Retail Digital Transformation Trends: Four Signs Your Technology Isn’t the Asset it Should Be

Retail digital transformation isn’t as simple as just implementing new tech. Your current software also plays an important role.

After an uncertain few years, it seems the retail industry is preparing to enter a rebound period.

National Retail Foundation research found that total retail sales were up 4.13% in 2024, and a report from Total Retail indicates up to 76% of all retailers plan to increase IT spending to capitalize on worthwhile industry digital transformation trends.

For established retailers with large investments in on-premises software, making existing technology a part of long-term planning is a smart play for sustained IT success. Here are four signs your software could be doing more to support your retail digital transformation plans, plus advice on how to reverse concerning trends you might encounter.

Inconsistent Retail Technology Performance

Slowdowns and outages are especially problematic when they come during a spike in customer activity, like retail peak season traffic. As you add new technology to your software estate and adopt current retail digital transformation trends, test high-stress scenarios that include your on-premises software. This will provide immediate solutions to potential production issues and help sideline other problems before they can create trouble in the live environment.

Software megavendors often tell customers that upgrading systems is the only way to ensure interoperability and high performance when demand increases. However, there are numerous reasons retailers might want to reject the cost, risk, and disruption of altering their core technology. Before taking what OEMs say at face value, talk to an expert that understands the software solutions you use, and explore ways to keep your current software highly productive as your environment evolves.

Checkbox Retail Cybersecurity

Automated systems have their place, but letting checkboxes dictate your retail cybersecurity outlook is a dangerous practice. With retailers being named the leading target of illicit cyber activity, it’s important for companies to embrace security approaches that consider all risks the estate could encounter, including challenges automated scanners might never consider, such as:

• Software that has or will soon move to end-of-support (EOS) status
• Digital connections with members of the supply chain
• Challenges that are unique to the individual retailer’s collected technologies and configurations

Automatic software scanners can also misinterpret contextual info, which can then lead to false positives and other time- and resource-draining problems as internal teams hunt down issues that might or might not actually exist. If a large portion of your cybersecurity practices revolve around gathering results from automated tools, implementing processes and frameworks built around cyber threat intelligence as you evolve can keep the whole estate safe – not just the parts your scanners see.

Software Licensing Compliance Concerns

You don’t have to have a poor compliance posture to be concerned about the potential effects of an IBM, HCL, or VMware software license audit on your business. Many companies have walked into the process confident of their compliance, only to come out financially hamstrung by the murky rules and complicated processes they were expected to follow.

Significant IT growth is a common software audit trigger, so it’s important to be aware of potential pitfalls as you add new software to the estate. Routinely reviewing your recordkeeping practices is a must. Working with an outside partner who has retail-specific licensing experience can further improve your posture and help identify costly issues that tend to occur in times of growth, like overprovisioning.

Reduced IT Flexibility

Popular thinking says older software is a roadblock to modernization in retail, but the policies and practices surrounding it are often the real source of trouble.

• Forced upgrades and renewals. An unwanted upgrade can be more than a money sink. It can also alter carefully constructed IT plans by forcing your company to stay with the OEM vendor for years longer than anticipated.
• Sudden licensing changes. When an OEM says you can’t renew support without trading in your perpetual licenses, choosing between surrendering the licenses and going without coverage can quickly derail planning.
• Substantial support price hikes and service coverage reductions. If your company chooses not to upgrade, services like IBM® Extended Support and Sustained Support tend to cost more and cover less than standard support agreements, which whittles down your apparent options to two: undergoing an unwanted software upgrade or overpaying for less coverage than you received before.

Megavendors can exert control over your software roadmap in a surprising number of ways, preventing you from adopting useful retail digital transformation trends in the process. Escaping their influence requires retailers to find partnerships that put their software needs first, not outside policies and upgrade tracks.

If your software performs well but still somehow feels like it hinders progress, it’s probably a good time to reevaluate what you’re getting from your OEM partnership.

A New Retail Digital Transformation Strategy

Independent software maintenance providers like Origina protect, extend, and enhance perpetually licensed software. For retailers looking to increase flexibility and roadmap control, having an alternative source of licensing, cybersecurity, and maintenance guidance is often all it takes to escape counterproductive vendor relationships without surrendering software that can contribute to digital transformation initiatives.

Retailers can save up to 50% on support with an independent support provider compared to the price of OEM renewal – funds that can be reinvested in customer-facing enhancements and retail digital transformation trends like AI integration. Coverage applies to all software versions the customer is entitled to, taking unwanted upgrades and bloated Extended Support agreements out of the picture.

Origina offers industry-leading cybersecurity and licensing advice and can even help you ensure the technology you plan to add will work alongside your current software via interoperability validation, removing several sources of uncertainty from a high-pressure modernization process.

It hasn’t been an easy few years for many retailers, but there is reason to believe the industry is on the way back up. As your estate matures and evolves, seeking partnerships that are primarily focused on your company’s success can kick-start your transformation process and provide options and flexibility OEM support offerings don’t.

Get a new outlook on retail digital transformation.