Adapt or Be Outpaced is a September 2025 IHL Group research report surveying 300+ mid-market retailers (revenues $10M–$2B) about technology adoption, barriers, and performance. The study finds a capability-performance divide: only 25% report strong in-house technical expertise while 53% primarily rely on vendors; 55% of IT spend is for maintenance (45% available for new tech). Major adoption barriers are ROI uncertainty (71%), integration complexity (71%), and data security risks (68%). Retailers project 7.2% sales growth for 2026 but only 49% believe tech investments deliver ROI within 12–18 months. The report catalogs current and planned deployments (IoT, RFID, computer vision, Mobile POS, AI use cases) and uses cohort comparisons (Leaders vs Laggards, Early Adopters vs Fast Followers) to show that early/faster adopters—when paired with internal capability—achieve substantially better sales/profit outcomes.
Questions this document answers
Mid–late August 2025.
More than 300 responses.
Retailers with revenues between $10 million and $2 billion.
71%.
71%.