Most retailers feel digital transformation ‘requires a change in leadership mindset’

Sep 17, 2018 | Digital marketing skills, E-commerce and E-retailing

Speaking at Tech. brought to you by Retail Week and World Retail Congress, Colin Light, Digital Consulting Leader at PwC, reveals how leadership needs to change, and how leaders are ditching the five year plan to look to three years ahead, as digital transformation changes the nature of leadership.

For this research, PwC and Retail Week interviewed 15 chief executives and directors leading on digital transformation within retail businesses with a turnover of more than £50m, and conducted a wide-ranging survey with a further 30 retail leaders and compared their opinions with those of 30 retail managers.

Key findings:

  • Three quarters (75%) of all retailers surveyed believe that digital transformation requires a new leadership mindset
  • Only a third at management level agree that supplier–retailer relationships are at the true partnership stage
  • Overall, 56% of retail leaders believe their company’s  third-party supplier relationships now resemble  true partnerships to support digital transformation
  • 75% of retailers are planning  no more than three years ahead for their digital transformation initiatives
  • 87% of retailers agree that the pace of change and the pressure  their business is under to digitally transform have increased over the past three years
  • 45% of retailers say their business is currently investing in visual search

The report argues that the line between retailers and technology companies has blurred thanks to the digital revolution.

Download the full research here: https://www.retail-week.com/pwc/3000733.bio

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