Retailers have to position themselves to do business where the customer is in a hyper digital economy. Whether it’s a new e-commerce store, a shopping app, delivery services or curbside pick-up – retailers must come to the customer. Additionally, in-store experiences must innovate in a post-COVID economy, including touchless technology, mobile payment terminals, and e-receipts. This increased demand in new technology and self-serve options will create a demand for wireless infrastructure, network security, and cloud migration. Upgrading new technology into an existing infrastructure creates a potential network security risk. Easy-to-deploy network solutions will become a hot commodity in the retail sector. Also, to drive continuity and growth, retailers will need to be more agile than ever before by leveraging technology and accelerating their move to the cloud.

Some internal factors preventing transformational growth include struggling with legacy systems, unscalable supply chain models, security and business continuity, application modernization, accelerating cloud adoption. External factors include disrupted post-COVID economy, rise in e-commerce and digital shopping, new in-store procedures, rising competition, rising gig economy (meal and delivery services), regulations and legislation in regards to privacy and data security, customer demand and customer experience.