Congress Content

How Low Decision Confidence at Speed Has Become Retail's Most Expensive Operating Cost

Retail has invested heavily in data, dashboards, and AI, but most organizations are still making decisions too slowly. Demand shifts in days, yet the average retailer takes four to twelve weeks to act on a signal. That delay has a name and a measurable price tag: the Latency Tax.

This study surveyed 298 supply chain and merchandise planning executives across North America and EMEA to find out exactly what slow response is costing the industry, and why it keeps happening.

Exclusive findings will be shared in Berlin at World Retail Congress on 27th April, 2026.  If your organization knows what needs to change but keeps hitting the same walls, this report shows:

• Shows where others have broken through - and what it was worth when they did.
• Cuts through to where the bottlenecks actually live: from how often forecasts get updated to whether AI tools are built to inform or built to act
• Identifies what separates the top ten percent of retailers from the rest, and how those choices show up in full-price sell-through, lost sales, and margin.

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