Forrester’s Global Retail E-Commerce Forecast, 2024 to 2028, predicts global online retail sales will rise from $4.4 trillion in 2023 to $6.8 trillion by 2028. Despite this increase, 76% of retail sales ($21.9 trillion) will remain offline by 2028. To remain competitive, retailers are enhancing their omnichannel strategies by seamlessly integrating online and offline experiences.

Have you noticed how quickly the retail industry is changing? It's all thanks to digital transformation, which is happening at an incredible pace. We bet you're curious about why this shift is happening and what's driving it. Don't worry, you're not alone in your questions. Many people are wondering about the same thing. With each passing day, we see new technologies and IT solutions being adopted by retailers to stay ahead of the competition and offer better user experiences.

In the fast-paced world of e-commerce, where data flows from various sources like customer orders, inventory systems, payment gateways, and marketing platforms, integrating this data efficiently is crucial. This is where e-commerce ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) comes into play. ETL processes allow e-commerce businesses to seamlessly collect data from multiple sources, transform it into a usable format, and load it into a centralized database or data warehouse for analysis.

The Nvidia study found that AI has already been a game-changer for retailers, with 69% reporting an increase in annual revenue attributed to AI adoption and 72% of retailers that already use AI saying they experienced a decrease in operating costs. According to recent reports, the global AI in the retail market is expected to reach $40.74 billion by 2030, witnessing a CAGR of 23.9% from 2022 to 2030. The increasing market size can be attributed to the increased digitization across the retail sector.

In the busy world of retail, the checkout process is the last and often most crucial step in the customer journey. A smooth, efficient transaction can leave a lasting positive impression, while any hiccup can lead to frustration, abandoned carts, and lost sales. With the rise of advanced Point-of-Sale (POS) systems, retailers have more tools than ever to streamline operations and improve the customer experience.

Whether you love, hate or remain indifferent towards data, it’s impossible to deny its importance in today’s business landscape. Businesses across all sectors and industries collect data and perform data analysis, to better understand their customers and business processes, in an effort to boost productivity, reduce expenditure and gain competitive advantage.

One such industry that has been on a growth trajectory since then is the Retail/ Shopping Industry. So, if you’re looking for a way to boost your sales and take your business to new heights, then one thing that should be on your radar is to create a shopping app. When eCommerce hit a jackpot in 2020, everyone wanted to be the next Amazon. So, it’s clear that you won’t succeed in this cutthroat market by creating a low-budget Amazon clone, rather you need something extraordinary.

Last year, we held our first Accelerate event, to explore industry trends, data and technology innovations, and data strategy case studies in financial services. This year, we are expanding to five industry events, featuring leaders in financial services; retail and consumer goods; manufacturing; media, advertising and entertainment; and healthcare and life sciences. Accelerate Financial Services and Accelerate Retail are one-day virtual events brought to you by Microsoft.

Retail media is the topic everyone is talking about in the retail and consumer goods industry. And for good reason: the $45 billion U.S. retail media market is surging as retailers capitalize on the consumer shift to ecommerce while offering advertisers access to their unique audiences and data insights. Many retailers developed their own retail media networks over the last few years, from digital marketplaces and department stores to commerce intermediaries.