What: Avalara’s retail survey showed the top challenges retailers face and how they are committed to making investments in technology to face them.

Why it is important: Technology is becoming a top priority for retailers in helping them solve challenges they are facing and getting ahead for the 2023 shopping season.

The retail solution company, Avalara, conducted a survey of 1,005 retailers within the US, UK, and India in hopes to uncover what retailers have planned for 2023 and what challenges exist.

Avalara found that retailers will continue to focus on automation adoption with one of the highest areas of investment being technology to better forecast demand, followed by streamlined shipping and logistics, and inventory management.

46% of the retailers believe that the economic downturn will be the biggest challenge for their businesses this year and plan to focus on global commerce as a solution. Additionally, retailers in the US are facing ongoing struggles with labor retention and plan to increase incentives and benefits.

Almost all respondents said their omnichannel strategy impacts how they think about the future of their business and 96% have considered the metaverse as a priority in their strategies as it is predicted that a quarter of people will spend an hour a day in the metaverse by 2026.

Avalara advised retailers to start thinking about the 2023 holiday season now as the technology and automation tools that can help forecast demand, streamline labor, and automate customer communication may take up to nine months to implement.

Omnichannel investments are top of mind for retailers in 2023