When I speak with mid-sized retailers, digital transformation is rarely the first thing on their minds. They talk about rising costs, cautious consumers, staff shortages and the challenge of keeping a business profitable in difficult conditions.

At the same time, customer expectations have changed fundamentally. People research online, shop in store, compare prices on their phones and expect payment, collection, delivery and returns to work without friction. Retailers are caught between two demands: they need to operate more efficiently while offering greater convenience, often with limited budgets and teams.

It would be wrong, however, to portray retail as reluctant to change. Quite the opposite. Many businesses are already investing in better services: click and collect, cross-channel gift cards, digital customer communications and flexible payment options. The issue is not a lack of willingness to invest. The real question is why these investments so rarely translate into tangible progress.

The ambition is there, but implementation lags

A survey conducted by Unzer and IFH KÖLN among 109 retailers in Germany makes this clear. Eighty-one per cent have made the integration of their sales and communication channels part of their strategy, or are at least pursuing it in selected areas of the business. Yet fewer than one in three have actually put it into practice. That leaves a gap of around 50 percentage points between ambition and execution.

The obvious explanation is money. Seventy-four per cent of respondents identify limited financial headroom as a significant or fairly significant challenge. But budget is only part of the story.

Many retailers have already invested: in an online shop, a more modern cash register, new payment methods or better customer data. I am repeatedly impressed by how willing they are to try new approaches in order to improve the shopping experience for their customers.

The problem is that each investment tends to solve one individual issue, rather than strengthening the business as a whole. Every new solution creates new interfaces, additional coordination and more day-to-day work. And businesses with the least room for manoeuvre can least afford that.

Good projects can become a patchwork

Each of these investments may make perfect sense on its own. The difficulty starts when they accumulate: one system for the online shop, another for the till, a separate payment provider, plus tools for customer communications, accounting and inventory. Eventually, the retailer is no longer managing the business, but managing its technology stack.

At that point, finding out yesterday’s total sales across all channels does not take a few minutes. It takes half an afternoon and several data exports, simply because the systems do not talk to one another.

Our survey confirms this challenge. Sixty-six per cent of retailers cite their growing reliance on external service providers as a concern. Sixty per cent struggle to bring together customer data across channels, while 52 per cent point to inadequate technical infrastructure and a lack of compatibility between their software and back-office systems.

Digital transformation often fails, then, not because retailers lack the will to change, but because their systems and structures have become too complex.

Payments need to move with the business

Payments are one area where this becomes especially visible. Every additional payment option can give customers more choice and make it easier to complete a purchase. But it only delivers value when it fits into the cash register, online shop, billing and reporting processes without creating separate analyses and manual follow-up work.

This applies to flexible payment methods as much as to new European offerings such as Wero. Twenty-five per cent of the retailers surveyed already use Wero, and a further 24 per cent plan to introduce it by the end of 2026.

Many businesses still lack a complete view of what happens during the payment process. Only 43 per cent of respondents track how a customer’s chosen payment method affects whether a purchase is completed. Almost one in four do not collect any payment-process metrics at all. If data from the till, online shop and payment flow cannot be connected, retailers are making important decisions partly in the dark. They cannot see where customers abandon a purchase or which offers are truly working.

New technologies need a shared foundation

This will matter even more in the next stage of development: agentic commerce. AI assistants may soon research products, compare prices and prepare or complete purchases on behalf of their users. Fifty-four per cent of respondents consider this relevant to their business within the next one to three years.

But another channel does not automatically mean progress. What matters is that security, payment, consent and accountability are built into existing processes from the outset. Otherwise, a new opportunity simply becomes the next isolated project.

The answer is therefore rarely another tool. More often, it is about connecting the systems already in place. That may not sound spectacular and it will not make headlines in the latest trend report. But it is the only way to make the next step easier rather than harder.

The findings are based on a survey conducted by Unzer and IFH KÖLN among 109 retailers in Germany in July 2026. The survey is not representative.