forming long-lasting customer relationships by enabling differentiated customer experiences.

Retailers Store Investments

This graphic shows retailers’ various investments and imperatives for 2022, including efforts to increase store count as well as increase spending on store tech as a part of digital business.

This is just one finding from our 2022 Gartner CIO and Technology Executives Survey. Other findings explored in this research include:

• Composable business capabilities remain elusive for retailers as they lag behind other industries and highly composable organizations.
• Through 2022, most retailers plan to boost spending on store technology, increase store counts and experiment with new formats as part of their digital business transformation efforts.
• Retailers are on a trajectory that will prevent them from reaching newer, digitally driven business models.
• Retailers lag significantly behind when it comes to emerging technology investments, including artificial intelligence (AI).

Gartner clients can read the full research 2022 CIO and Technology Executive Agenda: Retailers Differentiate Through Stores but Struggle With Composability